The dreaded airbag light....

Hey guys. New on here, and also a new proud owner of an e39 525i.....How ever we have had big issues and this was meant to be last of the huge list of problems this car had. ...sooo our airbag light was on so we had a diagnostic tool check it out and it was the passenger side occupancy sensor....had this replaced and went back to have the fault cleared. (yay wof i was thinking!)....only to find that now there is a fault for both the front seatbelt pretensioners??...2 days prior these faults were not there?.....we did how ever have both front seats out whilst doing the occupancy sensor.... could this have caused the problem:dunno..any ideas or help would be greatfully appreciated...we have had a really bad run with this car...the previous owners obviously didnt appreciate what they were driving as we have spent more then $2500 trying to get a wof on it...please help me get my car finally road legal

Did you reattach seat belt cable when reinstalling seats?

.......i really do hope so!!.....i should check that as he has left the car home. Can you identify wich cable that is for me??? lol.....sorry im female lol

There is a thin steel wire that comes out of the floor under the seat. It's on the left side of the left seat and the right side of the right seat. The best way to look is to move the seat forward and up and check it out from the rear seat footwell. The wire attaches to a fitting on the inside of the corresponding seat rail.

This steel cable is part of the seat belt latch. In an accident, there is a small explosive charge in the seat belt latch that goes off and tightens the seatbelt so the occupant in that seat is more secure. The steel cable is what pulls the seat belt tight when the explosive charge goes off. If you Google "E39 Seat Belt Prtensioner" there is quite a bit of info.

It's OK that you are female. What would us males do without you????

Thanks so much I will check this and go from there...thanks for the help guys

Originally Posted by mareeabc

...we did how ever have both front seats out whilst doing the occupancy sensor.... could this have caused the problem:dunno..any ideas or help would be greatfully appreciated...:

If you disconnected the seat belts while the car was still powered (both battery cables still attached)...this would cause those sensors and any other SRS sensor that was disconnected to register a fault code.

Any time you're disconnecting ANY of the SRS (supplemental restraint system airbags/seatbelt/mat sensors/etc) electrcal harness...REMOVE THE NEGATIVE BATTERY CABLE first...and don't reconnect it UNTIL you've plugged the electrical harness back in.

Disconnecting any SRS connector while the car is still powered will cause those sensors to register a fault code.

Yes but the faults still would not clear after we had reassembled everything again???

- Did you re-connect the electrical connections under the seats?
- Then reset the SRS lights?