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air bag light reset - was drivers belt buckle

83K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  bluebee 
#1 ·
Here's what I found, may help others.

>Bag light came on (actually on car start goes on as usual, but blinks off then stays on in this case)
>Bought a Peake R5/srs code reader, very easy to use
>Code was drivers belt buckle. Read on other posts this is a common fault. (The other common fault apparently is the passenger side mat in the seat that detects a person
seated.)
>Of course want to not have an issue but fyi read that when there is a SRS fault the system will tend to favor keeping the system active.
>Read that in an accident the buckle will drop down to take up slack. Read on auto parts site (Pelican?) that this assembly has compressed nitrogen. I guess that when released (maybe by a pyro charge?) it pulls the buckle down. I think the issue is the buckle has a switch that senses when the buckles in and over time the switch gets faulty?

>I cleaned the buckle with a spray can of contact cleaner and small tube. Also bent the buckle over and tapped it to try to shake out any dust/sand/lint.
>Reset the SRS and the fault has not come back (yet?). Next time I have time I'll replace it. Heard it is an easy job.
 
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#4 ·
Here's what I found, may help others.

>Bag light came on (actually on car start goes on as usual, but blinks off then stays on in this case)
>Bought a Peake R5/srs code reader, very easy to use
>Code was drivers belt buckle. Read on other posts this is a common fault. (The other common fault apparently is the passenger side mat in the seat that detects a person
seated.)
>Of course want to not have an issue but fyi read that when there is a SRS fault the system will tend to favor keeping the system active.
>Read that in an accident the buckle will drop down to take up slack. Read on auto parts site (Pelican?) that this assembly has compressed nitrogen. I guess that when released (maybe by a pyro charge?) it pulls the buckle down. I think the issue is the buckle has a switch that senses when the buckles in and over time the switch gets faulty?

>I cleaned the buckle with a spray can of contact cleaner and small tube. Also bent the buckle over and tapped it to try to shake out any dust/sand/lint.
>Reset the SRS and the fault has not come back (yet?). Next time I have time I'll replace it. Heard it is an easy job.
This is good.
 
#5 ·
>Read that in an accident the buckle will drop down to take up slack. Read on auto parts site (Pelican?) that this assembly has compressed nitrogen. I guess that when released (maybe by a pyro charge?) it pulls the buckle down. I think the issue is the buckle has a switch that senses when the buckles in and over time the switch gets faulty?
I can confirm some of this. When I bought my car, the driver's side seatbelt wouldn't latch. You could insert the lap/shoulder belt tab in all the way, but it just wouldn't catch. This, of course, kept the seatbelt light on, and the airbag switch came on. I had to take out the seat and replace the latch, which has a lever-operated "pretensioner" in it, triggered by a little explosive detonator. It cost about $250, I think, at the dealership. Supposedly it's hard (although not necessarily impossible) to find a supplier that will ship it across state lines because of the explosive charge.

In any event, I had to take out the seat to remove the latch with the pretensioner because it's anchored to the seat. It wasn't hard, although I was surprised to find there was a little spring-loaded cable sticking out of the carpet that needed to be reattached to the seat, and it took me a while to find the attachment point. However, once I get everything back together, the seatbelt and airbag lights went out.

I was just fortunate that the failure point was so obvious, because my seatbelt simply wouldn't stay put. I don't know how common this is, and I don't know if this is the reason the OP's airbag light went on. It just now occurred to me to ask if the OP's seatbelt light was also on. If so, we might be talking about the same problem.
 
#6 ·
For the cross-linked record, this thread today has useful anecdotal information:
- E39 (1997 - 2003) > Airbag Warning Light?

I got a warning light this morning on my 00' e39 528i, it looks like a little stick man getting crushed by an airbag and its in the top right corner of the right cluster of warning lights. Does anyone know what it means and/or a fix for it?
 
#8 ·
Here's what I found, may help others.

>Bag light came on (actually on car start goes on as usual, but blinks off then stays on in this case)
>Bought a Peake R5/srs code reader, very easy to use
>Code was drivers belt buckle. Read on other posts this is a common fault. (The other common fault apparently is the passenger side mat in the seat that detects a person
seated.)
>Of course want to not have an issue but fyi read that when there is a SRS fault the system will tend to favor keeping the system active.
>Read that in an accident the buckle will drop down to take up slack. Read on auto parts site (Pelican?) that this assembly has compressed nitrogen. I guess that when released (maybe by a pyro charge?) it pulls the buckle down. I think the issue is the buckle has a switch that senses when the buckles in and over time the switch gets faulty?

>I cleaned the buckle with a spray can of contact cleaner and small tube. Also bent the buckle over and tapped it to try to shake out any dust/sand/lint.
>Reset the SRS and the fault has not come back (yet?). Next time I have time I'll replace it. Heard it is an easy job.
my peak 16pin tool revealed code: (03 & 05) but unfortunately got confused on these two codes and do NOT know what do they mean or which locations they pointed me to; the fact that , there are some other definitions described by the same two codes in the manual book.

I TRIEDTHE SAME THING ON MY 2001 BMW X5 BY FOLLOWING THE SAME (100ohm RESISTOR, THEY ARE A LITTLE SMALL BUT THE SAME CAPACITY.AND THE DIODE WITH THE COLORED SILVER GOES TO THE BLUE WIRE, BUT IT DOESN'T WORK at ALL. WHEN I PLUG THE PEAK SR5 16 PIN TOOL TO CLEAR THE CODE, BUT THE AIR BAG LIGHT COMES RIGHT BACK LESS THAN A SECOND. ANY HELP???
 
#11 ·
airbag and seat belt light are on

01 bmw 325i i replace from junk yard seat belt buckle an i tried to reset with 10 -in 1 airbag reset tool and tells me connection fail when i tried to reset airbag but i am able to reset obd2 codes any i deas do i need to have super clean the seatbelt replacement from junk yard.. any help thanks
 
#13 ·
I'm in Farmville, Va. I took my car to Richmond BMW to get my car inspected , but it failed. The airbag light is on...does anyone have a tool so I can get my light off?
Typing /airbag f3 in the bestlinks nets this...
- What is the cheapest usable BMW airbag srs reset/scan tool on the net (1)

See also:
- How do BMW Supplemental Restraint Systems (srs, airbag, bst, crush zones, etc.) really work (1) & what is the cheapest usable BMW airbag srs reset/scan tool on the net (1) & what other scan tools reset the fault (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) & what can cause a BMW SRS airbag light (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) & a cn90 DIY for replacing the driver seat belt buckle pretensioner and the passenger seat emulator (1) (2) & where to obtain an airbag occupancy sensor bypass unit (0) (1) (2) & what happens when we disconnect the airbag before the battery or we connect the battery before disconnecting the airbag in seat and window regulator repairs (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) & a front window regulator autopsy report (1)
 
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