Good morning all,

 

The air bag warning light has just come on in my Felicia. There's no obvious reason for this. Any suggestions as to what I should do?

 

Thanks

 

Michael

You need it scanned with VCDS or simular really, this is also the only way to turn off the light once the issue has been resolved. 

It's often the first sign of an over voltage on the 1.3.  Check the charging rate as soon as you can otherwise you risk further electrical damage and a battery acid leak.  If it's over charging you can have the regulator on the alternator replaced for not an awful lot of money, but you will have to get the airbag ecu fault cleared.

Thanks for the advice so far. The car has now been to an independent VW garage with the VCDS equipment. Guess what, they could find no fault in the electrics and turned of the air bag warning light. Then on the way home, on comes the light again.

 

I'd be grateful for any further suggestions. I'm assuming that the car is safe to drive and that the air bag is not about to go off. The only other symptom is that the radio volume goes up and down erratically. The garage didn't seem to think that was connected but...

 

Michael

Did they actually read a DTC?

Surely there would be a code stored if the light was on the dash?

The radio is another symptom of over charging. What was the fault code that they cleared to get the airbag light out?  If you can't check the battery charging rate, have a good look around it for any signs of acid due to it gassing.  Are you getting any Sulphurous odours from the engine bay?

hopefully they checked what suggested fordfan.

did they let you watch what they do to your car?

or did they sent you into the waiting room?

in case they really tested how much is charging the alternator at 2500 rpm, you might have one of those hard to find intermittent shorts.

it's much cheaper to have your own VAG-COM OBD scanner than to go each time to a VAG dealer.

you need to reset again the airbag light, then key on and start the so called 'wiggle test'.

you wiggle different wires till airbag light comes on.

look closely with a bright flashlight for moisture inside relay&fuse panel and under the dash.

if you feel wet foam. you're getting close.

Thanks again. The clues are all there now. There is a faint whiff of bad eggs in the car so that's the battery gas. The garage agree this is the likely explanation; apparently their diagnostic did pick up a battery fault. It's going back in this week

 

By the way, I went to Gott's, an independent VAG garage in Norwich and they only charged £18 for the diagnostic test.

 

Michael

you said 'they could find no fault in the electrics' so doesn't that apply to battery too?

about VAG-COM i thought you'll understand I am referring to multiple visits to garage for scanning in several years of Felicia ownership.

we can buy the OBD interface + version 3.11 for 30 Euros in here.

I have full vag com but it only does a little on the felicia tho.... I had mine come on found mine to be the link wire in loom corroded as mine never did have air bags till I fitted duel airbags. Air bags can be disabled on a felicia just by unpluging air bag from car fit link wire no air bags... can tell more if needed