Hi All

Just went out in the Scout and got a message on the maxidot "Error Airbag" and a ping when turning on.

As we are going away on Thursday for a few days I dropped in to our local garage.

The manager plugged in his laptop and ran a diagnostics program which said that there is a problem with the rear driver's side airbag.

He said that all the airbags would be deactivated.

Is this correct?

Has anybody else had this problem, and if so, what was the cause/solution?

He can't sort it out until next week when we're back.

It's a case of driving it without air bags or going in my wife's 20-year old Peugeot 306!

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Was this a 'generic' garage with no VW specific diagnostic software?  e.g; they couldn't be more specific about the fault?  

According to the manual there's a risk that the airbags won't be deployed in the event of an accident, it doesn't state that all airbags will be deactivated.   If the person telling you that they would be is a VW specialist or a reputable Skoda dealer then I'd be inclined to go with their advice over the manual where a lot of things can and do get lost in translation.  

 

IMO it's a major safety system and the most important things in the world are in the car, I wouldn't take the risk personally (unless I was categorically told otherwise) 

 

 

 

 

Just a thought....have you dropped the rear seats or moved the seat bases recently?  You may have unseated a sensor, connector etc. 

The garage concerned we have been using for a number of years and came highly recommended originally.

They service all the Octavia cabs for the local minicab firm (who have dozens!).

The software he used seemed to be official as far as I can tell as he inputted the model and selected the airbag system and, within seconds, it diagnosed the error although not the cause.

The Skoda dealer where we bought the car is a good half hour drive away and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been so accommodating!

 

I haven't moved the back seats recently although we constantly move the front seats dependent on who's driving, me or my wife.  

1 hour ago, Johnfella said:

I haven't moved the back seats recently although we constantly move the front seats dependent on who's driving, me or my wife.  

I'm not saying it's the case here but the connectors that VW group use for the airbags in the seats are notorious for the solder in the connector blocks braking down and ultimately failing.  There's a VW fix kit for it but most half decent garages will just remove the connectors and re-solder them. 

 

I'm not sure of how the harness is routed so can't say for certain if the one for the rear will run in tandem from the one under the drivers seat or if it passes down the sill to the rear; if it runs backwards from the drivers seat then you may have inadvertently caused a disconnect.  I've done this on the passenger seat with some over zealous vacuuming which resulted in the same fault you have (this was in an older Golf though)  

 

Be careful if you do a bit of DIY investigating as ideally the battery should be disconnected before touching any of the airbag system, as they can deploy.  

Edited 28 May, 20197 yr by penguin17

I won't mess about with it myself and have decided for safety's sake not to drive it until I get it sorted out!

I got the problem sorted out last week.

It turned out to be the N/S/R acceleration sensor that had failed because it had shorted out!

including the part and labour it cost £187.00 which I didn't think was too bad!

  

Soldered terminals in an Automotive installation? In the late 90s and 00s I worked in an Automotive and Off Highway Wiring Harness manufacturer and there were never any solder terminals used - this included specific sub-assemblies for Air-Bags and Seat Belt pre-tensioners made by Sekuron and TRW among others.

High quality crimps and specialised cable into unique housings with Terminal Position Assurance and Connector Locks were the order of the day.