Coding Out Seat Occupancy Sensor

[TriggerFish]

Hi all,

Sorry for my first being being a plea for help, but I couldn't see a welcome forum or anything!

Anyway, I recently replaced my leather sports seats with fabric ones, and now the airbag light is on. Ran it through INPA and it reported the seat occupancy sensor, surprise surprise! I thought it's because I forgot to plug them in before starting the car, but after resetting the code the light comes on instantly.

I've tried coding it out with NCS (setting both occupancy sensors to nicht_activ - the coding is rejected with just one disabled) and it accepts the coding. However, the light still comes up on the dashboard and the same error is reported with INPA.

Does any one have ideas on how to stop it showing up? (If I don't get anywhere with this, I'll just modify the hardware as per the guides online, but I'd rather do it in software as it's a more elegant/easier solution).

Thanks!

Joe

Edited September 11, 2012 by TriggerFish

[mit]

Don't you need to reset it as well? Guessing you did that.

The hardware is 2 resistors and a diode, so shouldn't be too hard...

[TriggerFish]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yeah, I did reset it, but it still came straight back.

No, I've no issues with doing the resistor stuff, just I'd rather not if there's an alternative.

[mit]

You could put your leather seats back, or swap out the occupancy sensor?

[edber]

pa soft 1.40 will code the mat out no problem,tick two boxes on the screen and your done.Ive done it to mine.

[Blair]

Or it's only 2 resistors & a diode to make a bypass

[john.med]

How do you do it with PA Soft, and will it mean the airbag will fire all the time, or never fire?

I've fitted the bypass to mine and have PA Soft, but would like to be sure the bag will fire 100% of the time.

Ta.

[TriggerFish]

pa soft 1.40 will code the mat out no problem,tick two boxes on the screen and your done.Ive done it to mine.

Thanks - I'll have a go with this and report back. If it doesn't work I'll just pop to Maplins and grab what's needed.

As for swapping the black boxes over, not an option sadly as the leather seats are up for sale and I made a point of highlighting that there were no errors with the old ones installed.

[edber]

How do you do it with PA Soft, and will it mean the airbag will fire all the time, or never fire?

I've fitted the bypass to mine and have PA Soft, but would like to be sure the bag will fire 100% of the time.

Ta.

There is three options for the occupancy sensor.Just untick the three boxes,if any of them are already unticked then dont retick them.

Afaik with the mat coded out the bag will still fire.

Edited September 12, 2012 by edber

[john.med]

There is three options for the occupancy sensor.Just untick the three boxes,if any of them are already unticked then dont retick them.

Afaik with the mat coded out the bag will still fire.

Cheers Ed

[edber]

Cheers Ed

No problem john,but please satisfy yourself as regards the bag going off with the mat coded out as i dont want to be held accountable if the unforeseen happens.

But im fairly sure the car just goes to default which means the bag will blow in an accident as the car has nothing to tell it that there is definately somebody in the seat or not.

And this applies to triggerfish too.

Edited September 13, 2012 by edber

[edber]

http://www.dhgate.com/b-mw-scanner-1-4-0-pa-soft-interface-for/p-ff8080813176dfa301317a0216826776.html Under srs you will find the options.

[john.med]

Cheers Ed, yeah I understand. I'll do some more research before I play around...

[TriggerFish]

Right, I've had no luck with PA Soft, mainly as you can't code with the free version. At this point, I thought I'd try the resistor mod, but first went back to all original coding (this removed the plausibility error I was getting too).

With the modded sensor I get this error (I used a 4k7 resistor, if it makes a difference):

With the standard one off the old seats (not sold yet, but want to keep them as a working set) I get this error:

To me, that suggests that my soldering hasn't worked properly, maybe, or that there is another issue somewhere in the blackbox as I got that error before I soldered anyway? And that even if it did work with that box, this broken mat error needs addressing anyway. Any ideas on how to solve this other error? Or is it just different wording for the same thing?

Once this is sorted I can book it in for an MOT (due next Monday), but I don't want the light on for the test if I can help it, and my other car has two failed injectors so that's not really drivable either, well not above 40mph, and that takes around 20 seconds to reach!

Thanks for all help so far too!

Joe

Edited September 15, 2012 by TriggerFish

[john.med]

Where are you Joe?

If no one is near you buy the PA Soft kit of the net for £20 and be done with it.

[TriggerFish]

Ah, I thought it said on my avatar-y thing, will add it now. Aylesbury, Bucks at the minute, but back in Oxford at uni from next Monday. Didn't realise it was only £20 - everywhere else I've looked I've seen it for ~£80.

To Google!

*Edit*

Found this, but nothing cheaper. Unless anybody knows of a cheaper place, I'll one of these tomorrow.

Edited September 15, 2012 by TriggerFish

[Trevor]

I bought pa soft for £20 off an eBay seller in china.

Was £10 postage. Took two weeks to arrive.

Seller was blujaysn.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Trev1964

[TriggerFish]

Thanks, got one on order.

Just hope this fixes the issue!

Joe

[edber]

The demo pa soft will not code,google RESETTOOLS and you will find the full version software there.

[edber]

I bought pa soft for £20 off an eBay seller in china.

Was £10 postage. Took two weeks to arrive.

Seller was blujaysn.

Did you not go for the china seller that had free postage??Mine took ten days(xcar360.com) is the crowd i got mine from.

Currently selling for £20.27 with free postage.

Edited September 15, 2012 by edber

[Trevor]

Xcar were £5 dearer when I bought mine.

[edber]

Xcar were £5 dearer when I bought mine.

I guess the prices change so.

[GazNicki]

With the xcar360.com ones, is there any additional soldering which is required to the cable before it codes the car??

[TriggerFish]

Right, I've fixed it!

Strange solution though IMO. With the sensors plugged in, but disabled I get a 'plausibility error'. With either sensor enabled and plugged in I get an error of some sort.

Given that the error with the disabled sensor is to do with plausibility I figured it meant that the fact it was receiving something from the black box was upsetting it. I therefore removed the boxes completely, disabled them and it works! No more error lights on the dash board or anything.

Not too sure what's going to happen if I crash, I assume it'll still go off. . . Also, FWIW, I got through the MOT with the light on, just got an advisory (but failed on brake lines). When I retest it tomorrow I'll see if I can get the advisory removed.

This is my final BMW Scanner config though (for a saloon), with the black seat box removed:

(Given the errors I had, I reckon I coulda done this with NCS, but never mind! At least I've got it to help others out now if nothing else)

Thanks for any help along the way too.

Edited September 18, 2012 by TriggerFish

[Navare]

Happy you got it sorted Trigger.....I'm waiting for a fellow member to code out mine.....can't wait tone rid of that damn red light

N.