Is an airbag warning light an NCT fail?

MikeyNT

Hi There,

I have an NCT due on my BMW e46 3-series.

Recently the airbag warning light has started to light up on the dash. It is intermittent though and could go for days being off.

Is it a fail if this comes on during the NCT? If so, can I disable it from coming on for the purposes of the NCT by perhaps removing a fuse or something to that effect? The bulb might be hard to get at!

Thanks.

Bodhan

Yes as far as I'm aware it's a fail, it's also a fail if the light doesn't come on at all e.g. removing the fuse.
There might actually be something wrong with the airbag system in your car, best to have that seen too, head into a garage for a diagnoses and get it fixed

kildare.17hmr

Yes its a fail now but the retest is just visual and is free.

Stiffs

MikeyNT wrote: »

Hi There,

I have an NCT due on my BMW e46 3-series.

Recently the airbag warning light has started to light up on the dash. It is intermittent though and could go for days being off.

Is it a fail if this comes on during the NCT? If so, can I disable it from coming on for the purposes of the NCT by perhaps removing a fuse or something to that effect? The bulb might be hard to get at!

Thanks.

Your joking??

jackdec

Yes,it is an NCT failure,any light that stays on in a dashoard,that sould have gone off is a nct failure

daveharnett

A very common point of failure in this generation is a dodgy connector underneath the driver/passenger seats becoming loose. The normal solution is to remove the connector altogether and join the wires involved. Five minutes work for an auto electrician.

Next most popular is a short circuit in the passenger occupancy sensor (a mat built into the passenger seat). It's more troublesome to sort because replacing it involves removing the seat skin. The passenger seat didn't get wet recently, did it?

listermint

I had the same problem.

there are 2 solutions

1- under the passenger sear the connections can get damage / worn as they are not the best design. You can remove the connectors and direct solder the cables together. obviously remove the battery terminals prior to this for about 20 minutes to drain the system.

2- You can buy a bypass module on ebay. Its simpler than option 1. and will have immediate effect.

like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E46-E39-E38-E36-Z3-Airbag-Sensor-Bypass-Unit-/190438531795?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2c570562d3


I went for option 2 and passed NCT last week. the obvious flaw in the bypass module is that it bypasses the seat sensor in the passenger side and the airbag WILL go off in the event of an accident. So dont put a baby seat in that seat and also you will be down 1 more airbag than you need to be. (unneccessary passenger airbag inflation)

jackdec

jackdec wrote: »

Yes,it is an NCT failure,any light that stays on in a dashoard,that sould have gone off is a nct failure

even door / boot open lights ?

apoeiguq3094y

MikeyNT wrote: »

Hi There,

I have an NCT due on my BMW e46 3-series.

Recently the airbag warning light has started to light up on the dash. It is intermittent though and could go for days being off.

Is it a fail if this comes on during the NCT? If so, can I disable it from coming on for the purposes of the NCT by perhaps removing a fuse or something to that effect? The bulb might be hard to get at!

Thanks.

And the darwin award goes to.......... the man who removed the fuse from his airbag system.

Not to mention that if you are involved in an accident you'll be getting a face full of steering wheel, you've probably just voided your insurance policy.

Bodhan

Airbags have been around for years, and on the whole very little goes wrong with them.
There are seat sensors under the front seats that can become loose because of feet under the seat and changing the seat position. Most dealers will fix this problem for a small fee (mine was €40 for a Seat Leon)
Don't mess with airbags, or indeed any safety feature of your car. Just get it fixed properly by someone who knows what they are doing.
Personally, I wouldn't trust the safety of me or my passengers to something I bought off ebay.

listermint

Bodhan wrote: »

Airbags have been around for years, and on the whole very little goes wrong with them.
There are seat sensors under the front seats that can become loose because of feet under the seat and changing the seat position. Most dealers will fix this problem for a small fee (mine was €40 for a Seat Leon)
Don't mess with airbags, or indeed any safety feature of your car. Just get it fixed properly by someone who knows what they are doing.
Personally, I wouldn't trust the safety of me or my passengers to something I bought off ebay.

Fair enough, however it is a tried and tested method from US all the way to Europe. This will set your airbag off FACT. And to be fair that parts cost for a seat leon versus the parts for this model there is not a comparison. To get a new sensor and have his airbag control module reset plus labour would be circa 300. Im happy with this method its a known problem and a known fix. All it does is tell the unit that there is a bum in the seat. :rolleyes:

MikeyNT

And the award for completely missing the point goes to.....I am already well aware that this intermittent light is related to a sensor which will in no way restrict airbag deployment in an accident so safety is NOT compromised. The only possible downside is that it will deploy all bags instead of selectively deploying them based on passenger seat occupancy.

I was merely hoping for a "cheat" of some sort to avoid this bulb lighting up during the NCT test.

Thanks to the other contributors for some relevant suggestions.

apoeiguq3094y wrote: »

And the darwin award goes to.......... the man who removed the fuse from his airbag system.

Not to mention that if you are involved in an accident you'll be getting a face full of steering wheel, you've probably just voided your insurance policy.

spockety

To echo what other posters have said, yes this is an NCT fail.

It is also a fail if the light does not come on when the ignition is started. Someone I know recently covered their airbag light with some black tape (it is a 5 minute job literally to remove the instrument cluster and tape over the light), and the NCT guy spotted that the light hadn't come on and failed it.

To those on the high horses offering Darwin awards etc for disabling the warning light somehow; This does not make any difference to the airbag system if the light is already on. The airbags simply won't deploy. So while you are obviously better off getting it fixed, for the purposes of disabling the light to pass an NCT (perhaps your NCT is very soon and you don't want to risk 5 points) it does not decrease your safety if the light is already on, you are already screwed. There are two issues, passing the NCT, and general safety. Someone who passes the NCT one day, but their light comes on the next day could drive around for 2 years without doing anything about it if that was their choice.

In terms of fixing it, with the E46 there are as previously pointed out two common problems. However to know which one it is you will need to invest in an airbag fault code reader, cheapest one on eBay is 39 sterling. After resolving the issue you will also need to reset the code with the tool. Though from reading here it sounds like some people have done quick fixes for the problem and the light has gone off without the use of a reset/clearing tool..??

CiniO

jackdec wrote: »

Yes,it is an NCT failure,any light that stays on in a dashoard,that sould have gone off is a nct failure

Very interesting...
Where did you get such an information?
Because actually that's not true.
It's not any light.

spockety

CiniO wrote: »

Very interesting...
Where did you get such an information?
Because actually that's not true.
It's not any light.

It's Airbag, ABS, and Stability Control lights that get done.

apoeiguq3094y

spockety wrote: »

To those on the high horses offering Darwin awards etc for disabling the warning light somehow; This does not make any difference to the airbag system if the light is already on. The airbags simply won't deploy. So while you are obviously better off getting it fixed, for the purposes of disabling the light to pass an NCT (perhaps your NCT is very soon and you don't want to risk 5 points) it does not decrease your safety if the light is already on, you are already screwed. There are two issues, passing the NCT, and general safety. Someone who passes the NCT one day, but their light comes on the next day could drive around for 2 years without doing anything about it if that was their choice.

Just because the warning light is on doesn't mean the system is completely broken. As some of the other posters pointed out - its probably just a dodgy sensor. Taking out the fuse ( OPs idea) seems like a drastic and foolish option.

The NCT wasn't brought in for the sh!ts and giggles of it, it was done to improve car safety and SAVE LIVES. The airbag is a great safety feature, and I can't understand how anyone would think it would be a good idea to disable it by yanking out a fuse.

By the way, if you insist on driving around a car with a faulty airbag, at your own risk i suppose, a friend of mine left a holy medal on the dash over a warning light that wouldn't go away (the warning was to do with having the wrong wattage bulb somewhere). The NCT tester didn't touch the medal and the car sailed through. The morality of using a holy medal to cheat a test is another matter though.

voxpop

You should get the airbag system scanned for errors - it my not be the seat occupancy sensor. My E39 has the airbag light on, turns out its the seatbelt tensioner - which is likely a faulty wire again

MikeyNT

Ultimately I will get it scanned for errors but I'll wait til next service.

I'm fairly confident it is the passenger seat sensor because when it's on and I put significant pressure downwards on the passenger seat, it goes off. It will then come back on shortly after I pull back.

There are many reasons to be critical of the NCT process, reasons which blow this pious "all safety" argument completely out of the water. For example pre- 1980 cars are exempt. I can assure you there are plenty pre 1980 death traps in circulation. Also Armed Forces, the Garda Síochana or the Fire Service vehicles are not legally required to go through the test....so how's that for all encompassing safety standards?? I can also come up with numerous examples of cars that were failed on items determined subsequently by qualified mechanics that should not have failed at all. Meeting fail quotas springs to mind.

I'm all for motoring safety but I won't applaud or respect a highly profitable, privatised and corrupt vehicle testing mechanism full of contradictions and anomalies.

VolvoMan

jackdec wrote: »

Yes,it is an NCT failure,any light that stays on in a dashoard,that sould have gone off is a nct failure

My car flew through the NCT with an engine management light on.

That said, it was last year and just before the changeover in management.

katana1

MikeyNT wrote: »

Hi There,

I have an NCT due on my BMW e46 3-series.

Recently the airbag warning light has started to light up on the dash. It is intermittent though and could go for days being off.

Is it a fail if this comes on during the NCT? If so, can I disable it from coming on for the purposes of the NCT by perhaps removing a fuse or something to that effect? The bulb might be hard to get at!

Thanks.

To The OP.
My last car had the airbag light on.The module was fried and would cost 600 euro to fix.The car wasn't worth much more.

I put black tape over the light and it passed. I was the only person driving the car and accept that it was a safety issue .I was going to scrap the car in a month (which I did) so 600 euro for a module for a month was out of the question for me.
I would recommend if the car passes and you intend to keep it to get it sorted as it probably would be an insurance issue if you had an accident.Al that said if you ring the NCT office --they will tell you it is a fail.If I was keeping my old car I would have got it sorted.
Hope the NCT goes well for you.

opinion guy

a) NCT fail: taking you NCT with a lit airbag light

b) Life fail: crashing your car with a lit airbag light


Whilst a is a good motivator to get it fixed, I personally would consider b to be a better motivator

antomorro-sei

My car passed the NCT when the Airbag light was on. It's still on now actually...

shamwari

Just to be clear about airbags, their warning lights, and the NCT.

The tester is supposed to check that with IGN on and after starting the car, the airbag / ABS / ESP lights must come on first, and then extinguish and remain extinguished until the car is switched off.

Removing / disabling the bulb or obstructing its view, or disabling the system in any other way will constitute a failure in the same way that the light remaining on will.

Remember that these systems are there for the protection of driver and passenger alike. They should not be bodged or messed with in the hope such will get you around a possible NCT failure. Have them properly and promptly repaired if they show signs of problems.


See this: http://www.ncts.ie/images/NCT_DL.jpg

daveharnett

MikeyNT wrote: »

Ultimately I will get it scanned for errors but I'll wait til next service.

I'm fairly confident it is the passenger seat sensor because when it's on and I put significant pressure downwards on the passenger seat, it goes off. It will then come back on shortly after I pull back.

Seems pretty clear then. listermint's bypass option looks like a winner.

Just be sure to cut only the wires that the bypass box needs - that bundle contains the connections for the pre-tentioner too.

shamwari

daveharnett wrote: »

Seems pretty clear then. listermint's bypass option looks like a winner.

Just be sure to cut only the wires that the bypass box needs - that bundle contains the connections for the pre-tentioner too.

And if he gets it wrong, might he set the pretensioner off as well??

shamwari

listermint wrote: »

the obvious flaw in the bypass module is that it bypasses the seat sensor in the passenger side and the airbag WILL go off in the event of an accident. So dont put a baby seat in that seat and also you will be down 1 more airbag than you need to be. (unneccessary passenger airbag inflation)

The obvious flaw here is that a critical safety system is being bypassed to the extent that the said system could pose a serious DANGER. I cannot believe that someone would go to the effort and extent of buying something on EBAY to cheat a test, when a proper fix could possibly be achieved quicker and cheaper.

-Chris-

I'm closing this thread - I don't see it progressing anywhere constructive.

The OP has stated they're aware of the consequences of disabling their airbag system, and people have made their objections to disabling the airbag system heard.

Listermint has offered a solution, which the OP is free to implement or not.

Condoning the disabling of the system would make you feel fairly guilty if something bad happens to the OP, objecting to the disabling is of minimal benefit as the OP has weighed up the risks and is free to make their own decisions.