Thanks John,
I also saw that one on ebay. but its that the one with the broken sensor or is it this on http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...=STRK:MEWAX:IT ?

Ali measured the resistance for me and it shoud be 470 ohms with the seat occupied so now i can also put a resistor between it.

I've just found this thread having decided to do something about my airbag light ( been ignoring it for a while as the wife doesn't drive :rolleyes:).
Just to confirm this 470 ohm resistance will tell the car the seat is permanently occupied and hence mean the airbag will be fully functional ??
After my alarm horn pcb shenanigans this should be a walk in the park......
Also my passenger seat heating isn't working either so is that likely to be a similar problem of a blown component or dry joint etc I've had a vague wiggle of all the connectors with no joy so far.....:Confused:

I have replaced the 1Kohm pot that I had in my car for a 470ohm resistor,fitted it a couple of months ago, The airbag light has not returned.Make sure you connect it up to Vagcom and check it reads "Passenger seat occupied".This can be done without removing the seat from the car, if you adjust the seat up as high as it goes plenty of room to fit the resistor.Sorry cant help with the bum warmer.

Thanks to this post I have inserted the 470 ohm resistor and cleared the airbag light . :)

Once it cleared I had the bottle to tell the wife her airbag was now working lol

and ditto- thank to all of you- I am now a Maplins fan ( the 24p purchase sent their shares soaring....not!:ROFL:) and the 470 ohm resistor has done the business- so I am fully airbagged up.

Airbag light on again
 

I fitted my resistor over a year ago, its been great, but the airbag light has returned.After further investigation it appears if the passenger heated seat is on, on "6" after a long period the airbag light came on again, ( remember I fitted the resistor to my car its been through 2 MOT s ) if the seat heater is turned down to "5" the airbag light goes out again, and vagcom shows the seat as being occupied, so all is good, no need to connect to vagcom to reset the light. Just thought I would make you all aware of my experience.

When the sensor has failed is the default position for the ecu to assume occupancy and discharge the airbags if required? I thought it was but best to check eh? Wifey is only insured for 220k after all :). As it is, 470ohm resistor is being spliced in next week. Not sports seats but I assume that brown connector and blue white wires are still the right one? I have a 3, 7 and 10w 470ohm resistor. Any of them useable?

Bill

I used 1/3Watt 470ohm resistor, I dont think the wattage is important here.

Hello, I would like to know if a member of this forum had a picture of the resistance connected to the detection sensor ?

thank !

As I now have this problem on Sports seats I've started to have a look underneath. :(

If it is indeed the front (moveable) section that has its own small pad and that usually is the one that fails I thought I'd start there as it's more accessible.

Looking under the seat there is a thin cable sleeve connecting the front section to the rear, held on by a cable tie.
I can't think it's there for anything other than the detector; I'm sure there's no heater in that section.

As it's much more accessible than the main plug and wiring I'm going to start there, cutting the sleeve open first to see what's inside.

If there is a main and secondary pad I can only assume they're wired in series. Can anyone confirm that?
If that is the case it might even be possible to bypass the front pad with an intermediate resistance value so that the main pad operates the system normally.

Edit: Just opened the sleeve - one blue wire, one white wire.
I'll be cutting through that and measuring the resistance of the disconnected front pad shortly...... +++
Might it even be worth shorting them together, simplest solution of all? :rolleyes: