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And now for the news which has just about killed me off


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£42 lighter this afternoon to get an accurate diagnosis on this airbag fault. I went to a very trusted auto electrician- he has informed me that the orginial fault was the actual airbag module. Rough cost of this is £300 + £70 coding. It doesn't stop there though. As the supplying dealer "fixed" it- by making it worse as now there is no airbag light on whatsoever I might actually need a new instrument cluster.

The sparky's theory is that they either colored the airbag LED or drilled a tiny hole in it so that there is no light on at all. I do find that hard to believe but the supplying dealer obviously did something to it for no airbag light on to come on at all.

I'm gutted- and at a loss as to what to do. I can't take the car back either. Help. :(

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As you can't take it back you have 2 options in my opinion.

Either get it fixed properly and swallow the cost. Lesson learnt, but a still a bummer.

Or sell it on. The problem with this is the history is now out in the open, so you probably wouldn't get what you paid for it if selling on here or another VW forum. And to be honest, you don't seem like the kind of guy who would rip someone off with a dud.

Hard as it is I would get it fixed as satisfactorily as possible and keep all the receipts and go to the CAB.

You may have a case against the Dealer in a small claims court, limit is £5k I think if I read correctly.

My dad got money back against a car where the mileage had been misrepresented. Clocks had been changed @20k and the original owner had supplied evidence to the dealer. Dealer then [*cough] lost these details and sold the car as only having 20k on the clock when in fact it had done 40k.

Good luck.

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What was the exact fault code number? e.g. 17931 etc

Airbag light should always come on for a few seconds, so you will need to take a closer look at the clocks to see what they have done, before you buy a new cluster. Unless they have just deactivated the whole airbag system?

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Rich from here seems to know his stuff and offered to look at it- and just suggested I asked the dealer for some money back and let him fix it. He did seem to think it'd all be done to a few wires though but this new diagnosis this afternoon is worrying me sick. He hasn't logged on for days and I wish we could have a natter.

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What was the exact fault code number? e.g. 17931 etc

Airbag light should always come on for a few seconds, so you will need to take a closer look at the clocks to see what they have done, before you buy a new cluster. Unless they have just deactivated the whole airbag system?

I have no code number- 2 people from this forum have plugged in VAGCOM and no faults appear on the system. But it appears their version cannot read airbag faults from 2000-2002 for some reason.

And the auto electrician just seem to think it's the module itself at fault. They didn't take the cluster apart of course but what can it be to be fair? I just don't know who to trust!

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Rich will most likley be chained to an iron bedstead somewhere with a hessian bag over his head.

He'll be back when 'she\he' has had their fun and him his.

:ph34r:

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I'm just wondering if the airbag has deployed at some stage in the past? I know from working in the parts dept at a big vw dealer (where i'm posting from now!) that if the airbag goes off, then a new airbag ecu module must be installed. They can only be coded to one car once, so perhaps the airbag went off once, or there was a fault in the airbag ecu and someone fitted a second-hand one. Just a thought....

Edited by lupogtiboy
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I'm just wondering if the airbag has deployed at some stage in the past? I know from working in the parts dept at a big vw dealer (where i'm posting from now!) that if the airbag goes off, then a new airbag ecu module must be installed. They can only be coded to one car once, so perhaps the airbag went off once, or there was a fault in the airbag ecu and someone fitted a second-hand one. Just a thought....

Sparky definitely confirmed that no airbags had deployed.

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Im just about to pull my module out as im ditching the whole airbag system, if you need a spare/replacement.

I coudl also sty to take the wiring out in one piece?

Drop me a PM if you need it, im sure we can come to some arrangement.

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Im just about to pull my module out as im ditching the whole airbag system, if you need a spare/replacement.

I coudl also sty to take the wiring out in one piece?

Drop me a PM if you need it, im sure we can come to some arrangement.

That's fantastic news!! Do you know much about electrics? What exactly would I need? Airbag module & dash pod is what they told me I needed.

As long as your car has never been involved in a bang, it should be ok.

I'd just like to wait until Rich shows up on here again to double check what he thinks. I'm utterly clueless. :lol:

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That's fantastic news!! Do you know much about electrics? What exactly would I need? Airbag module & dash pod is what they told me I needed.

As long as your car has never been involved in a bang, it should be ok.

I'd just like to wait until Rich shows up on here again to double check what he thinks. I'm utterly clueless. :lol:

I know a bit, i can read wiring diagrams and make sense of them, enough to rewire my car i hope!

Can you explain what the exact problem is? I don't think they will have gone to the extent of colouring in or drilling the LED in the clocks. Ive had them apart before, and there not the easiest thing to dismantle before damaging it, I can find the how to if you want to check for yourself though?

I can do the airbag module, but i still need my clocks. I think rich was breaking a GTi, so you could probably get s cheap set of clocks off him? I guess it will all need to be recoded after though.

When i get the airbag wiring loom out of the car, ill do my best to take it out in one piece so i can supply it with the module if needed of course.

John

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Cheers Casper. Just phoned the place I bought it from to find out EXACTLY what this auto electrician of his did. All he knows is that he messed around with the wiring loom. Would this cause the airbag light to go out permanently?

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Well yes and no, depends if the light comes on when you turn the ignition on.

IIRC it comes on for a few seconds when you turn the ignition, then goes off. Does it do that?

If not then id look in to how he messed about with the loom. Im pretty sure the airbag module runs on the canbus, so if there was fault the canbus would tell the light to come on in the dash panel (hence why it wont just go off, needs to be reset) It wouldn't just be a case of cutting a wire to switch it off. I think ive tried to do that before to no avail, aswell as EPC and engine check lights.

John

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Im just about to pull my module out as im ditching the whole airbag system, if you need a spare/replacement.

I coudl also sty to take the wiring out in one piece?

Drop me a PM if you need it, im sure we can come to some arrangement.

Airbag modules cant be swapped as they are coded to the vehicle and they can only be coded once (lupogtiboy should be able to confirm this) From what I recall they are coded to the immobilser chip & another in the dash clock, hence why they cant be swapped.

If I can find a boss to fit my new steering wheel I'll have a brand spanking new module still in the box up for sale.

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Airbag modules cant be swapped as they are coded to the vehicle and they can only be coded once (lupogtiboy should be able to confirm this) From what I recall they are coded to the immobilser chip & another in the dash clock, hence why they cant be swapped.

If I can find a boss to fit my new steering wheel I'll have a brand spanking new module still in the box up for sale.

Why can we find so many on ebay? Are they all useless then? I'm genuinely baffled with all the different info I'm picking up!

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Can we get to the bottom of this by at the very least understanding how the light was "turned off"

Does anyone know enough about car electrics to provide a plausible answer?

Are the clock easy to remove and something has been done that way?

Wire pulled from anywhere else?

etc etc...

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Wire could be pulled out but I dont think it would switch the light off as there's more logic to it I think.

Clocks come out easily, you can check the plug and see if it's been tampered with? There's a diagram on the site if each pin out for the clocks.

Bummer on the airbag module surely there's a way round it?

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One thing to bear in mind - in its current condition, it will pass next years MOT, however if you fix the light and cant fix the airbag module (causing the light to stay on) it wont

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Wire could be pulled out but I dont think it would switch the light off as there's more logic to it I think.

Clocks come out easily, you can check the plug and see if it's been tampered with? There's a diagram on the site if each pin out for the clocks.

Bummer on the airbag module surely there's a way round it?

I'm getting it checked thoroughly by someone in the know on Tuesday. Let's see what he can come up with. I hope I can get to the bottom of this. Airbag module is even trickier than I though, even if I forked out £382 for a new one, Lupoboz has informed me that they are on back order...

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One thing to bear in mind - in its current condition, it will pass next years MOT, however if you fix the light and cant fix the airbag module (causing the light to stay on) it wont

I have had it confirmed by many garages that it will not be part of the MOT. So god knows, again, everyone seems to have a different opinion!

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I have had it confirmed by many garages that it will not be part of the MOT. So god knows, again, everyone seems to have a different opinion!

7.1.5. Airbag:

(a) Airbags obviously missing or not suitable with the vehicle.

( Airbag obviously non-operative.

7.1.6. SRS Systems:

SRS MIL indicates any kind of failure of the system.

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