Airbag fault - 01217 side igniter

[skard]

01217 - Side Airbag Igniter; Driver Side (N199)              001 - Upper Limit Exceeded - Intermittent - MIL ON

I put leathers into my 3dr a couple of weeks ago, all was fine at first. After a few miles the cluster airbag light started coming on.

Sometimes if I cleared it, it'd not return for a bit. Now it's on pretty much constantly.

It's come on with both the passenger and drivers side, mainly the latter and never happened before with my cloth seats.

Plugs seem to be in fully, I've come to the conclusion that I have to do the mod here http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2815467. The seats were made just before this bulletin so it seems promising.

My question is - has anyone else done this mod to solve this issue and did you cut & solder both the seat to floor wires, as well as the plug on the seats themselves?

Thanks

[Eddie-NL]

I have done it on a 3dr 2005 gti. Do the ones on the seat first and see if that fixes it.

Ed

[skard]

Thanks Ed.

Would rather leave the floor ones intact if possible, so will get it done later in the week (will do both seats).

[Phil Miller]

about 2 weeks ago i went over a cattle grid and my airbag light came on, when i plugged it in it came up with the same fault which cleared fine and hasnt come back, maybe i should give this a go aswell

[skard]

Just cut the plug off the loom and soldered the wires together, as per the bulletin, cleared the fault, and all ok in the 5 minute journey i had afterwards.

Hoping it's the cure.

[Jaywoo-GTI]

Need to do this mod on my drivers seat, Got told by my VW tech mate this is exactly what they do at the dealers.

[skard]

Been out driving for a further hour tonight - stopped, started, moved the seat - no sign of the airbag light yet 

[Eddie-NL]

Should be ok, I think the loom was not long enough and that is why you mainly see this on 3dr cars.

[skard]

That would make sense, Ed. Cutting the loom off gave an extra few cm's of wire, useful as the wiring had a pretty savage bend going into one of the plugs.

Weird how this never ever happened with my original seats, which were made 4 months before the new ones.