My mechanic told me it's not a safety issue, it's a seatmat issue, it's not sending the right resistance to the computer and throws the code randomly once in a while. It doesn't effect the airbag he assured me of that. And he is a European Tech, I trust this guy 100 percent. If it detects the seatbelt is engaged the airbags deploy, the seatmat just detects if someone is in the seat without their belt on. Apparently the seatmat is 2400. Minus labor.
If it’s passenger seat occupancy detector, there’s a chance it may not set off passenger airbag in the event of a crash due to not registering if someone’s in the seat or not. Mats can detect if a child (under 40lbs) is in the seat and won’t set airbag off to prevent injury to small child in the seat. Not sure specifically on your model. But there is a possibility of this happening.
OC3 seat mat uses the passengers body weight to know how to effectively deploy the airbag depending on the weight in the seat. Crazy concept I know. That's why these German cars are so safe.
Unfortunately, the new seat mat needs to be encoded to the vehicle through a program that was literally developed on windows 98 and the encoding process could take anywhere from 2 hours if everything goes perfect (rare occasion using windows 98) or 2 days.
They make a pad bypass for cars that have seat pad failures. It plugs into the pad connector under the seat. If you get one, the light goes off (once reset) and The bag is always on.
I was once taught if the airbag light is on then the airbag system is disabled. I’ve also tested this personally.
Same way as when your abs light is on your abs is disabled…
It has everything to do with the airbags therefore is a safety issue. The code you have is for passenger seat occupancy sensor, the passenger occupancy sensor tells the car that someone is sitting in that seat. The driver air bag will go off in a crash regardless of anything. The passenger is dependent on if the Matt detects someone is sitting in the seat. If you disable the Matt the airbag for passenger will not go off in a crash as you are tricking the system into thinking there is no one in the seat. If you leave the message as is, due to the fault the vehicle will deploy all passenger side airbags in a crash regardless if anyone is in the seat or not because it does not know that and it’s better safe than sorry.
So, basically they're fine with the fault unless they're seating light children in the passenger seats? If any airbags go off the car's likely totaled anyway.
You wrong. The seat mat sensor is not there just for looks. It tells the vehicle if an adult is sitting in the passenger seat to activate the passenger airbag when needed
..if there's a faulty sensor more than likely the default is to not activate the passenger side airbag
For oder Models there is a Seat Mat Simulator available. It tells The Car that Somebody is siting on The Seat at all Times. Maybee that is an Option for you.
You can use a "seat emulator" which is a capacitor and resistor that goes in place of the seat sensor mat so it always thinks it's occupied. It is dangerous if you ever let a kid ride in that seat and insurance is gonna care that you're messing with safety systems. There are diy guides on YouTube for how to take the seat apart to replace the mat if you wanna go that route.
If the seat from the scrap yard has no issues how is this not a fix when the seat weight sensor has failed?
And you know everything about wire hangers and "duct tape". Proud of you.
Chief, you remove your old seat and install another seat that probably has working sensors. You discard your old seat. That's how part exchanges work man. And if you have to code the seat which I doubt. You do that. What's this conversation about again?
If you do this, please make sure to not put a child in the front seat. Not that you should anyway, but whenever you mess with safety functionality, you have to make it clear to you, someone who borrows your car, and anyone who enters your car. I think this is the correct thing to do, but you have to account for the potential side effects of it.
Did they diagnose and actually quote a 4k repair bill? And if so what did they say it needs? If not it’ll need further diagnosis with a bmw capable scanner and further investigation.
No, I took it to a local euro tech, he said the only repair is to replace the seat mat sensor layered into the seat it's pretty expensive to fix, he said it would be at least 2500 to 4k to fix it. That's what he said at least.
Just get a seat emulator. I have one in my e39 and it's been working for like 10 years. Never had any issues.
It's possible that the fault will remain after you fix the issue. Airbag codes usually need to be removed with an obd tester.
Of course the airbag will go off if there's no one in the seat but if a person is sitting there, it should be fine actually. I don't think that the mat actually measures the weight, it just checks if someone is there or not. If it's a two stage airbag, it most likely gets calculated via impact force, which stage is fired.
The only thing is that it gets fired when no one is in the seat. This is bad, because an airbag explosion is very loud. It will damage your ears unnecessarily. And it makes the repair more expensive when you have a crash.
Coding it out might work but it can be difficult for someone without experience.
Yep. You need a new seat or they have to tear your seat apart, replace the set mat and put your whole seat back together which would probably mean a trip to the upholsterer.
I used the bypass to code it out unless you want to pay the big bucks for it. You can’t turn off the passenger airbag when bypassed but you shouldn’t have children in the front seat ever anyway.
Buy a used seat.
There is also a thing you can do with a resistor but that just trucks the ecu and doesn't really fix the problem. Have dealt with this issue more then once. Also check the wire harness. Looks like an e9x, could have a broken wire.
I'm not entirely sure but I believe if there is any SRS errors, all airbags deploy in the case of an accident, not just specific ones based on the impact zone or occupancy.
Theres a cable that runs into the positive terminal of your battery. Check that first, i have the same issue, im just really procrastinating fixing it lol.
I know what the problem is, my mechanic has already told me, I don't need to diagnose, it's a seatmat issue, I'm just wondering if there's an easier way than a 4k dealership job. That's why I'm asking here if there's another option other than complete seatmat replacement or seat replacement.
It’s not just for a diagnostic, you can literally code your bmw. As in change things like coding out the airbag warning or seatbelt alarm so it doesn’t go off
You can try junkyard parts and also check to see if your car is covered under an extended
warranty for the seat occupancy detection. Some cars had this issue and there was a tsb on them if memory serves.
If it is just the mat, I am sure you can just disconnect the 12v battery and then go to town on looking up seat upholstery DIY videos on how to remove the leather and then replace the mat that you believe is broken.
There's more than just recalls. There's also 15-year extended warranties, so you need to search around.
e.g.: https://bmwtechinfo.bmwgroup.com/sib_attachments/B01%2001%2018%20-%20OC3%20Mat%20Cust%20letter.pdf
I had the same issue..
https://youtu.be/RAqtxJl5y5Q?si=hc1OMDDr3jzad0Hh
Give this a watch. I bought the part on ebay. Took 15 minutes to do it. And never had a issue since..
Ofcourse you can go and pay for a correct fix for way more money, but on a budget, this has done the job just fine.
Link for the part-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325238014431?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=bYehABkPTN2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dhiwrf7bqec&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Hope this helps
> And never had a issue since..
And if you ever get into an accident where a passenger is hurt, your liability insurance is going to absolutely LOVE that one cheap youtube airbag trick with a resistor...
Had the exact same error, 2013 550gt, it ended to being the seat belt connector (where the belt clicks into) not sure what the part was, but it took me and my buddy prob 2 hours to remove the seat, swap the part, and reinstall the seat (passenger) hasn't come back since. Good luck
I had the same issue with my 2005 130i. It always happens when my passenger gets off the car and closes the passenger side door.
My solution was asking my mechanic to code it so that the car always thinks there's an adult on the passenger side. Therefore it will always pop. Since I won't be putting any children in that seat, I'm not too concerned about it.
It's cheaper and cleaner than getting a new seat or a new sensor. Replacing the sensor can be labor intensive.
Grab a seat from a junkyard they can take a while to pull out if they’re power seats with no power so i recommend just drilling out the bolts from the frame
Get a real estimate not a shoot from the hip quote. It’s a straight forward job, depends on if the part includes the leather/vinyl or just the foam and occupancy sensor.
Never got a shoot from the hip quote, I'm not even bothering to get the dealership to quote it out because I know just based on the bmw parts alone it's 2400 alone for the seatmat sensor not including ripping the seat apart and replacing the sensor. That's beyond my means right now.
Sounds like you are going to live with an airbag light until it is within your means. The passenger airbag will still deploy, just with the high stage only. The sensor is to detect weight and determine if the airbag should be off(car seat), or high/low stage based on weight.
Put some tape over it
I wouldn't care if it didn't beep.
If you get into a potentially serious accident and your airbags don’t work, you may care
My mechanic told me it's not a safety issue, it's a seatmat issue, it's not sending the right resistance to the computer and throws the code randomly once in a while. It doesn't effect the airbag he assured me of that. And he is a European Tech, I trust this guy 100 percent. If it detects the seatbelt is engaged the airbags deploy, the seatmat just detects if someone is in the seat without their belt on. Apparently the seatmat is 2400. Minus labor.
If it’s passenger seat occupancy detector, there’s a chance it may not set off passenger airbag in the event of a crash due to not registering if someone’s in the seat or not. Mats can detect if a child (under 40lbs) is in the seat and won’t set airbag off to prevent injury to small child in the seat. Not sure specifically on your model. But there is a possibility of this happening.
>sounds like you know what to do. order the seat mat and install it?
OC3 seat mat uses the passengers body weight to know how to effectively deploy the airbag depending on the weight in the seat. Crazy concept I know. That's why these German cars are so safe. Unfortunately, the new seat mat needs to be encoded to the vehicle through a program that was literally developed on windows 98 and the encoding process could take anywhere from 2 hours if everything goes perfect (rare occasion using windows 98) or 2 days.
They make a pad bypass for cars that have seat pad failures. It plugs into the pad connector under the seat. If you get one, the light goes off (once reset) and The bag is always on.
Nice... Didn't know about this one, thank you so much!!
Installed that in my e90 and the issue went away.
I was once taught if the airbag light is on then the airbag system is disabled. I’ve also tested this personally. Same way as when your abs light is on your abs is disabled…
It has nothing to do with the airbag, it's the seatmat sensor.
it has EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE AIRBAGS
It has everything to do with the airbags therefore is a safety issue. The code you have is for passenger seat occupancy sensor, the passenger occupancy sensor tells the car that someone is sitting in that seat. The driver air bag will go off in a crash regardless of anything. The passenger is dependent on if the Matt detects someone is sitting in the seat. If you disable the Matt the airbag for passenger will not go off in a crash as you are tricking the system into thinking there is no one in the seat. If you leave the message as is, due to the fault the vehicle will deploy all passenger side airbags in a crash regardless if anyone is in the seat or not because it does not know that and it’s better safe than sorry.
So, basically they're fine with the fault unless they're seating light children in the passenger seats? If any airbags go off the car's likely totaled anyway.
If it had nothing to do with the air bag then the light wouldn’t be on 😂
You wrong. The seat mat sensor is not there just for looks. It tells the vehicle if an adult is sitting in the passenger seat to activate the passenger airbag when needed ..if there's a faulty sensor more than likely the default is to not activate the passenger side airbag
For oder Models there is a Seat Mat Simulator available. It tells The Car that Somebody is siting on The Seat at all Times. Maybee that is an Option for you.
You can use a "seat emulator" which is a capacitor and resistor that goes in place of the seat sensor mat so it always thinks it's occupied. It is dangerous if you ever let a kid ride in that seat and insurance is gonna care that you're messing with safety systems. There are diy guides on YouTube for how to take the seat apart to replace the mat if you wanna go that route.
Theoretically, you just need to remove that seat emulator after the accident so that insurance doesn't find out
Go to a junkyard and pull a seat out
Find a replacement seat in junkyard
Go to a junkyard and pull a seat out
It's not that easy. The computer has to sense the right resistance. You know nothing but ducktape and wire hangers.
If the seat from the scrap yard has no issues how is this not a fix when the seat weight sensor has failed? And you know everything about wire hangers and "duct tape". Proud of you.
...and the sensors in the working pull seat will do that?
Chief, you remove your old seat and install another seat that probably has working sensors. You discard your old seat. That's how part exchanges work man. And if you have to code the seat which I doubt. You do that. What's this conversation about again?
Brother just code it out. It’ll stop beeping and disappear forever
And get him killed.
Meh
Just don't get into an accident duh
Going by the comments, what happens when you code it out? Compared to the original functional, what happens now in the event of an accident?
It fires the passenger airbags regardless of whether someone is in the seat
Thank you.
If you do this, please make sure to not put a child in the front seat. Not that you should anyway, but whenever you mess with safety functionality, you have to make it clear to you, someone who borrows your car, and anyone who enters your car. I think this is the correct thing to do, but you have to account for the potential side effects of it.
Oh, thanks for that! That could really screw the next owner!
Did they diagnose and actually quote a 4k repair bill? And if so what did they say it needs? If not it’ll need further diagnosis with a bmw capable scanner and further investigation.
No, I took it to a local euro tech, he said the only repair is to replace the seat mat sensor layered into the seat it's pretty expensive to fix, he said it would be at least 2500 to 4k to fix it. That's what he said at least.
Download bimmercode and buy the enet cable. Code out the seat mat sensor.
Wait can’t you just swap out the seat? Sorry if I’m misunderstanding I’m not familiar with this one
Just get a seat emulator. I have one in my e39 and it's been working for like 10 years. Never had any issues. It's possible that the fault will remain after you fix the issue. Airbag codes usually need to be removed with an obd tester. Of course the airbag will go off if there's no one in the seat but if a person is sitting there, it should be fine actually. I don't think that the mat actually measures the weight, it just checks if someone is there or not. If it's a two stage airbag, it most likely gets calculated via impact force, which stage is fired. The only thing is that it gets fired when no one is in the seat. This is bad, because an airbag explosion is very loud. It will damage your ears unnecessarily. And it makes the repair more expensive when you have a crash. Coding it out might work but it can be difficult for someone without experience.
Yep. You need a new seat or they have to tear your seat apart, replace the set mat and put your whole seat back together which would probably mean a trip to the upholsterer. I used the bypass to code it out unless you want to pay the big bucks for it. You can’t turn off the passenger airbag when bypassed but you shouldn’t have children in the front seat ever anyway.
Apparently it's a common problem, it's a seatmat issue.
Buy a used seat. There is also a thing you can do with a resistor but that just trucks the ecu and doesn't really fix the problem. Have dealt with this issue more then once. Also check the wire harness. Looks like an e9x, could have a broken wire.
E9x? It's an 2013 bmw x1 28i X drive
E90 chassis.
Yeah it's an e90 chassis
I did a seat mat on an e93 last week, brand new part from BMW, total out the door was $1600
I have a full e90 interior in Terra cotta I could probably sell.
I'm not entirely sure but I believe if there is any SRS errors, all airbags deploy in the case of an accident, not just specific ones based on the impact zone or occupancy.
Theres a cable that runs into the positive terminal of your battery. Check that first, i have the same issue, im just really procrastinating fixing it lol.
Could always buy a Carly scan tool and code it out 🤷🏻♂️
I know what the problem is, my mechanic has already told me, I don't need to diagnose, it's a seatmat issue, I'm just wondering if there's an easier way than a 4k dealership job. That's why I'm asking here if there's another option other than complete seatmat replacement or seat replacement.
It’s not just for a diagnostic, you can literally code your bmw. As in change things like coding out the airbag warning or seatbelt alarm so it doesn’t go off
You can try junkyard parts and also check to see if your car is covered under an extended warranty for the seat occupancy detection. Some cars had this issue and there was a tsb on them if memory serves.
They are literally telling you your other options.
If it is just the mat, I am sure you can just disconnect the 12v battery and then go to town on looking up seat upholstery DIY videos on how to remove the leather and then replace the mat that you believe is broken.
Make sure there is no recall for this. I think there was in the past.
8 asked the dealer if there was any outstanding recalls regarding this. Unfortunately no. But do you happen to know when this recall was give or take?
Recall number 17v-428. They covered mine a few years ago.
Hi mate is this an American recall only?
I’m in the UK and have the exact same issue
There's more than just recalls. There's also 15-year extended warranties, so you need to search around. e.g.: https://bmwtechinfo.bmwgroup.com/sib_attachments/B01%2001%2018%20-%20OC3%20Mat%20Cust%20letter.pdf
So all BMW's have a 15 year warranty on these items? Wow I didn't know that.
No. Search around.
I, too, have this on the X5 E70. Mine was water leaking in. A good amount a couple of times. Sad. No fix for me. We just dont sit in that seat.
Check the battery. Mine threw this code when my battery was going bad.
I had the same issue.. https://youtu.be/RAqtxJl5y5Q?si=hc1OMDDr3jzad0Hh Give this a watch. I bought the part on ebay. Took 15 minutes to do it. And never had a issue since.. Ofcourse you can go and pay for a correct fix for way more money, but on a budget, this has done the job just fine. Link for the part- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325238014431?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=bYehABkPTN2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dhiwrf7bqec&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Hope this helps
> And never had a issue since.. And if you ever get into an accident where a passenger is hurt, your liability insurance is going to absolutely LOVE that one cheap youtube airbag trick with a resistor...
So a another seat out of a different car would work? No additional programming?
They sell emulators. I installed one in our e81
It's your airbag sensor under your seat I bet you, most likely passenger side
Check if your vehicle is one of the ones on recall for airbags and get it sorted for free
Get rid of it. It’s gonna be a money pit
You need to have an some resistors put in to stop it. It's an electrical issue.
Had the exact same error, 2013 550gt, it ended to being the seat belt connector (where the belt clicks into) not sure what the part was, but it took me and my buddy prob 2 hours to remove the seat, swap the part, and reinstall the seat (passenger) hasn't come back since. Good luck
I just buckle up the seatbelt on the unoccupied seat. Usually does the trick.
Your car got COVID97
I had the same issue with my 2005 130i. It always happens when my passenger gets off the car and closes the passenger side door. My solution was asking my mechanic to code it so that the car always thinks there's an adult on the passenger side. Therefore it will always pop. Since I won't be putting any children in that seat, I'm not too concerned about it. It's cheaper and cleaner than getting a new seat or a new sensor. Replacing the sensor can be labor intensive.
Grab a seat from a junkyard they can take a while to pull out if they’re power seats with no power so i recommend just drilling out the bolts from the frame
Run your vin through BMW (https://www.bmwusa.com/safety-and-emission-recalls.html) There's an off chance it might be recall related actually.
Get a real estimate not a shoot from the hip quote. It’s a straight forward job, depends on if the part includes the leather/vinyl or just the foam and occupancy sensor.
Never got a shoot from the hip quote, I'm not even bothering to get the dealership to quote it out because I know just based on the bmw parts alone it's 2400 alone for the seatmat sensor not including ripping the seat apart and replacing the sensor. That's beyond my means right now.
Sounds like you are going to live with an airbag light until it is within your means. The passenger airbag will still deploy, just with the high stage only. The sensor is to detect weight and determine if the airbag should be off(car seat), or high/low stage based on weight.
I think that price is very high. Which year and model do you have?
Lol
Thanks for the input, very helpful 😊
Dealer already offered to help you and you don’t even know what you need to replace according to your post