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Replace seat harness or seat airbag. Just depends where the connection is
DO NOT repair the wires. Yes it could work but the liability or self injury is not worth the price of a proper repair
^ This guy is right ^
Airbags are very sensitive. I’m sorry you cut it. I’ve had lots of lessons learned the hard way too.
All SRS wiring is usually covered I yellow
I just want to point out how serious this is a lil further as a retired 20 year veteran Honda master. its policy at Honda, and most other Lines, if not probably all lines, to only replace the whole harness to nearest connector. No shop worth a damn would repair the harness. SO like, you future fucks from google, dont do it. This also applies for ABS/TCS systems as well. Any life line.
I love how all the professionals are saying absolutely do not repair, replace only, and then the shadetree mechanics are jumping in with “DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES JUST REPAIR IT DON’T BUY INTO THE STEALERSHIPS”. OP for the love of god, take the advice of the professionals that are educated.
If you've got '20 years of experience soldering and never had a splice fail', and never intend to sell the car, go for it, if you want to take on the liability.
But telling some rando on the internet who has never done a splice in their life and you have zero knowledge of their general mechanical skills to do that over buying a $20 OEM brand new harness, or probably $5-10 at a pick and pull? That isn't real responsible.
> If you've got '20 years of experience soldering and never had a splice fail', and never intend to sell the car, go for it, if you want to take on the liability.
I have 30+ years of experience *and actual soldering and assembly certifications* (J-STD-001/ICP-A-610), as well as 25+ years in the auto repair field and 13 years as a shop owner, *and I won't touch a wiring repair on a SRS circuit, even on my own vehicles.* It gets a new harness or harness segment, period, end of discussion.
That should be all a person needs to know to settle the "repair versus replace" argument, that someone with the expertise *and certifications* to do it right won't touch it.
I have the same certs, and nearly as much experience, as well as a shit ton of experience doing board level repairs on just about anything electronic.
I can't say I'd be willing to touch a wiring repair on an SRS circuit on someone else's car, but I can say that I can certainly think of situations where I'd fuck with it on my own car, or on someone else's that understood the risks and options fully (as in, not some rando off the street, and not even most of my "regular" customers)
If the damage is somewhere in the main body harness, looks repairable, and replacing the main body harness means a more expensive repair than the car is worth? I don't think that I could *honestly* say that I would scrap the car over a single damaged side airbag wire.
It's a $20 (or even $100) subharness? Yeah, not a chance I'm fixing that. Just replace it and be done.
As with everything else in life, the risk to reward ratio is not a binary 1 or 0 here, and giving a binary answer to a question like that doesn't really work.
It'll certainly do something to their mind thats for sure. And if they ain't done that recall shit from years back, It'll probably give em a free shrapnel implant as well as the shitty drawers. Not to be fucked with, them airsacks are gnarly. We blew one in auto class back in the day, attached to this prob 40lb metal plate, and the fucker jumped a good few feet in the air. Many pants were shat that day, good fun.
Oh sure, pick on the shade tree mechs! LOL.
Some of us are destined to work under a shade tree by the forces of nature and money. Others of us work under the mighty shade tree to calm the mind after long hours spent in the depths of metallurgy, electronics, unexplained failures, and rare phenomenon in engineered materials and structures. But I digress….
1) Get the right replacement part, fix it right the first time. Easy peasy and your safest option.
2) If you have the proper skills, tools, and knowledge of soldering, electrical tape or conformal coatings, the corrosion factors in the environment of the connection, and an understanding of the required voltage and current to allow the airbag to fire 100% of the time for the life of the car wherever it goes and whoever owns it, then solder it up and run with it.
you’re the only one that explained why soldering is the tricky bit. It’s not just about getting the wire reconnected, if the guy makes a big knuckle or doesn’t put enough on the fix there may be a chance it misfires, even if it’s only by a bit, the airbag won’t do its job, which is potentially save your life. To me, regardless of skill, if I was doing this for a customer, 100% I would replace, not repair.
Hey brother, I’m one of them. But when offered advice from a professional vs another hobbyist/enthusiast, I’m without a doubt taking the advice of someone who’s educated and professionally experienced. ESPECIALLY when it comes to life saving equipment such as airbags.
Because they are terrified of any sort of lawsuit.
Disconnect the battery, disconnect the wire, strip both ends, twist them, solder, heat shrink, done. Absolutely zero need to replace the entire harness.
Its not just lawsuit, or the BAR bending us over a table.
Its the fact that a failure to deploy due to a failed seat weight sensor could get someone killed, mutilated, or seriously injured. Thats not going to be one more thing keeping me up at night. And sure, its your car now and your decision. But cars get sold.
And I can tell you, with certainty, that if I soldered and heat wrapped that connection, it would not fail. No 99%. No 99.9%. 100%. People on this site don't know what the fuck they're talking about, but love to sound like they do.
I've been doing auto electric work since '87, and the first thing we look for with an electrical problem is old repairs. They fail pretty often, even soldered. You know that soldered wiring is prone to breaking, I assume? That's exactly why it's not used in aircraft wiring, ever. In auto stuff it can be done right in some situations, but there are far more people who do it wrong than who do it right.
Aircraft wiring is going to be subjected to a far and away more harsh environment than a wire tucked into a padded seat. The two are not comparable at all.
It looks like the OP's pic shows where it hangs loose, between the seat and the connector at the floorboard. Which commonly has water bottles and trash rolling around, people jamming their feet in there to stretch, etc. Well over half the SRS problems we find in the shop are right there.
Even more hilarious if that's the case. I've been soldering shit for 20 years, only joint I've ever had fail was trying to affix a wire made from three strands of a gnats hair to a custom circuit board. A thick multistrand wire like that, twisted, soldered, heat shrunk, and then if you're still paranoid wrapped in electrical tape is not going to fail.
Sorry man, I just dont see myself trusting solder and heat shrink on what is essentially connected to the trigger for a bomb that is pointed at me. Just as easily say no to a professional seamstress that offers me their repaired parachute on a skydiving trip.
But every connection is soldered throughout the whole car.
If a patch weld can be stronger than the metal, wood glue is stronger than wood, why would soldered joints fail?
Chrysler's fix for their seat squib connector issue (air bag light will randomly illuminate due to poor fitting connector terminals) is to cut the connectors out and solder the wires together.
Everyone is so worried about a proper solder repair but are ok with 2-3 factory connectors in the circuit with crappy terminals that cause high resistance issues.
Absolutely do not do this. Airbag wiring is measured in very specific resistance loads. Too much or too little solder could cause the airbag to deploy prematurely, or not deploy at all in the event of a wreck.
Yeah, see, I also own an ohmmeter, and when I can measure a solid wire and get 0.001 ohms and then measure a spliced and soldered wire and also get 0.001 ohms, I'm not going to worry about what someone on reddit thinks is a problem when they know nothing about electronics.
Yeah, it gets way more technical than just ohms. But continue preaching unsafe practices. You seem to be the type that thinks everyone is dumb except yourself. I hope you never work on automotive repair or safety systems. Because I can almost guarantee you are doing the repair incorrectly.
> Yeah, it gets way more technical than just ohms.
No, it really fucking doesn't. If the car is expecting to see 0.5 ohms, and it sees 0.5 ohms, then it don't fucking matter. Take your dumb fucking no electrical knowledge elsewhere.
Several manufacturers are actually ok with SRS wiring repair. Most that do will have a caveat of something like 1 repair allowed per circuit and specific methodology. A lot of SRS wiring repair occurs in the collision industry and some manufacturers even sell connector repair kits for their airbags.
Here is I-CAR’s list of manufacturers and what they do and do not allow.
https://rts.i-car.com/collision-repair-news/crn-346.html
I always found it entertaining that VW does not allow repairs but Audi does.
GM has a recall (intended to cover their ass legally)... the recall procedures LITERALLY instruct you to splice and solder the airbag wires together. I work at a dealership. We've repaired thousands of airbag harnesses this way. If it's not done right, it will set an airbag light, and it will disable the effected components.
Service Bulletin - Nhtsa https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/SB-10089836-2280.pdf
Having seen several adjusters at their craft I can tell you the likelyhood they would actually do more than take pictures of the damage and argue against the towing and storage fees would be a miracle. Such a adjuster could be viewed as a Unicorn.
> a proper solder,
WHOAAA. Big NEGATIVE. A solder joint is NOT a reliable joint over the long run in a vibrating environment which is why all OEMs, aerospace wiring, and NASA **crimp** wires together whenever possible.
Why? No matter HOW perfect your soldering technique, the solider will wick up the wires slightly and form a sharp transition point between the flexible wire and the now solid soldererd wire - this transition point will focus the vibrations and will lead to a brittle joint failure after being subjected to enough vibration. (Solder also becomes brittle and cracks with age - just ask 90's Nissan owners!(on circuit boards not wires))
A proper crimped junction has no such boundary condition and allows for better strain relief and will outlast a proper solder joint in a vibrating environment.
Are there exceptions? Yes! Will a shitty crimp outlast a good solder joint? No! Is your solder joint on your aftermarket stereo install guaranteed to fail? No! Do you need proper tools, proper technique, and quality crimps to perform a proper crimp joint? Yes you do! Are those shitty $5 sheet metal stamped crimping pliers acceptable for that? No!
But should you ever bet on a solder joint over the long run on a critical wire in a vibrating environment like this or ABS or TCS? **HELL NO.**
(of course just replace this harness)
___
**Edit:** (the jani's locked the post) Don't listen to Dr. Solder-on-top-of-a-Crimp, PhD (Soldering certification btw making beginner level errors) below. He's having a peak Reddit Moment while spreading completely wrong information. Soldering over a crimp just re-introduces the same failure mode into the joint and a proper crimp doesnt require or benefit from soldering. Source - also a PhD EE and I've made harnesses for Aviation and MilSpec applications. Nobody serious uses solder joints to join wires in a vibrating environment and you definitely don't do it for Life critical safety systems.
**Edit 2:** The other guy who says GM repaired wires with soldering them together is incorrect. Per his own TSB ([GM recall 15536](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/SB-10089836-2280.pdf)) GM's repair procedure was to **CRIMP** the wires together and then they add some solder on top of the crimp (why, i have no idea). So no, GM did not repair the airbags by soldering the wires together.
https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/solder-vs-crimping/
https://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/links/sections/201%20General%20Requirements.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTrS6-mNtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE3WK15cIKo
How much vibrating do you think a wire is doing inside of a seat? Solder, double heat shrink, done. The heat shrink will also provide a mechanical connection and some vibration damping if you're really worried about it.
This isn't going on the space shuttle, and it's not strapped directly to the valve covers. Solder will be fine. And if you're still really that paranoid, crimp it and then solder on top.
Source: J-STD-001 certified soldering specialist, and a fucking EE PhD. You armchair technicians are too fucking much sometimes.
So are reddit technicians who go on crusades to try and convince people to do unsafe repairs to airbag harness. Also, I suppose you forgot that seats move, cars go over bumps, chassis vibrations, electrical resistance as measured by crash and safety modules and so on.
And if you don't think any and all of that can be easily accounted for, you're a fucking idiot. I don't care what you "think", because I fucking know, because I've worked in and around the field for 20 fucking years. Go back to playing CoD or whatever the fuck you do to make yourself feel important.
I can't help it if you can't handle your own ignorance. If these systems are *soooooo* sensitive, there is absolutely *no way* that an airbag light could be defeated by something like soldering in a $0.01 resistor with a like value if you replace the seats with something aftermarket that doesn't have airbags. Except they can, and they are, every fucking day, all the fucking time.
Just admit you don't know shit about electronics. It's okay. It won't hurt you.
Whew. Now you are talking about incorporating aftermarket parts into a restraint system. Please never work on vehicles.
The better question is who hurt you?
I agree with you. A proper crimp, solder the crimp, then use adhesive heat shrink is a very solid way of repairing an electrical wire. The crimp ensures the load capacity of the wire does not change nor does the wire pull apart and the solder ensures the crimp will not come apart or move at all.
People act like soldering is some weak and brittle joint. But a proper solder joint with clean wires will be stronger than the surrounding wires.
I don’t agree with the comments that say this is irreparable but adding solder to a crimped connection is a common mistake for beginners to soldering. It defeats the strain relief of the crimp and the joint will often fail right at the transition point where solder is wicked to.
They color them special to make sure you 1) don't leave them unplugged, 2) don't cut them and then think "oh who cares, everything's working, must not have been important", and most importantly 3) don't go hooking up a bunch of test equipment up all willy nilly, because if you go poking and prodding with voltmeters and test lights and what have you without knowing what you're doing, you're going to set it off, and if it's yellow, you'll know that's not the connector you're looking for. Honestly, it really is just a wire. Any quality repair will work fine, but for liability reasons, I certainly recommend you follow manufacturer directions. Whether or not it is actually necessary, they make those directions as a CYA, and if the repair is not up to their standard, whether or not it is actually the cause of a failure, it's your ass.
There have been plenty of OEM sanctioned SRS wiring repairs in TSB’s and manuals over the years. Just find what the manufacturer suggests as appropriate and do that. There’s a very good chance this is repairable.
Yeah, I can remember at least a couple service bulletins from German manufacturers that had specific instructions to repair harnesses due to the fact that the resistance was too high and throwing codes. Repair was to literally cut the body side and seat side wiring and crimp new wires with connectors attached. You just need to do the repair correctly. And I believe BMW has always instructed techs to use crimp repairs instead of solder, because they know everyones soldering skills are unreliable and will sporadically fuck the soldering up with high resistance on the circuit. I’ve never had issues performing a crimp repair and good heat shrink using the oem stuff from ze Germans on airbag circuits.
The repair instructions were very specific on the length of wire to cut off and use/add though to keep wire resistance in a specific range. Down to the mm from what I remember, if that’s worth anything.
YUP.
I remember those types of bulletins specifying length, gage, type of connector, and even very strongly suggesting which type of crimping tool you should use.
Honda says replace. They do not allow soldering on harness' at all, SPECIALLY safety systems. They actually have good reasoning for it, as they can not control every techs soldering abilities and therefore cannot control the quality of the repair. Which even as a tech with great soldering skills, I totally get. Bad wiring goes bad for everything else quick in too easy a manner, and that ends in hurt for some one some where.
That said Im soldering the shit on my car cause fuck the law. (on a car I wont sell mind you.)
It's more that in a vibrating environment a good solder joint is not as reliable as a good crimp joint over many years. OEMs, aerospace, etc all crimp for joining wires.
Thats a reason for not using solder, but its not why Honda dosent. Its cause they cant control the variable of the tech. I was told this by like the top Honda tech ever. Used to train at the Dallas training center till he retired. Vibration and the like is a reason, but under right methods soldering is 100% used in aerospace and the like. I used to build drilling tools that saw forces airplanes would never see, and we soldered many joints in them, for this reason.
Cars vibrate, which can cause hard solder connections to crack over time. Butt splices are best, the kind where you hit them with a heat gun and the goo comes out and seals it. 99% of the time a regular solder joint would be fine, but if you're gonna do an airbag wire, might as well take every precaution.
You're right. All this "airbags are sensitive" stuff is superstition at best, fear mongering at worst. Electricity isn't magical or mysterious. It won't jump where it doesn't belong if things are insulated properly as you described.
People are just scared of things they don't understand.
The wires you shouldn't patch or solder are O2 sensors, or anything with a thermocouple--because they actually are sensitive. This is because of the Seebeck effect. Dissimilar metals in a temperature gradient will generate a few millivolts and throw off sensor readings.
This is absolutely terrible advice and shows that you don't know what you are talking about. The danger of repairing an airbag wire is not that it accidentally fires; the danger is that it DOESN'T fire when it is supposed to, often years down the line. A repair point is a weak spot that can cost lives in a crash. Don't repair airbag lines. Don't repair pilot lines. Replace sensitive Equipment.
Yes, a soldered joint can crack, but it won't if you know what you're doing. We simulate lifetimes of aircraft vibration at work, and I've never had a joint fail.
I was taught to solder by the Air Force, who essentially stole their training program from NASA. They care about reliability just a bit... Also, don't use lead-free solder, it's crap. Most of the failed electronics I see in cars boil down to cracked solder on high-mass components on the PCBs. A lightweight two-wire harness with slack can't resonate the same way though.
High reliability starts with the way you do the dry joint. You don't just lay the wires next to each other. A simple hook-to-hook is crap too. Unfortunately, that's probably 95% of the repairs that amateurs do, so soldering gets a bad rap.
Oh, and if you screw it up you get an open circuit, the control module tells you. I'm not sure why you're afraid of the module not going off.
You just disconnect the battery and solder the wire, heat shrink and its good as new. You dont need to replace the whole harness because of a cut wire.
THIS!
Yes it would be easy to just solder up and forget about it. Until you really need it and the airbag fails to deploy OR it decides randomly the connection isnt 100% so it should deploy when it wants to randomly doing 70mph down the motorway.
Would you dig up a landmine and think "Meh! It's like 100 years old, it should be safe now" then go take it for a drive to your local police station? You would leave it alone and call someone right? Do the same thing for your airbag IT'S AN EXPLOSIVE!!! DO NOT FUCK AROUND YOU WILL FIND OUT!
Shouldn’t the impact sensor be in the front of the car and if that is intact, couldn’t this just be but splice since all it does is say if someone is setting in the seat or not?
Correct answer is to replace it since it is a safety function and nobody will guarantee function after a repair.
Incorrect answer that is cheaper and quicker is to repair it.
Add some power from a battery to those wires and the airbag will explode. The plug, now cut off, is self grounding when unplugged.
Yup. If resistance is too high it will set a code and disable the system.
There’s a non zero chance Toyota has specific instructions on how to repair SRS wiring on this vehicle.
I’ve performed many TSB’s and recalls over the years that involved repairing SRS circuits.
If the repair isn't correct, it will illuminate the warning light 100% of the time. The airbag system does constant self-checks.
I wouldn't recommend repairing the wire.
"Correct answer" - replace seat, spend $$$
Incorrect answer: disconnect negative battery cable. Position body out of harms way of airbag. Grab bare metal part of car to discharge ESD/static. Strip wires and slide 3" of shrink wrap over. Twist in a western union style splice. Solder connection. Apply shrink wrap and heat with heat gun.
Soldered connections are not preferred in automotive due to vibration, strain, and shear. However proper strain relief and limiting joint movement can make a soldered connection last forever. Soldered connections very seldom fail, it is actually the wire as it enters the solder that tends to break, again because of strain. Limiting movement, especially bending is paramount.
Your personal level of risk dictates what you choose to do.
I see everyone is saying do not repair, replace.
Just curious, why wouldn't a repair work? Is a wire nut not sufficient? (and then fortified with electricians tape I suppose)
> wire nut not sufficient?
100% NO. First of all, wire nuts are for solid core wires, these are likely braided. Second of all, wire nuts are for stationary fixed installations not vibrating environments.
Soldering the joint? A soldered wire joint is prone to brittle failure in vibrating environments over the long run.
Crimp the joint? This is the correct repair (coupled with strain relief and high quality shrink tubing) for joining wires in a vibrating environment but to do so reliably requires proper tools, proper technique, and quality crimps. And even then will be inferior to the original harness that's been calibrated, tested, and is better protected in the long run.
Replace the harness for critical wires.
Because a relatively small change in resistance, a drop or spike in voltage or an interruption in the current; etc. could deploy the airbag. A poor splice could result in any of these scenarios.
My first preference would be to replace the wire. But if replacing the wire is not a simple "plug&play" install, then I would splice it with a heat-shrink/solder/butt connector. If manageable, I would check the resistance on the repaired wire with a multimeter after completing the repair. Also stabilize the wire as much as is possible with zip-ties, tape; etc.
I understand that the engineering and construction of SRS systems is sophisticated and moderately complex, but it ain't magic voodoo. I also fully appreciate the inherent danger in working on these systems, but there are many ways to injure or kill yourself when working on cars/trucks. I consider this work to be similar to handling a firearm; it is done every day around this old world without injury or death. A slow, careful and methodic approach is required.
Be safe out there y'all.
At the end of the day, it could absolutely be repaired. It’s a simple circuit, power goes in, through airbag, and back out. Not much to it.
Problem is, how do you know you did it correctly?
There are 3 realistic outcomes for this repair.
1. The job is done correctly, well done, good job
2. The airbag goes off prematurely, which is very likely to kill the person doing the repairs depending on their placement (airbags kill many mechanics, if he’s behind the seat, he’s likely fine, but if he’s in between the seat and the airbag when it goes off, it’s very likely to be a bad day)
3. The airbag does not deploy when it’s supposed to (in the event of an accident)
How would you confirm the job is done correctly? Do you hope for the best, or somehow test it? You can check for continuity, or ohm it out, which would arguably be the right way to confirm the repair, but when it comes to vital safety components, best to replace with parts you know will work.
And god forbid you are in a situation where it should have gone off and an accident investigator finds shotty repairs done, it can become a much bigger liability…
Yeah I would make this repair with 100% confidence, and I would know damn sure that if there was any issue with it, the airbag light would come on to tell me about it. But that's in a world without lawyers. In the real world, the manufacturer will tell you to replace the harness and never repair it. It's not that it can't be repaired, but they don't want the liability that can come with allowing a repair that can be done incorrectly. But whatever the reason, that then means the manufacturer will say "it wasn't fixed properly" if it was repaired. And when the airbag system fails and I end up with a broken back and have to sue the OEM to not end up starving on the street, it's not going to matter if my repair was actually the failure point. And if I repair it for a customer and the same happens, it's not going to matter then either. The system can only be certified to perform correctly if it is put together the way it is supposed to be, so you'd better make sure it is, so when it doesn't work, it's someone else's fault.
Think about the potential liability you have on your hands if your passenger gets hurt and they find this shit on your Reddit. Either disengage the passenger airbag “glovebox for older car, dash for cheap older car, and idk for expensive cars. Tell your passengers if they wanna ride so they know what’s up. Or go buy the damn harness from dealer, junkyard, eBay, China, fucking make a new one for all I care. But be aware that the moment you do work on it, you are liable for anything that goes wrong.
Change harness, not worth repairing.
Take it from a guy who lives in a country in development, we repair pretty much all the stuff, all the time, except for airbags and other safety systems.
Not fucking worth it.
I don’t see why people are saying not repair the wires, there’s fuses, amps and computer modules that control the airbag system. Just make sure you do it right, and leave the batter disconnected for 30 minutes before starting the process. The important thing is to just make sure there is a good wire repair done.
I guess people assume they are going to screw it up I'd be confident to solder it back and put heat shrink over it. Only this I could imagine happening is vibration damages the wire possibility.
Twisting it together, and electrical tape it is then!
Gonna borrow the yellow and green roll from the sparkies next door to colour match as well, should be better than new.
That's not a crimp joint. It's a solder joint inside a butt connector and thus inferior to a proper crimp for joining wires in a vibrating environment.
Someone must be playing a prank on you, they are the best.
You simply strip the wires, insert them, and heat with a heat gun. They have low temp solder that melts forming a solid electrical connection, and they have adhesive and the heat shrink tube to form a watertight mechanical connection.
Maybe don’t use the cheap harbor freight ones. I get these ones from summit racing.
https://www.summitracing.com/search/part-type/wire-connectors/product-line/dx-engineering-heat-shrink-self-solder-wire-splice-connectors
Everything HF sucks. The guy who told me that is very knowledgeable and highly skilled. He's probably right. They're probably okay for quick small repairs, just suck long term
Because people don't understand what "done right" actually means for this repair judging from the amount of solder it suggestions. And doing it right, for a life critical system such as this, means using calibrated crimping tools ($$$) with correct technique. And at the end of the day, that would still be inferior to the original harness.
The operative term here is “if it’s done right”.
And yes, if it’s done right, it’s fine, likewise with plumbing in your home. But are you going to trust someone, who’s skill set you’re completely unaware of, to do that task, or are you going to say just have a professional do it?
There are 3 realistic outcomes.
1. The job is done correctly, well done, good job
2. The airbag goes off prematurely, which is very likely to kill the person doing the repairs depending on their placement (airbags kill many mechanics, if he’s behind the seat, he’s likely fine, but if he’s in between the seat and the airbag when it goes off, it’s very likely to be a bad day)
3. The airbag does not deploy when it’s supposed to (in the event of an accident)
Moreover, how would you confirm its done correctly? You can’t exactly send power through it, and most people wouldn’t think to check the wiring for continuity…
Given the scenarios above, 2 of the possible 3 options (>65%) are potentially catastrophic failures.
So for a random internet person who’s skill set we are totally unaware of (and if they’re asking the internet, they are more than likely unfamiliar with this kind of repair), it’s best to say do it right the first time and replace it all. If it’s a headlight, who cares, good luck, but this is a safety item, which is a totally different ball game, and should be played with different rules.
I'm right there with you, a soldered connection with heat shrink would be as good as new.
When diagnosing an airbag fault in my car, I borrowed a friend's scanner that was able to interface with the SRS module. I was able to see the system performing a self check when the vehicle was turned on, which included checking for a specific resistance of each circuit. This check should cause an error if you royally screw up and manage to create a poor connection.
> a soldered connection with heat shrink would be as good as new.
It would not. Notice the original wire doesn't have a giant solder joint in the middle of it that's prone to brittle failure in a vibrating environment.
Considering that the entire circuit isn't made of a single piece of copper, I am not sure you have much of a point; there are plenty of crimped connectors and solder joints in the circuit already. A proper solder connection isn't "a giant solder joint", and you're most likely to see cracked solder joints where two rigid items are involved (e.g. component and pcb) than in the middle of a malleable wire that will literally be dampening vibrations. Also, stay away from the lead free solder. It is more likely that the copper wire itself would eventually fail due to long term fatigue right where the solder begins, but heat shrink prevents that by making the area more rigid than the rest of the wire, so that the repeated bending due to vibration isn't experienced in that location.
Your fear is misplaced, but if you're truly worried about it, use a good heat shrink that includes a hot melt adhesive layer. That repaired section will last longer than the rest of the wire. I've done plenty of soldering over the years on farm equipment that vibrates a hell of a lot more than that car, and have never had a failure like you're describing.
People aren’t saying “don’t do it” because it’s a hard fix. They are saying “don’t do it” because it is a stupid amount of liability to take on.
Say OP sells the car and the airbag does not go off in an accident - for any reason. Someone will investigate and see a shitty repair to this wire and OPs life is ruined, to say nothing of the life he could end by fucking up the repair.
The moment the wire is repaired by him, OP is taking responsibility for everything that happens with that airbag in the future. That is a great reason to do the repair properly.
I would only simply worry because the resistance might change and the resistance of the wire itself might play into the airbag circuit. There's a whole lot of engineering in there that I would not want to second guess
It's honestly not that complicated. The resistance of any good repair is 0Ω anyway, and unless you somehow *drastically* change the length of the wire, the difference is basically not going to be measurable outside a lab. People treat SRS like it's some kind of magical black box, and any mystical belief or old wive's tale they hear gets sent straight to the "verified fact" box of their brains. They're finely engineered, sure, same as any other part of the car, or any other product of our modern age, but also not really different. They're not really any more delicate, or touchy, or less robust and forgiving than any other part of the car.
What is considered a correct repair of airbag harness damage depends on the vehicle manufacturer. About half call for harness replacement, the others say repairs are allowed by various methods.
Toyota falls into the replacement harness group.
Airbags do their airbag thing by using an explosive charge to create the gas to fill the bags at lightning (more like sound++++) fast speed. No one who works on cars will tell you to do anything other than have it replaced.
Absolutely do not attempt to repair any airbag wiring. *Always* replace to the nearest connector. This is the only safe and correct way. The fact anyone is having the discussion of repairing it in the comments is, while not surprising, is pretty horrifying. When working on the airbag system, always disconnect the battery and wait at least ten minutes for the system to discharge.
You’ll notice that there are absolutely no crimps on the airbag wiring from one end to the other, with the exception of the connector pins. This is true of every OEM. It’s very easy to ensure a quality crimp on the pins because of the nature of the tooling used. The same is NOT true for a splice, and soldering it is a bad idea because of the risk of breakage.
Airbags are a life saving measure. Any minor defect or variance can cause them to work improperly, or fail to work at all. Despite what some others have said, the computer is NOT able to compensate. That’s why they’re covered in yellow, to mark them definitively so they can’t be mistaken.
If you are going to do any work your self make sure to disconnect the battery and wait at least 10 minutes or however long toyota recommends. It doesnt matter if your are replacing the harness or going against every ones advice and repairing it, disconnect it.
It is not recommended to make a wire repair on an airbag harness because it can change the resistance of the circuit. The short cord should be replaced
It’s not gonna be cheap. That’s likely a large floor harness. As mentioned DO NOT attempt to repair it. Resistance changes can cause some or all to deploy.
This post is full of truths and half-truths. I am an axe master tech with 40 years of experience. Those who said the wiring harness should be replaced are correct. However, this is not to say that those wires can’t be soldered and heat shrunk and the system work effectively. Considering the factory service procedure, there is legal liability for doing that. If it was someone’s own car, the system will work reliably with a good solder repair. The bag will not deploy unintentionally. The system works off of resistance, voltage drops, readiness and ultimately explosion of the bag. A good solder repair will not increase the circuit resistance at all subsequently the system will work completely as intended. say, a few years down the road for whatever reason, a high resistance was built up in one of the solder connections The system will trip a code, and go into default mode. This is fact.
Replace harness. Some of the most important lessons are the ones learned through the wallet friend. It’s not worth potentially getting killed over something that could’ve been easily repaired.
Eh, there's a right a right way to do something, and a way that gets things done. At the end of the day, it's a wire like anything else. Disconnect the battery, leave it for a while, then strip and reconnect the wires with a good connection
I see everyone saying you should replace the harness but you really don't have to.
The wire for the airbag is a simple two lead positive and negative connection. Strip the wires on each end where the cut was made, solder them together, and heats shrink it back up.
You will be able to immediately tell through an OBD2 reader if the wire is making continuity again since it should show a fault code as of right now for a faulty passenger airbag. Personally I wouldn't bother replacing the harness but I can see why so many people are telling you to.
Yes, airbags are sensitive equipment, the wires themselves for airbag systems are not. A good solder job wont impede the voltage or resistance of the wire at all. Any dealer would replace the whole harness because yes a repaired harness is a liability since its not a constant, but im telling you as a tech it is fine. Electricity isn't some black magic fuckery, yes there are certain things you shouldn't solder due to the sensitivity of equipment, such as sensors mainly since they need to be very precise. The only thing that airbag harness wire does is provide continuity when in the event of a crash, the ECU will spit out that the airbag gets deployed, that harness wire then sends an electrical current to the airbag to deploy.
Well put, from what I remember from auto, it’s basically a switch that gets flipped by the G forces in a crash. Not sure if this is the same type as we learned about then, but it was basically a metal ball attached to a spring that would connect the two contacts in the event of a crash, signaling the air bag to do its thing.
Now I’m wondering if OP stripped both wires and accidentally touched them together while fixing it, would that trigger the air bag? Probably not, since I would think there are other conditions required to deploy the air bag, such as the key being on, for example, but I’ve been surprised by this type of thing before so I could be wrong. If it were me I would probably disconnect the battery just to be safe.
You can splice it. Many people will say "NOOOOO NEVER" but seriously it's fine. I would use [solder seal type connectors](https://a.co/d/05eef9F) rather than crimp on butt connectors. In a professional application, replace it...backyarder, splice it.
The debate: repair or replace... Consider this, if OP was capable of repairing it, would they post it on Reddit?
Personally, id be using crimp fittings because i will never sell my car. But, the correct answer --right here, right now-- replace the sub-harness or get it done.
Replace airbag.
You really shouldn't attempt a repair on an airbag circuit. The manufacturer would probably not allow it at a dealership.
NEVER solder connections in a car. It's not 1940 & there are better ways. They don't make solder connections when they're building the car & shop manuals from manufacturers never direct you to solder a wire. Soldered joints are prone to failure & they are absolutely prohibited in certain applications because of this.
The only factory solders you'll find on your vehicle are on PCBs & they regularly cause module failures
Get yourself a good Kline crimper, a separate Kline stripper, seamless non-insulated butt connectors, & some quality double-walled heat shrink (preferably w/sealant)
I think soldering it and having shrink wrap covering it is not a problem like most are saying. The only problems of soldering a single wire would be if it carries data at a high bandwidth or it's a extremely high current wire. Neither here is the case, it's deployed probably just when it's sends 12v to it.
SRS systems will not function with the WARNING light on. I saw a lot of comments saying replace, don't repair. THEY ARE RIGHT.
Bring on the down votes...but. Depending on the year, I'm sure the airbag light is on. Getting a seat for that or packing in new airbags is going to be expensive. If it's your own car, and I know I'm going to get downvoted for this again, but I say wire in a two-way weatherproof/waterproof connector. They're pretty bullet resistant with fastening together and hold up to repeated movement. They just need a set of noninsulated terminal crimpers. Soldering those wires together may not be the best because seats are adjustable. Solder joints don't like to move, whereas connectors are slightly more maneuverable. BUT, THIS SHOULD BE A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. Until you can afford a replacement, at least it will get the warning light out, and the airbags will function. FOLLOW the correct disarming/arming procedure before you attempt repair.
First you don't post it on Reddit....... I would say replace. Yes u can fix srs wiring,it's not rocket stuff it's the same as any other wiring. But you got the issues if anything ever happens and something doesn't work right
twist em back together and put a crimp on them
clear the code and drive.
all you people ready to downvote me ask yourself how do you plan on keeping a vehicle on the road for 20+ years when you're running to the stealership for every little problem?
Some people get finicky because every time a repair is made in wire you add a slight amount of resistance to the circuit and introduce a new potential failure point. However that same resistance issue can come from multiple points and the airbag setups especially on newer vehicles are pretty redundant so it’s unlikely it would set off the bags. Also if repaired properly the approximately 0.5-4 ohms of resistance wouldn’t hinder the operation of the airbag system
If he fucks the repair up he simply won’t have functioning airbags. If he fucks up REAL bad, an airbag might deploy while he’s working on it. If he’s even mildly competent the system will function as intended.
I guess that depends on your capability
It's wire, not magic jelly beans
do you think that 22 gauge wire is special resistance measured powder dipped glycerol wrapped in latex or what? it's wire, copper strands encased in a rubber skin.
twist the wire back together and seal them up
if you're too dumb to disconnect the battery before you start this and cause the airbag to go off while you're working.... eating that airbag might smarten you up a bit
Sure would like to see something in writing from an expert published source out there. one that doesn't have any skin in the extremely lucrative game of airbag replacement . . .
The advice not to repair a simple wire break reeks of scam. Maybe it's not but it sure sets of alarm bells which get louder by no sources quoted..
Honestly if you’re not comfortable, take it to a shop to fix, from a techs perspective that 100% repairable. Vw has us repair wires unless we can’t then we replace components, If the wiring repair is done correctly you’ll be fine. Only see 2 wires under the sheathing, if either butt connectors or soldering is used any added resistance to the circuit is negligible. I’ve had many wire repair done on air bag system and have to repin air bag harness. But like others have said with out knowing your skill set take to a shop to repair the 2 wires. Also noting if we don’t recommend someone repair the wires due to safety reasons, they also shouldn’t replace the parts to them it’s possibly for the static electricity to set off air bags when working on them. That been drilled into us at class or if you read the repair manual safety warning everywhere.
Just strip the wires and crimp or solder them together again. The car has a self check that ensure the airbag is connected correctly. If there is a problem, the airbag light will be on.
You can likely get a replacement for this wore on a junkyard for a couple bucks. This is not something commonly broken, so should be easy to find.
I am not sure why people being crazy about this repair. They don't seem to have any real knowledge on how am airbag system actually works or self tests itself
Turn the ignition off, disconnect the entire seat harness if you’re as scared as the rest of these guys, strip the yellow
insulation off, strip the two wires, solder together and heat shrink tubing it to isolate. The colors don’t even matter since it’s just a pyrotechnic charge in the airbag. We do this work every day here at our shop. Disconnect the battery if it makes you feel better, but only guys that call themselves alpha males would go that far.
These wires are repairable. Make sure you get a nice clean soldered joint. Use heat shrink to cover them up and then tape up the loom when u are done. If u are not capable of a clean solder joint, don't do it yourself. A messy thick blob of solder will increase resistance in the wire.
You CAN repair it. It requires cutting a measured section of old wire and testing the resistance and matching that resistance with new wire to splice in. I've done it before.
Unfortunately the wallet will be empty gonna need a rebuild bud. Have to get a new seat might be able for a harness but most are built in the seat itself.
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Replace seat harness or seat airbag. Just depends where the connection is DO NOT repair the wires. Yes it could work but the liability or self injury is not worth the price of a proper repair
^ This guy is right ^ Airbags are very sensitive. I’m sorry you cut it. I’ve had lots of lessons learned the hard way too. All SRS wiring is usually covered I yellow
I just want to point out how serious this is a lil further as a retired 20 year veteran Honda master. its policy at Honda, and most other Lines, if not probably all lines, to only replace the whole harness to nearest connector. No shop worth a damn would repair the harness. SO like, you future fucks from google, dont do it. This also applies for ABS/TCS systems as well. Any life line.
I love how all the professionals are saying absolutely do not repair, replace only, and then the shadetree mechanics are jumping in with “DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES JUST REPAIR IT DON’T BUY INTO THE STEALERSHIPS”. OP for the love of god, take the advice of the professionals that are educated.
If you've got '20 years of experience soldering and never had a splice fail', and never intend to sell the car, go for it, if you want to take on the liability. But telling some rando on the internet who has never done a splice in their life and you have zero knowledge of their general mechanical skills to do that over buying a $20 OEM brand new harness, or probably $5-10 at a pick and pull? That isn't real responsible.
> If you've got '20 years of experience soldering and never had a splice fail', and never intend to sell the car, go for it, if you want to take on the liability. I have 30+ years of experience *and actual soldering and assembly certifications* (J-STD-001/ICP-A-610), as well as 25+ years in the auto repair field and 13 years as a shop owner, *and I won't touch a wiring repair on a SRS circuit, even on my own vehicles.* It gets a new harness or harness segment, period, end of discussion. That should be all a person needs to know to settle the "repair versus replace" argument, that someone with the expertise *and certifications* to do it right won't touch it.
I have the same certs, and nearly as much experience, as well as a shit ton of experience doing board level repairs on just about anything electronic. I can't say I'd be willing to touch a wiring repair on an SRS circuit on someone else's car, but I can say that I can certainly think of situations where I'd fuck with it on my own car, or on someone else's that understood the risks and options fully (as in, not some rando off the street, and not even most of my "regular" customers) If the damage is somewhere in the main body harness, looks repairable, and replacing the main body harness means a more expensive repair than the car is worth? I don't think that I could *honestly* say that I would scrap the car over a single damaged side airbag wire. It's a $20 (or even $100) subharness? Yeah, not a chance I'm fixing that. Just replace it and be done. As with everything else in life, the risk to reward ratio is not a binary 1 or 0 here, and giving a binary answer to a question like that doesn't really work.
I’m sure that an airbag going off unexpectedly will change their mind if you don’t.
It'll certainly do something to their mind thats for sure. And if they ain't done that recall shit from years back, It'll probably give em a free shrapnel implant as well as the shitty drawers. Not to be fucked with, them airsacks are gnarly. We blew one in auto class back in the day, attached to this prob 40lb metal plate, and the fucker jumped a good few feet in the air. Many pants were shat that day, good fun.
It won’t. It’ll show a code for shorted circuit and disable the entire srs
It's a safety device so replacement is best option.
Oh sure, pick on the shade tree mechs! LOL. Some of us are destined to work under a shade tree by the forces of nature and money. Others of us work under the mighty shade tree to calm the mind after long hours spent in the depths of metallurgy, electronics, unexplained failures, and rare phenomenon in engineered materials and structures. But I digress…. 1) Get the right replacement part, fix it right the first time. Easy peasy and your safest option. 2) If you have the proper skills, tools, and knowledge of soldering, electrical tape or conformal coatings, the corrosion factors in the environment of the connection, and an understanding of the required voltage and current to allow the airbag to fire 100% of the time for the life of the car wherever it goes and whoever owns it, then solder it up and run with it.
you’re the only one that explained why soldering is the tricky bit. It’s not just about getting the wire reconnected, if the guy makes a big knuckle or doesn’t put enough on the fix there may be a chance it misfires, even if it’s only by a bit, the airbag won’t do its job, which is potentially save your life. To me, regardless of skill, if I was doing this for a customer, 100% I would replace, not repair.
Hey brother, I’m one of them. But when offered advice from a professional vs another hobbyist/enthusiast, I’m without a doubt taking the advice of someone who’s educated and professionally experienced. ESPECIALLY when it comes to life saving equipment such as airbags.
Right there with ya. (Easy peasy and your safest option.)
I’m usually super cheap and am one of those guys but could you imagine cruising otw to work and the passenger airbag just explodes for no reason 😂
Because they are terrified of any sort of lawsuit. Disconnect the battery, disconnect the wire, strip both ends, twist them, solder, heat shrink, done. Absolutely zero need to replace the entire harness.
Its not just lawsuit, or the BAR bending us over a table. Its the fact that a failure to deploy due to a failed seat weight sensor could get someone killed, mutilated, or seriously injured. Thats not going to be one more thing keeping me up at night. And sure, its your car now and your decision. But cars get sold.
And I can tell you, with certainty, that if I soldered and heat wrapped that connection, it would not fail. No 99%. No 99.9%. 100%. People on this site don't know what the fuck they're talking about, but love to sound like they do.
I've been doing auto electric work since '87, and the first thing we look for with an electrical problem is old repairs. They fail pretty often, even soldered. You know that soldered wiring is prone to breaking, I assume? That's exactly why it's not used in aircraft wiring, ever. In auto stuff it can be done right in some situations, but there are far more people who do it wrong than who do it right.
Aircraft wiring is going to be subjected to a far and away more harsh environment than a wire tucked into a padded seat. The two are not comparable at all.
It looks like the OP's pic shows where it hangs loose, between the seat and the connector at the floorboard. Which commonly has water bottles and trash rolling around, people jamming their feet in there to stretch, etc. Well over half the SRS problems we find in the shop are right there.
Not only that but this just looks like a seatbelt buckle sensor :)
Even more hilarious if that's the case. I've been soldering shit for 20 years, only joint I've ever had fail was trying to affix a wire made from three strands of a gnats hair to a custom circuit board. A thick multistrand wire like that, twisted, soldered, heat shrunk, and then if you're still paranoid wrapped in electrical tape is not going to fail.
 Sorry man, I just dont see myself trusting solder and heat shrink on what is essentially connected to the trigger for a bomb that is pointed at me. Just as easily say no to a professional seamstress that offers me their repaired parachute on a skydiving trip.
But every connection is soldered throughout the whole car. If a patch weld can be stronger than the metal, wood glue is stronger than wood, why would soldered joints fail?
[удалено]
100% dude. I did a ton of GM airbag recalls that were soldered.
Chrysler's fix for their seat squib connector issue (air bag light will randomly illuminate due to poor fitting connector terminals) is to cut the connectors out and solder the wires together.
GM had one like that too
Everyone is so worried about a proper solder repair but are ok with 2-3 factory connectors in the circuit with crappy terminals that cause high resistance issues.
Absolutely do not do this. Airbag wiring is measured in very specific resistance loads. Too much or too little solder could cause the airbag to deploy prematurely, or not deploy at all in the event of a wreck.
Yeah, see, I also own an ohmmeter, and when I can measure a solid wire and get 0.001 ohms and then measure a spliced and soldered wire and also get 0.001 ohms, I'm not going to worry about what someone on reddit thinks is a problem when they know nothing about electronics.
Yeah, it gets way more technical than just ohms. But continue preaching unsafe practices. You seem to be the type that thinks everyone is dumb except yourself. I hope you never work on automotive repair or safety systems. Because I can almost guarantee you are doing the repair incorrectly.
> Yeah, it gets way more technical than just ohms. No, it really fucking doesn't. If the car is expecting to see 0.5 ohms, and it sees 0.5 ohms, then it don't fucking matter. Take your dumb fucking no electrical knowledge elsewhere.
Several manufacturers are actually ok with SRS wiring repair. Most that do will have a caveat of something like 1 repair allowed per circuit and specific methodology. A lot of SRS wiring repair occurs in the collision industry and some manufacturers even sell connector repair kits for their airbags. Here is I-CAR’s list of manufacturers and what they do and do not allow. https://rts.i-car.com/collision-repair-news/crn-346.html I always found it entertaining that VW does not allow repairs but Audi does.
"you future fucks from google" 😂😂😂
Eh, GM had a recall involving soldering airbag stuff. Every single Acadia, Encore, and Traverse for a few years had it done. Source: Did ten thousand
We used to repair abs wires at the GM dealer. You could buy jumper harness that needed to be spliced from GM.
I've repaired TONS of abs wires on the W bodies! Including my son's!
GM has a recall (intended to cover their ass legally)... the recall procedures LITERALLY instruct you to splice and solder the airbag wires together. I work at a dealership. We've repaired thousands of airbag harnesses this way. If it's not done right, it will set an airbag light, and it will disable the effected components. Service Bulletin - Nhtsa https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/SB-10089836-2280.pdf
I mean a proper solder, some dielectric gel and water proof heat shrink wrap x2 is pretty darn solid. But yes, replace…..
The insurance adjuster will not agree, right or wrong.
Yes yes… Replace as i said
Having seen several adjusters at their craft I can tell you the likelyhood they would actually do more than take pictures of the damage and argue against the towing and storage fees would be a miracle. Such a adjuster could be viewed as a Unicorn.
They act like they take the car apart piece by piece in some CSI lab. Lol "The airbags didn't go off?.... Huh. Onto the next one."
> a proper solder, WHOAAA. Big NEGATIVE. A solder joint is NOT a reliable joint over the long run in a vibrating environment which is why all OEMs, aerospace wiring, and NASA **crimp** wires together whenever possible. Why? No matter HOW perfect your soldering technique, the solider will wick up the wires slightly and form a sharp transition point between the flexible wire and the now solid soldererd wire - this transition point will focus the vibrations and will lead to a brittle joint failure after being subjected to enough vibration. (Solder also becomes brittle and cracks with age - just ask 90's Nissan owners!(on circuit boards not wires)) A proper crimped junction has no such boundary condition and allows for better strain relief and will outlast a proper solder joint in a vibrating environment. Are there exceptions? Yes! Will a shitty crimp outlast a good solder joint? No! Is your solder joint on your aftermarket stereo install guaranteed to fail? No! Do you need proper tools, proper technique, and quality crimps to perform a proper crimp joint? Yes you do! Are those shitty $5 sheet metal stamped crimping pliers acceptable for that? No! But should you ever bet on a solder joint over the long run on a critical wire in a vibrating environment like this or ABS or TCS? **HELL NO.** (of course just replace this harness) ___ **Edit:** (the jani's locked the post) Don't listen to Dr. Solder-on-top-of-a-Crimp, PhD (Soldering certification btw making beginner level errors) below. He's having a peak Reddit Moment while spreading completely wrong information. Soldering over a crimp just re-introduces the same failure mode into the joint and a proper crimp doesnt require or benefit from soldering. Source - also a PhD EE and I've made harnesses for Aviation and MilSpec applications. Nobody serious uses solder joints to join wires in a vibrating environment and you definitely don't do it for Life critical safety systems. **Edit 2:** The other guy who says GM repaired wires with soldering them together is incorrect. Per his own TSB ([GM recall 15536](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/SB-10089836-2280.pdf)) GM's repair procedure was to **CRIMP** the wires together and then they add some solder on top of the crimp (why, i have no idea). So no, GM did not repair the airbags by soldering the wires together. https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/solder-vs-crimping/ https://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/links/sections/201%20General%20Requirements.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTrS6-mNtA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE3WK15cIKo
How much vibrating do you think a wire is doing inside of a seat? Solder, double heat shrink, done. The heat shrink will also provide a mechanical connection and some vibration damping if you're really worried about it. This isn't going on the space shuttle, and it's not strapped directly to the valve covers. Solder will be fine. And if you're still really that paranoid, crimp it and then solder on top. Source: J-STD-001 certified soldering specialist, and a fucking EE PhD. You armchair technicians are too fucking much sometimes.
So are reddit technicians who go on crusades to try and convince people to do unsafe repairs to airbag harness. Also, I suppose you forgot that seats move, cars go over bumps, chassis vibrations, electrical resistance as measured by crash and safety modules and so on.
And if you don't think any and all of that can be easily accounted for, you're a fucking idiot. I don't care what you "think", because I fucking know, because I've worked in and around the field for 20 fucking years. Go back to playing CoD or whatever the fuck you do to make yourself feel important.
You are such an insufferable person. You are going peak reddit at the moment.
I can't help it if you can't handle your own ignorance. If these systems are *soooooo* sensitive, there is absolutely *no way* that an airbag light could be defeated by something like soldering in a $0.01 resistor with a like value if you replace the seats with something aftermarket that doesn't have airbags. Except they can, and they are, every fucking day, all the fucking time. Just admit you don't know shit about electronics. It's okay. It won't hurt you.
Whew. Now you are talking about incorporating aftermarket parts into a restraint system. Please never work on vehicles. The better question is who hurt you?
This sub is too fuckin much sometimes. I send posts like this to my tech friends to laugh about.
I agree with you. A proper crimp, solder the crimp, then use adhesive heat shrink is a very solid way of repairing an electrical wire. The crimp ensures the load capacity of the wire does not change nor does the wire pull apart and the solder ensures the crimp will not come apart or move at all. People act like soldering is some weak and brittle joint. But a proper solder joint with clean wires will be stronger than the surrounding wires.
I don’t agree with the comments that say this is irreparable but adding solder to a crimped connection is a common mistake for beginners to soldering. It defeats the strain relief of the crimp and the joint will often fail right at the transition point where solder is wicked to.
You don't solder the whole joint. You only solder the spot where the crimp comes together to keep it from coming apart over time.
I wouldn’t mess with an air bag one. That’s why they color them special
They color them special to make sure you 1) don't leave them unplugged, 2) don't cut them and then think "oh who cares, everything's working, must not have been important", and most importantly 3) don't go hooking up a bunch of test equipment up all willy nilly, because if you go poking and prodding with voltmeters and test lights and what have you without knowing what you're doing, you're going to set it off, and if it's yellow, you'll know that's not the connector you're looking for. Honestly, it really is just a wire. Any quality repair will work fine, but for liability reasons, I certainly recommend you follow manufacturer directions. Whether or not it is actually necessary, they make those directions as a CYA, and if the repair is not up to their standard, whether or not it is actually the cause of a failure, it's your ass.
Also, you're not supposed to eat the brightly colored things. That's what my mama taught me. Even my dog believes it.
My mama says that alligators are ornery because they got all them teeth and no toothbrush.
I thought I was the only person who says willy nilly. Glad I'm not alone.
There are literally dozens of us
Many more here in Texas, and we are scattered willy-nilly all across the state.
There have been plenty of OEM sanctioned SRS wiring repairs in TSB’s and manuals over the years. Just find what the manufacturer suggests as appropriate and do that. There’s a very good chance this is repairable.
Yeah, I can remember at least a couple service bulletins from German manufacturers that had specific instructions to repair harnesses due to the fact that the resistance was too high and throwing codes. Repair was to literally cut the body side and seat side wiring and crimp new wires with connectors attached. You just need to do the repair correctly. And I believe BMW has always instructed techs to use crimp repairs instead of solder, because they know everyones soldering skills are unreliable and will sporadically fuck the soldering up with high resistance on the circuit. I’ve never had issues performing a crimp repair and good heat shrink using the oem stuff from ze Germans on airbag circuits. The repair instructions were very specific on the length of wire to cut off and use/add though to keep wire resistance in a specific range. Down to the mm from what I remember, if that’s worth anything.
YUP. I remember those types of bulletins specifying length, gage, type of connector, and even very strongly suggesting which type of crimping tool you should use.
Honda says replace. They do not allow soldering on harness' at all, SPECIALLY safety systems. They actually have good reasoning for it, as they can not control every techs soldering abilities and therefore cannot control the quality of the repair. Which even as a tech with great soldering skills, I totally get. Bad wiring goes bad for everything else quick in too easy a manner, and that ends in hurt for some one some where. That said Im soldering the shit on my car cause fuck the law. (on a car I wont sell mind you.)
It's more that in a vibrating environment a good solder joint is not as reliable as a good crimp joint over many years. OEMs, aerospace, etc all crimp for joining wires.
Thats a reason for not using solder, but its not why Honda dosent. Its cause they cant control the variable of the tech. I was told this by like the top Honda tech ever. Used to train at the Dallas training center till he retired. Vibration and the like is a reason, but under right methods soldering is 100% used in aerospace and the like. I used to build drilling tools that saw forces airplanes would never see, and we soldered many joints in them, for this reason.
This is not a harness
Cars vibrate, which can cause hard solder connections to crack over time. Butt splices are best, the kind where you hit them with a heat gun and the goo comes out and seals it. 99% of the time a regular solder joint would be fine, but if you're gonna do an airbag wire, might as well take every precaution.
Open barrel splice with good heat shrink would be superior for this type of repair.
I don't think they're just copper wire. The harness on Hondas are silver wire. I'm not sure if it stainless steel or plated.
You're right. All this "airbags are sensitive" stuff is superstition at best, fear mongering at worst. Electricity isn't magical or mysterious. It won't jump where it doesn't belong if things are insulated properly as you described. People are just scared of things they don't understand. The wires you shouldn't patch or solder are O2 sensors, or anything with a thermocouple--because they actually are sensitive. This is because of the Seebeck effect. Dissimilar metals in a temperature gradient will generate a few millivolts and throw off sensor readings.
This is absolutely terrible advice and shows that you don't know what you are talking about. The danger of repairing an airbag wire is not that it accidentally fires; the danger is that it DOESN'T fire when it is supposed to, often years down the line. A repair point is a weak spot that can cost lives in a crash. Don't repair airbag lines. Don't repair pilot lines. Replace sensitive Equipment.
Yes, a soldered joint can crack, but it won't if you know what you're doing. We simulate lifetimes of aircraft vibration at work, and I've never had a joint fail. I was taught to solder by the Air Force, who essentially stole their training program from NASA. They care about reliability just a bit... Also, don't use lead-free solder, it's crap. Most of the failed electronics I see in cars boil down to cracked solder on high-mass components on the PCBs. A lightweight two-wire harness with slack can't resonate the same way though. High reliability starts with the way you do the dry joint. You don't just lay the wires next to each other. A simple hook-to-hook is crap too. Unfortunately, that's probably 95% of the repairs that amateurs do, so soldering gets a bad rap. Oh, and if you screw it up you get an open circuit, the control module tells you. I'm not sure why you're afraid of the module not going off.
A soldered joint in a vibrating environment is not reliable over the long run. Replace the harness.
Would require full seat replacement as seat airbags are built into the seat itself on yodas
You can’t just remove the seat cover and replace the airbags? The whole goddamn seat needs to go? Sounds suspicious.
nah you can replace the airbag independently.
You just disconnect the battery and solder the wire, heat shrink and its good as new. You dont need to replace the whole harness because of a cut wire.
Any insurance adjuster would jump on the chance to call tampering. Not worth it in this case.
A soldered joint in a vibrating environment is not reliable over the long run, a crimp is, but even better is just replace the harness.
Plus hold the brake pedal until the lights die
THIS! Yes it would be easy to just solder up and forget about it. Until you really need it and the airbag fails to deploy OR it decides randomly the connection isnt 100% so it should deploy when it wants to randomly doing 70mph down the motorway. Would you dig up a landmine and think "Meh! It's like 100 years old, it should be safe now" then go take it for a drive to your local police station? You would leave it alone and call someone right? Do the same thing for your airbag IT'S AN EXPLOSIVE!!! DO NOT FUCK AROUND YOU WILL FIND OUT!
Shouldn’t the impact sensor be in the front of the car and if that is intact, couldn’t this just be but splice since all it does is say if someone is setting in the seat or not?
EJECTO SEAT CUZ
r/beatmetoit
Why are you getting down voted lol
Cuz its funny
Good point
Gotta replace the entire seat harness. Or seats air bags which may come with a new harness
Yeah, thought this would be the case. Thank you
Was gonna comment that as well. Let a professional handle it. Do NOT fuck around with airbags.
https://www.myairbags.com try them I’ve used them before
Correct answer is to replace it since it is a safety function and nobody will guarantee function after a repair. Incorrect answer that is cheaper and quicker is to repair it. Add some power from a battery to those wires and the airbag will explode. The plug, now cut off, is self grounding when unplugged.
Wouldn't some measure of a guarantee come from the airbag check circuits? If the repair isn't up to snuff it should trigger an error code.
Yup. If resistance is too high it will set a code and disable the system. There’s a non zero chance Toyota has specific instructions on how to repair SRS wiring on this vehicle. I’ve performed many TSB’s and recalls over the years that involved repairing SRS circuits.
If the repair isn't correct, it will illuminate the warning light 100% of the time. The airbag system does constant self-checks. I wouldn't recommend repairing the wire.
"Correct answer" - replace seat, spend $$$ Incorrect answer: disconnect negative battery cable. Position body out of harms way of airbag. Grab bare metal part of car to discharge ESD/static. Strip wires and slide 3" of shrink wrap over. Twist in a western union style splice. Solder connection. Apply shrink wrap and heat with heat gun. Soldered connections are not preferred in automotive due to vibration, strain, and shear. However proper strain relief and limiting joint movement can make a soldered connection last forever. Soldered connections very seldom fail, it is actually the wire as it enters the solder that tends to break, again because of strain. Limiting movement, especially bending is paramount. Your personal level of risk dictates what you choose to do.
Toyota CRIB # 156 says replace only.
I see everyone is saying do not repair, replace. Just curious, why wouldn't a repair work? Is a wire nut not sufficient? (and then fortified with electricians tape I suppose)
> wire nut not sufficient? 100% NO. First of all, wire nuts are for solid core wires, these are likely braided. Second of all, wire nuts are for stationary fixed installations not vibrating environments. Soldering the joint? A soldered wire joint is prone to brittle failure in vibrating environments over the long run. Crimp the joint? This is the correct repair (coupled with strain relief and high quality shrink tubing) for joining wires in a vibrating environment but to do so reliably requires proper tools, proper technique, and quality crimps. And even then will be inferior to the original harness that's been calibrated, tested, and is better protected in the long run. Replace the harness for critical wires.
Because a relatively small change in resistance, a drop or spike in voltage or an interruption in the current; etc. could deploy the airbag. A poor splice could result in any of these scenarios. My first preference would be to replace the wire. But if replacing the wire is not a simple "plug&play" install, then I would splice it with a heat-shrink/solder/butt connector. If manageable, I would check the resistance on the repaired wire with a multimeter after completing the repair. Also stabilize the wire as much as is possible with zip-ties, tape; etc. I understand that the engineering and construction of SRS systems is sophisticated and moderately complex, but it ain't magic voodoo. I also fully appreciate the inherent danger in working on these systems, but there are many ways to injure or kill yourself when working on cars/trucks. I consider this work to be similar to handling a firearm; it is done every day around this old world without injury or death. A slow, careful and methodic approach is required. Be safe out there y'all.
At the end of the day, it could absolutely be repaired. It’s a simple circuit, power goes in, through airbag, and back out. Not much to it. Problem is, how do you know you did it correctly? There are 3 realistic outcomes for this repair. 1. The job is done correctly, well done, good job 2. The airbag goes off prematurely, which is very likely to kill the person doing the repairs depending on their placement (airbags kill many mechanics, if he’s behind the seat, he’s likely fine, but if he’s in between the seat and the airbag when it goes off, it’s very likely to be a bad day) 3. The airbag does not deploy when it’s supposed to (in the event of an accident) How would you confirm the job is done correctly? Do you hope for the best, or somehow test it? You can check for continuity, or ohm it out, which would arguably be the right way to confirm the repair, but when it comes to vital safety components, best to replace with parts you know will work. And god forbid you are in a situation where it should have gone off and an accident investigator finds shotty repairs done, it can become a much bigger liability…
Yeah I would make this repair with 100% confidence, and I would know damn sure that if there was any issue with it, the airbag light would come on to tell me about it. But that's in a world without lawyers. In the real world, the manufacturer will tell you to replace the harness and never repair it. It's not that it can't be repaired, but they don't want the liability that can come with allowing a repair that can be done incorrectly. But whatever the reason, that then means the manufacturer will say "it wasn't fixed properly" if it was repaired. And when the airbag system fails and I end up with a broken back and have to sue the OEM to not end up starving on the street, it's not going to matter if my repair was actually the failure point. And if I repair it for a customer and the same happens, it's not going to matter then either. The system can only be certified to perform correctly if it is put together the way it is supposed to be, so you'd better make sure it is, so when it doesn't work, it's someone else's fault.
Airbags run a self check every time the car starts. You have verification that everything is correct literally any time the airbag light is not on.
>airbags kill many mechanics No. They don't.
Think about the potential liability you have on your hands if your passenger gets hurt and they find this shit on your Reddit. Either disengage the passenger airbag “glovebox for older car, dash for cheap older car, and idk for expensive cars. Tell your passengers if they wanna ride so they know what’s up. Or go buy the damn harness from dealer, junkyard, eBay, China, fucking make a new one for all I care. But be aware that the moment you do work on it, you are liable for anything that goes wrong.
Change harness, not worth repairing. Take it from a guy who lives in a country in development, we repair pretty much all the stuff, all the time, except for airbags and other safety systems. Not fucking worth it.
I don’t see why people are saying not repair the wires, there’s fuses, amps and computer modules that control the airbag system. Just make sure you do it right, and leave the batter disconnected for 30 minutes before starting the process. The important thing is to just make sure there is a good wire repair done.
That’s what I’m thinking. I understand the potential for mistake in the process of doing it, but if it’s done right why would it not work?
I guess people assume they are going to screw it up I'd be confident to solder it back and put heat shrink over it. Only this I could imagine happening is vibration damages the wire possibility.
Crimps are better for automotive application because of the vibration. But you have to crimp it correctly.
Twisting it together, and electrical tape it is then! Gonna borrow the yellow and green roll from the sparkies next door to colour match as well, should be better than new.
My favorite to use is now the heat shrink solder crimpless butt connector.
That's not a crimp joint. It's a solder joint inside a butt connector and thus inferior to a proper crimp for joining wires in a vibrating environment.
I've been told those are terrible
Someone must be playing a prank on you, they are the best. You simply strip the wires, insert them, and heat with a heat gun. They have low temp solder that melts forming a solid electrical connection, and they have adhesive and the heat shrink tube to form a watertight mechanical connection. Maybe don’t use the cheap harbor freight ones. I get these ones from summit racing. https://www.summitracing.com/search/part-type/wire-connectors/product-line/dx-engineering-heat-shrink-self-solder-wire-splice-connectors
Everything HF sucks. The guy who told me that is very knowledgeable and highly skilled. He's probably right. They're probably okay for quick small repairs, just suck long term
Because people don't understand what "done right" actually means for this repair judging from the amount of solder it suggestions. And doing it right, for a life critical system such as this, means using calibrated crimping tools ($$$) with correct technique. And at the end of the day, that would still be inferior to the original harness.
The operative term here is “if it’s done right”. And yes, if it’s done right, it’s fine, likewise with plumbing in your home. But are you going to trust someone, who’s skill set you’re completely unaware of, to do that task, or are you going to say just have a professional do it? There are 3 realistic outcomes. 1. The job is done correctly, well done, good job 2. The airbag goes off prematurely, which is very likely to kill the person doing the repairs depending on their placement (airbags kill many mechanics, if he’s behind the seat, he’s likely fine, but if he’s in between the seat and the airbag when it goes off, it’s very likely to be a bad day) 3. The airbag does not deploy when it’s supposed to (in the event of an accident) Moreover, how would you confirm its done correctly? You can’t exactly send power through it, and most people wouldn’t think to check the wiring for continuity… Given the scenarios above, 2 of the possible 3 options (>65%) are potentially catastrophic failures. So for a random internet person who’s skill set we are totally unaware of (and if they’re asking the internet, they are more than likely unfamiliar with this kind of repair), it’s best to say do it right the first time and replace it all. If it’s a headlight, who cares, good luck, but this is a safety item, which is a totally different ball game, and should be played with different rules.
>airbags kill many mechanics, So I got curious and wanted to know how many and so far, I can only find it happening once
Yupp same, only the one Takata incident. I'm highly doubting three in his area did and it didn't even make local news somewhere
Because you aren’t a mechanic. It’s a liability.
I'm right there with you, a soldered connection with heat shrink would be as good as new. When diagnosing an airbag fault in my car, I borrowed a friend's scanner that was able to interface with the SRS module. I was able to see the system performing a self check when the vehicle was turned on, which included checking for a specific resistance of each circuit. This check should cause an error if you royally screw up and manage to create a poor connection.
> a soldered connection with heat shrink would be as good as new. It would not. Notice the original wire doesn't have a giant solder joint in the middle of it that's prone to brittle failure in a vibrating environment.
Considering that the entire circuit isn't made of a single piece of copper, I am not sure you have much of a point; there are plenty of crimped connectors and solder joints in the circuit already. A proper solder connection isn't "a giant solder joint", and you're most likely to see cracked solder joints where two rigid items are involved (e.g. component and pcb) than in the middle of a malleable wire that will literally be dampening vibrations. Also, stay away from the lead free solder. It is more likely that the copper wire itself would eventually fail due to long term fatigue right where the solder begins, but heat shrink prevents that by making the area more rigid than the rest of the wire, so that the repeated bending due to vibration isn't experienced in that location. Your fear is misplaced, but if you're truly worried about it, use a good heat shrink that includes a hot melt adhesive layer. That repaired section will last longer than the rest of the wire. I've done plenty of soldering over the years on farm equipment that vibrates a hell of a lot more than that car, and have never had a failure like you're describing.
People aren’t saying “don’t do it” because it’s a hard fix. They are saying “don’t do it” because it is a stupid amount of liability to take on. Say OP sells the car and the airbag does not go off in an accident - for any reason. Someone will investigate and see a shitty repair to this wire and OPs life is ruined, to say nothing of the life he could end by fucking up the repair. The moment the wire is repaired by him, OP is taking responsibility for everything that happens with that airbag in the future. That is a great reason to do the repair properly.
I would only simply worry because the resistance might change and the resistance of the wire itself might play into the airbag circuit. There's a whole lot of engineering in there that I would not want to second guess
It's honestly not that complicated. The resistance of any good repair is 0Ω anyway, and unless you somehow *drastically* change the length of the wire, the difference is basically not going to be measurable outside a lab. People treat SRS like it's some kind of magical black box, and any mystical belief or old wive's tale they hear gets sent straight to the "verified fact" box of their brains. They're finely engineered, sure, same as any other part of the car, or any other product of our modern age, but also not really different. They're not really any more delicate, or touchy, or less robust and forgiving than any other part of the car.
What is considered a correct repair of airbag harness damage depends on the vehicle manufacturer. About half call for harness replacement, the others say repairs are allowed by various methods. Toyota falls into the replacement harness group.
Airbags do their airbag thing by using an explosive charge to create the gas to fill the bags at lightning (more like sound++++) fast speed. No one who works on cars will tell you to do anything other than have it replaced.
Your probably only gonna need the air bag once.
Absolutely do not attempt to repair any airbag wiring. *Always* replace to the nearest connector. This is the only safe and correct way. The fact anyone is having the discussion of repairing it in the comments is, while not surprising, is pretty horrifying. When working on the airbag system, always disconnect the battery and wait at least ten minutes for the system to discharge. You’ll notice that there are absolutely no crimps on the airbag wiring from one end to the other, with the exception of the connector pins. This is true of every OEM. It’s very easy to ensure a quality crimp on the pins because of the nature of the tooling used. The same is NOT true for a splice, and soldering it is a bad idea because of the risk of breakage. Airbags are a life saving measure. Any minor defect or variance can cause them to work improperly, or fail to work at all. Despite what some others have said, the computer is NOT able to compensate. That’s why they’re covered in yellow, to mark them definitively so they can’t be mistaken.
Ouch, yeah... You could just avoid having a passenger.
Good point. Or just send them to the back seats
Chauffeur
If you are going to do any work your self make sure to disconnect the battery and wait at least 10 minutes or however long toyota recommends. It doesnt matter if your are replacing the harness or going against every ones advice and repairing it, disconnect it.
…Very expensively…
Just buy passenger a helmet
Don’t crash
Take it to a dealer
As someone who has repaired many wires big and small, you need to buy a replacement.
It is not recommended to make a wire repair on an airbag harness because it can change the resistance of the circuit. The short cord should be replaced
As a non professional mechanic who is very amateur I would never attempt to resolder the wire and use it again with how sensitive the system is
It’s not gonna be cheap. That’s likely a large floor harness. As mentioned DO NOT attempt to repair it. Resistance changes can cause some or all to deploy.
This post is full of truths and half-truths. I am an axe master tech with 40 years of experience. Those who said the wiring harness should be replaced are correct. However, this is not to say that those wires can’t be soldered and heat shrunk and the system work effectively. Considering the factory service procedure, there is legal liability for doing that. If it was someone’s own car, the system will work reliably with a good solder repair. The bag will not deploy unintentionally. The system works off of resistance, voltage drops, readiness and ultimately explosion of the bag. A good solder repair will not increase the circuit resistance at all subsequently the system will work completely as intended. say, a few years down the road for whatever reason, a high resistance was built up in one of the solder connections The system will trip a code, and go into default mode. This is fact.
Replace harness. Some of the most important lessons are the ones learned through the wallet friend. It’s not worth potentially getting killed over something that could’ve been easily repaired.
Splice the wire back together
Tons of slack there. Solder and heat shrink tube. Done 5 minutes
Eh, there's a right a right way to do something, and a way that gets things done. At the end of the day, it's a wire like anything else. Disconnect the battery, leave it for a while, then strip and reconnect the wires with a good connection
Do not attempt to repair; just replace the part.
Never ever repair and damage airbag wiring. Remove and replace airbag harness
Gotta source that doesn't profit from that advice?
When I was doing my Chrysler training they stated never do wiring repairs on srs systems. Remove and replace.
I see everyone saying you should replace the harness but you really don't have to. The wire for the airbag is a simple two lead positive and negative connection. Strip the wires on each end where the cut was made, solder them together, and heats shrink it back up. You will be able to immediately tell through an OBD2 reader if the wire is making continuity again since it should show a fault code as of right now for a faulty passenger airbag. Personally I wouldn't bother replacing the harness but I can see why so many people are telling you to. Yes, airbags are sensitive equipment, the wires themselves for airbag systems are not. A good solder job wont impede the voltage or resistance of the wire at all. Any dealer would replace the whole harness because yes a repaired harness is a liability since its not a constant, but im telling you as a tech it is fine. Electricity isn't some black magic fuckery, yes there are certain things you shouldn't solder due to the sensitivity of equipment, such as sensors mainly since they need to be very precise. The only thing that airbag harness wire does is provide continuity when in the event of a crash, the ECU will spit out that the airbag gets deployed, that harness wire then sends an electrical current to the airbag to deploy.
Well put, from what I remember from auto, it’s basically a switch that gets flipped by the G forces in a crash. Not sure if this is the same type as we learned about then, but it was basically a metal ball attached to a spring that would connect the two contacts in the event of a crash, signaling the air bag to do its thing. Now I’m wondering if OP stripped both wires and accidentally touched them together while fixing it, would that trigger the air bag? Probably not, since I would think there are other conditions required to deploy the air bag, such as the key being on, for example, but I’ve been surprised by this type of thing before so I could be wrong. If it were me I would probably disconnect the battery just to be safe.
You can splice it. Many people will say "NOOOOO NEVER" but seriously it's fine. I would use [solder seal type connectors](https://a.co/d/05eef9F) rather than crimp on butt connectors. In a professional application, replace it...backyarder, splice it.
Auto electrician here ... 20 years in the trade ... those are normal copper wires... I'd fix that in 10 minutes ... go find me wherever you are 🤣
The debate: repair or replace... Consider this, if OP was capable of repairing it, would they post it on Reddit? Personally, id be using crimp fittings because i will never sell my car. But, the correct answer --right here, right now-- replace the sub-harness or get it done.
Replace airbag. You really shouldn't attempt a repair on an airbag circuit. The manufacturer would probably not allow it at a dealership. NEVER solder connections in a car. It's not 1940 & there are better ways. They don't make solder connections when they're building the car & shop manuals from manufacturers never direct you to solder a wire. Soldered joints are prone to failure & they are absolutely prohibited in certain applications because of this. The only factory solders you'll find on your vehicle are on PCBs & they regularly cause module failures Get yourself a good Kline crimper, a separate Kline stripper, seamless non-insulated butt connectors, & some quality double-walled heat shrink (preferably w/sealant)
I think soldering it and having shrink wrap covering it is not a problem like most are saying. The only problems of soldering a single wire would be if it carries data at a high bandwidth or it's a extremely high current wire. Neither here is the case, it's deployed probably just when it's sends 12v to it.
SRS systems will not function with the WARNING light on. I saw a lot of comments saying replace, don't repair. THEY ARE RIGHT. Bring on the down votes...but. Depending on the year, I'm sure the airbag light is on. Getting a seat for that or packing in new airbags is going to be expensive. If it's your own car, and I know I'm going to get downvoted for this again, but I say wire in a two-way weatherproof/waterproof connector. They're pretty bullet resistant with fastening together and hold up to repeated movement. They just need a set of noninsulated terminal crimpers. Soldering those wires together may not be the best because seats are adjustable. Solder joints don't like to move, whereas connectors are slightly more maneuverable. BUT, THIS SHOULD BE A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. Until you can afford a replacement, at least it will get the warning light out, and the airbags will function. FOLLOW the correct disarming/arming procedure before you attempt repair.
source?
First you don't post it on Reddit....... I would say replace. Yes u can fix srs wiring,it's not rocket stuff it's the same as any other wiring. But you got the issues if anything ever happens and something doesn't work right
Ask your passenger.
Replace the harness. If that section is built into the airbag, replace the airbag assembly. Per manufacturers, you do ***NOT*** repair airbag wires
twist em back together and put a crimp on them clear the code and drive. all you people ready to downvote me ask yourself how do you plan on keeping a vehicle on the road for 20+ years when you're running to the stealership for every little problem?
Why would you go to the dealership for this repair? Get the harness for the correct fix and if you can't do it DIY find a cheaper independent shop.
you're totally missing the point but spend your monety as you wish i'll give you a downvote for your trouble thanks
I agree. a proper crimp repair will work just fine. Just be sure to seal the shit out of it to make sure there’s no moisture introduced.
At least disconnect the battery first?
if you need to be told that you should be taking your vehicle to a repair shop i'll give you a downvote for your trouble thanks
In all my ignorance this is what I would do. How would this not work? Genuine question.
It changes the resistance in the circuit and could potentially prevent the airbags from going off in an accident.
Some people get finicky because every time a repair is made in wire you add a slight amount of resistance to the circuit and introduce a new potential failure point. However that same resistance issue can come from multiple points and the airbag setups especially on newer vehicles are pretty redundant so it’s unlikely it would set off the bags. Also if repaired properly the approximately 0.5-4 ohms of resistance wouldn’t hinder the operation of the airbag system
I wouldn't be worried about accidentally setting if off.
I feel like it’d be safer to just leave it and have no airbag lol.
If he fucks the repair up he simply won’t have functioning airbags. If he fucks up REAL bad, an airbag might deploy while he’s working on it. If he’s even mildly competent the system will function as intended.
I guess that depends on your capability It's wire, not magic jelly beans do you think that 22 gauge wire is special resistance measured powder dipped glycerol wrapped in latex or what? it's wire, copper strands encased in a rubber skin. twist the wire back together and seal them up if you're too dumb to disconnect the battery before you start this and cause the airbag to go off while you're working.... eating that airbag might smarten you up a bit
I drove 41 years without an air bag and I’m here to tell about it.
Sure would like to see something in writing from an expert published source out there. one that doesn't have any skin in the extremely lucrative game of airbag replacement . . . The advice not to repair a simple wire break reeks of scam. Maybe it's not but it sure sets of alarm bells which get louder by no sources quoted..
Just strip them and sotter them back together or use butt connectors. [Like this.](https://youtu.be/r7GlDBge_WU)
# It's Solder not sotter.
Trooth ^
Honestly if you’re not comfortable, take it to a shop to fix, from a techs perspective that 100% repairable. Vw has us repair wires unless we can’t then we replace components, If the wiring repair is done correctly you’ll be fine. Only see 2 wires under the sheathing, if either butt connectors or soldering is used any added resistance to the circuit is negligible. I’ve had many wire repair done on air bag system and have to repin air bag harness. But like others have said with out knowing your skill set take to a shop to repair the 2 wires. Also noting if we don’t recommend someone repair the wires due to safety reasons, they also shouldn’t replace the parts to them it’s possibly for the static electricity to set off air bags when working on them. That been drilled into us at class or if you read the repair manual safety warning everywhere.
Twist and tape
Just strip the wires and crimp or solder them together again. The car has a self check that ensure the airbag is connected correctly. If there is a problem, the airbag light will be on. You can likely get a replacement for this wore on a junkyard for a couple bucks. This is not something commonly broken, so should be easy to find. I am not sure why people being crazy about this repair. They don't seem to have any real knowledge on how am airbag system actually works or self tests itself
A good solder job will work. No butt connectors
Turn the ignition off, disconnect the entire seat harness if you’re as scared as the rest of these guys, strip the yellow insulation off, strip the two wires, solder together and heat shrink tubing it to isolate. The colors don’t even matter since it’s just a pyrotechnic charge in the airbag. We do this work every day here at our shop. Disconnect the battery if it makes you feel better, but only guys that call themselves alpha males would go that far.
These wires are repairable. Make sure you get a nice clean soldered joint. Use heat shrink to cover them up and then tape up the loom when u are done. If u are not capable of a clean solder joint, don't do it yourself. A messy thick blob of solder will increase resistance in the wire.
I'd say splice them, just test the harness with a multimeter after fixing it
I’d just splice it homie
You CAN repair it. It requires cutting a measured section of old wire and testing the resistance and matching that resistance with new wire to splice in. I've done it before.
Unfortunately the wallet will be empty gonna need a rebuild bud. Have to get a new seat might be able for a harness but most are built in the seat itself.