Questions about bypassing the air bag system

[Corrado_Guy]

I bought a 2000 1.8T A4 with black cloth sports seats from an earlier model without the side impact air bags which has triggered the warning system for the air bag system and disabled it. I know how to fool the system into thinking the air bag module is still there but what does this do the rest of the system? When the system is needed will the resisters stuck in the harness cause the other bags to deploy or will it stop it from working? The air bag system is also tied into the pre-tensioners for the outside safety belts so if it fails to work would this cause other systems to stop working?

I would be interested to know if the other bags and safety features continued to work after you put resisters in the harness to fool the system into thinking the air bag(s) were still there.

[99blueb5]

you can add a simulator to trick the system that the air bags are there. ussually you can get a series of resistors. i WOULDNT suggest doing this at all, if you get in any type of accident and they find out that the system was bypassed you can get in serious trouble, trust me i have been there. leave the light on, when the air bag light is on the system will not go off in a accident, the system is setup to where is it reads there is even only one part that isnt connected or working it will disable the WHOLE system for safety, so you dont have to worry about anything going off

[Dallas09]

Wiring a resistor in the harness for the side airbags wont affect any of the other airbags at all. If it would affect the other ones, you would get codes for the different airbags. Liability is a different issue, Im not sure of the answer to that. You also have the option of recoding the airbag module to tell it there are no longer side airbags (you can find the coding in a bently manual). If the airbag light is on I have heard both: the other airbags continue to work, and the other airbags do not continue to work. Based on the chart given in the Bently manual that shows cause and effect of various airbag codes, it appears that only the airbag with the fault will be disabled (with the exception of the control module error fault), but the manual doesnt explicitly say.

[Corrado_Guy]

That's interesting to know but I am not as interested in liability as I am in safety. I can look for seats that will fit such as the B5 S4 seats but I personally like the ones with solid colours and most of those are leather which isn't as nice as cloth. I have ELSA 3.10 which has the 2000 A4 but there isn't any real technical data, it is more safety precautions, system identification and locations, and repair information. I do believe that when the light is on the entire system is disabled which would include the safety belt pre-tensioners and maybe the fuel/ignition kill and lights/locks well. The parts should really all be in place so I will need to find some seats that work with functioning air bags. Thanks for the help.

[Dallas09]

Well, if you put in the correct resistors there will be no airbag light and no issue (but you seem to be sure now of that you want all the parts in place, Im not sure why you asked the question in the first place then). When the airbag light is on, you are incorrect in saying that the fuel, lights, and locks are all disabled. You might have that confused with the fact that in a crash sufficient enough to generate crash data, the locks are set to the unlock position, the TOGGLE SWITCH is disabled, and the hazards come on, and in some, the fuel pump is switched off. Anywho, I do believe they make cloth seats with side airbags so good luck in your search.

[nick17]

I do believe they make cloth seats with side airbags so good luck in your search.

They do in fact. I just bought a 2000 A4 2.8Q the other day that has cloth seats and they have airbags. I'm guessing that you probably have the 1997 satin jacquard black sport cloth seats with the diagonal lines right now, and I completely understand why you like those. I had them in my first A4 and they were the best seats I've ever sat in. Here is a link to a ebay auction for a set of the newer style sport cloth seats you may want to double check but I'm 99% sure they have airbags. And if you do have the 97 sport cloth seats and end up swapping them I may be interested in buying them off of you. - Nick

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/b5-a4...s#ht_830wt_941
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/b5-a4...s#ht_802wt_941
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/b5-a4...s#ht_830wt_941

[Corrado_Guy]

Well, if you put in the correct resistors there will be no airbag light and no issue (but you seem to be sure now of that you want all the parts in place, Im not sure why you asked the question in the first place then). When the airbag light is on, you are incorrect in saying that the fuel, lights, and locks are all disabled. You might have that confused with the fact that in a crash sufficient enough to generate crash data, the locks are set to the unlock position, the TOGGLE SWITCH is disabled, and the hazards come on, and in some, the fuel pump is switched off. Anywho, I do believe they make cloth seats with side airbags so good luck in your search.

The reason I say this is from the responses from the previous posts which tend to indicate that the air bag system which is tied into the safety systems in the car. Putting a resister in place of a module will turn the light off which is great but the other part of the question was if anyone knew for sure if the safety systems would work with resisters in place of air bag modules. I don't want to risk injury if the safety systems stop working when it is tampered with so I was hopeful someone had some actual data on this. I'm sure other people have been in accidents with bypassed air bags and I just wanted to know if the rest of the system still worked. If the system is disabled then I am better off getting the proper seats so the safety systems work as designed.

I was looking through ELSA and it shows the air bag controller and modules are different on the standard seat and the sport seat because another option would be to mount the modules in the sport seats and everything would work. This is a pic of the interior, the camera makes the seats look grey but they are black when you are looking right at them....

[nick17]

Those look like 98.5-99 sport seats and they actually should have an airbag in them, the label is just located in a different area than on a 99.5+ it should be located on a fabric tab on the outer side of the seat back the near the bottom and it looks like its there in your pic, correct me if I'm wrong though.

[Dallas09]

Well it not only turns off the light but clears any diagnostic faults, the airbag computer will indicate faults that it sees both displayed on a vag com with a fault code and the airbag light. You can also go to measuring blocks and find the block that displays the airbags you replaced with resistors and it will indicate: "OK". Anywho if you feel better about it then definitely go for some seats with airbags in them, it just might take you a little longer to find them.

[walky_talky20]

This system isn't quite as complicated as you think. The airbag computer measures the resistance of the different bags. If they are out of spec, for example resistance too high due to a loose connector, it throws a fault for that bag and disables it. The rest of the system should operate without issue. In the event of a crash a voltage is applied across the 2 wires that go to each bag to be fired in order to deploy the bag. If you have resistors in place for the side airbags, that won't affect the voltage getting applied to the other bags at all.

That said, of course it is never recommended to remove or alter safety equipment and I can't advise that you do. I will say, if it was my car, and I swapped in fancy seats and some resistors for the seat airbags, I personally would not be worried about the deployment of the remaining bags.

I would be more worried about the fact that all the airbags in my car are past their 10 year freshness date and very well may fail to deploy no matter how happy the computer is.

[Mad Cow]

I've been in an accident in a car with the airbag light on, passenger side airbag deployed but the driver's side didn't. I think if there isn't any problems with the actual module or acceleration sensors the working airbags will deploy.