Hello everybody this is my first post on the forum. Recently the airbag light came on in the wife's E46 dashboard. Friends of mine have spent hundreds of euro trying to fix this intermittent problem on their E46's over the last few years with the main stealers.
I checked the error code with my meter and it was the "seat belt pre-tensioner" on the drivers side that flagged the airbag light. I have heard stories from friends that have changed everything from expensive seat belt pre-tensioners to wiring looms etc...
To cut to the chase I heard from a local bmw specialist that he had seen that a resistance was building up on the 2 wires on the connector under the drivers seat which brings power to the seat pre-tensioner. The ecu does a healthcheck in the car on start up and if you are moving the seat a lot, the resistance changes and upsets the ecu checks flagging the airbag light. All I had to do was cut out this troublesome connector and solder the 2 wires(watching polaritys on the 2 wires). I used heat shrink to finish the job and cable tied the wire securely down. I reset the airbag light 6 weeks ago and so far bob's your uncle.
I hope this cheap fix helps other people with the same fault from paying for expensive repairs for an easy fix.
I checked the error code with my meter and it was the "seat belt pre-tensioner" on the drivers side that flagged the airbag light. I have heard stories from friends that have changed everything from expensive seat belt pre-tensioners to wiring looms etc...
To cut to the chase I heard from a local bmw specialist that he had seen that a resistance was building up on the 2 wires on the connector under the drivers seat which brings power to the seat pre-tensioner. The ecu does a healthcheck in the car on start up and if you are moving the seat a lot, the resistance changes and upsets the ecu checks flagging the airbag light. All I had to do was cut out this troublesome connector and solder the 2 wires(watching polaritys on the 2 wires). I used heat shrink to finish the job and cable tied the wire securely down. I reset the airbag light 6 weeks ago and so far bob's your uncle.
I hope this cheap fix helps other people with the same fault from paying for expensive repairs for an easy fix.
