Airbag error code woes

[paulgwat]

Hi All,

I am hoping someone can help me - a while back I replaced the inner door seals on my 987 and in the hurry to get it done I removed the terminal off of the battery but didn't make sure it couldn't fall back against the terminal whilst I was working.

Needless to say the cable moved and I ended up with the airbag light on on the dashboard and airbag warning message coming up on the info screen where it would normally tell you to put seat belt on etc.

At the time I just added getting the code reset to my mental to do list and moved on with life, my MOT is due next month and in preparation the car went into a Porsche indie yesterday to have the code cleared.

The only snag is that they couldn't clear code 8033 from the system for some reason - whatever they did do cleared the message on the info screen but when I start the car the airbag light comes on normally then goes out but a few seconds later the light comes back on.

I have had the door panel apart today and checked the connections and can't see anything amiss so i am more than a little stumped.

The print out from the indies kit said something like "passenger head airbag low", anyone care to explain what that means? The indies comment was that his kit was only a 2k unit and Porsche had a much more sophisticated diagnosis tool that would give better definition on what is wrong.

I have seen the tsb from 2004 that talks about a connector issue but the car is an early 2006 so I would have thought that issue was well closed by that point.

The only other thing that has been done on the car is that I replaced the Porsche phone module with a visteeo Bluetooth unit - is there any way I could have dislodged an airbag wire when I swapped the telephone module over? If so I will take the seat back out and have a good look around at all the connectors.

I am loathed to take the car to the dealership near me as they diagnosed the water leak on the passenger door as a windscreen seal and quoted a fortune to fix it, when all along it was the door inner.

Can anyone recommend a good indie in the Bristol /m4 corridor area that has experience in dealing with electrical issues.

Apologies for the long post and many thanks in advance for any assistance

Cheers

Paul

 

[Geoff_Fields]

I believe the passenger head air bag is linked to a sensor in the passenger seat. So you may have disturbed the connections for that?

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Presumably you put the ViseeO under the driver's seat, so I don't see how you could have disturbed the passenger side airbag circuit.

It all seems a bit strange to me that you removed the door airbag connection, but the fault relates to the head airbag. Here is the diagnostic info for 8033, but apart from checking connections, it isn't much help.

 

[paulgwat]

Hi Richard,

My car had the Porsche telephone module already in it which used to reside under the passenger seat so I simply removed that module and fitted the Viseeo module in it's place as the MOST fiber was already there.

According to what I read on the Porsche website about posip they call the airbag in the boxster door the head air bag in the gen 1 987 - the airbag I am referring to is the one that runs along the top edge of the inner section of the door and is u shaped.

There is only that airbag in the door, there is one in the side of the seat bolster and another in the dash but that is it on my car.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Hi Paul

You must have a left hand drive car then. I should have put "telephone module under the right hand seat" I guess. On RHD cars, the phone module is under the driver's seat.

Sorry - you are right about the head airbag being in the door. Porsche describe it as "For the new Boxster a separate head airbag has been developed which functions in a similar manner to a curtain airbag, but which inflates up from the door window channel in the door-trim panel, rather than dropping down from the roof." I hadn't realised that, and assumed they meant the dash airbag, as I haven't heard of the door airbags referred to as head airbags before.

 

[paulgwat]

Hi Richard,

I must be getting senile before my time as the car is definitely RHD and I could have sworn I had removed the passenger seat but it must have been the Drivers seat from what you have said - on the plus side that is at least one less thing that I might have done that could have caused the issue!!!

When the Porsche Indie first said head airbag I was completely stumped as I would have called it a door airbag myself, it wasn't until I googled things it became apparent what they meant - I am sure if they give it a grand enough name then they can add an extra zero to the price of a replacement one!!

I have taken it somewhere else today to see if they can turn the light off as they have successfully done other work in the past and seem to know what they are talking about.

If I don't get any joy with them today then I am going to have to book it in at Porsche and hope for the best cost wise!!

Thanks

Paul