what was a recently random occurrence has now become a constant thing.

get in, start car, and the passenger red seatbelt / airbag light is on in the main cluster there.

tried plugging in the seatbelt, nothing. nobody is sitting there, and its not chiming, so wtf is it doing? has my airbag gone bad? or another sensor maybe?

 

It's almost certainly your passenger seat sensor mat. It's a common problem in 2005+ 1st gen.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pass...anmotoring.com

 

Very common. The sensor pad in the seat gets a break in the circuit somewhere and on come the lights. I've gotten used to them and even think of them as part of the enjoyment of motoring. Soon as I get the needed amount set aside though, out they go. It ain't cheap.

 

I was quoted $1,200 to replace and remove the red light. For that price I consider it mood lighting for now.

 

holy F. this car, literally, failing all around me. thank you everyone for the assistance so far. i had no idea this was a "common" issue.

anyone ever tried to fix the break in the circuit of the pad? i have a super nice soldering station at my work, along with microscope for soldering SMD electronics.

ill stop in to mini of orlando, see what they say. prolly what every other dealer has said, 1200 bucks... maybe if i pitch a fit they will fix it free?! lol.

otherwise, sigh. guess some black vinyl wrap carefully cut in a circle and stuck over the light sounds like the cheapest cure. super lame BMW, super lame....

 

I've been following this issue for a long time and haven't seen a single case of a successful sensor mat repair. I don't think anybody has pinpointed the cause of failure (well, BMW probably knows). Your options are to disable the warning through NCSExpert, or replace the sensor mat.

 

if anyone cares to send their busted ones to me, im more than happy to try and diagnose. and you can be sure ill be trying to figure out why mine has failed! hundreds of dollars is ludicrous, specially since its a Major safety issue. IMO, thats the kind of thing that should Never fail...

 

Question. Have you recently or even place a heavy object on the seat or say kneeled on it, stood on it? I have heard that could be a possible cause.

 

I think that may be what did mine in. Loading some stuff in the back and put my knee in the passenger seat to help me get the things in the back seat. Expensive lesson or cheap mood lighting depending on how you look at it. I just told my wife, "I rarely sit in the passenger seat anyway".

 

the light went off this morning... seems like its intermittent again.

but really, if anyone has one theyve ripped out, send it to me. ill try and repair it for free and send it back, just to help everyone out. there may be a common point of failure...

 

Thanks to the members who figured this out I was able to get rid of the airbag light having a friend follow the instructions listed and disconnecting the battery and the mat sensor plug under the seat.
As posted before it does work and I'm sooo happy that I can't stop looking at my speedo with no lights on :-)

disabled the OC3_1 and OC3_2 in the ABG module with NCS Expert and unplugged the seat mat sensor

then cleared the codes. No more SRS light.

 

The airbag will still work . Mine was like yours it would light up one day and not do it for another month so, then one day decided to stay on. I placed a suction cup phone holder so that I wouldn't see the light