[email protected] 0 Report post Posted July 6, 2012 Hi, Took my E46 into BMW today to get the airbag light wiped, but unfortunately it wasn't that easy, and they've found a fault with the seat belt pretensioner on the passenger seat... Recently I had purchased some second hand leather seats and the passenger seat didn't come with the pretensioner. Sooo...I took it off my old passenger seat and put it on the new passenger seat. Have I just put it on wrong, or has the act of shifting it to the new seat just broken it? BMW just said that I'd need a new pretensioner, but I'm kinda hoping I can fix it with out spending any money. One quick note, the new passenger seat had a set of wires in a yellow plastic case that didn't seem to go anywhere so I believe I just left them hanging/or I took them off, can't entirely remember.. Have sunk a bit of money into the car recently so this is not ideal lol - maybe I'll just live with the airbag light on. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 7, 2012 Firstly - you cannot just "live" with the airbag light on. WOF issue & rightly so. It MUST be fixed. Secondly, the yellow plug is part of the airbag circuit so must be connected. Best retrace your steps, & only you will know if you have damaged something. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
[email protected] 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2012 Firstly - you cannot just "live" with the airbag light on. WOF issue & rightly so. It MUST be fixed. Secondly, the yellow plug is part of the airbag circuit so must be connected. Best retrace your steps, & only you will know if you have damaged something. Yeah, so I've been told - sorry first car, and haven't even hit my first wof yet so quite ignorant atm hah. I've had a re-look at the seats I bought and the seats that were originally in my car. The seats I bought were out of a '99 sedan whilst my car is an '00; the cables that run from the pretensioner do in fact appear to be different. Will taking the cables off the pretensioners on my old seats and replacing the cables on my new seats with them work, in essence retroffiting them..? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 8, 2012 I can't recall offhand the variation between 99 & 00 cars as far as airbag systems. I would imagine the whole units should swap between each seat - you would need to compare to confirm:-. DONT try & swap cables themselves. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
[email protected] 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2012 I can't recall offhand the variation between 99 & 00 cars as far as airbag systems. I would imagine the whole units should swap between each seat - you would need to compare to confirm:-. DONT try & swap cables themselves. Hmm it's already been done; that's what I took off the pretensioner on my old seats, and put onto my new seats, easy enough. Changing the whole pretensioner sounds like a lot more work - although if it is the only way to solve the problem, guess I'll just have to man up and do it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_ethrty-Andy_ 2132 Report post Posted July 9, 2012 Have sunk a bit of money into the car recently so this is not ideal lol - maybe I'll just live with the airbag light on. youll be less likely to live after a crash though Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 9, 2012 Hmm it's already been done; that's what I took off the pretensioner on my old seats, and put onto my new seats, easy enough. Changing the whole pretensioner sounds like a lot more work - although if it is the only way to solve the problem, guess I'll just have to man up and do it. What has already been done? Did you unplug the loom at that point & change it over? Diagram 2 is a non PT unit Diagram 1 is the complete PT unit. As I said - I can't recall the layout in them & comparisons between 99 & 00 - never been into a BMW E46 unit. As I said - probabably change the whole unit over Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites