[Codyyy96]

Hope someone can help, have my MOT this week and have been told I’m going to fail as the airbag light in on. Have scanned and got the code 93AB which I can’t seem to find a lot about online, the desc is Passenger Airbag Stage 1. I have read everything I have found online regarding this code. I’ve replaced the passenger seat completely with a known working one, checked all wiring and I’m getting the same code. Can’t be occupancy sensor or tensioner. Have just taken the car to an auto electrician and he said the module was faulty and he can’t just code out the light or put resistors on the airbag. Already spent a lot of time and money at this point - looking for some advice! Do I buy a new module and program it to my VIN? Can I guarantee this will sort it?

Cheers!

[Tunafish]

You can code it off, in MRS module, until you can get it fixed...
AIRBAG_BEIFAHRER_1 to nitch_aktiv..

I am not sure if shops can legal code these out, might of been why..

[Codyyy96]

Originally Posted by Tunafish

You can code it off, in MRS module, until you can get it fixed...
AIRBAG_BEIFAHRER_1 to nitch_aktiv..

I am not sure if shops can legal code these out, might of been why..

Thank you for that info, I told the mechanic today I just wanted the lights coded out (ie what you have just suggested above) and he was adamant that couldn’t be done and kept telling me I don’t understand how it works and that I need to replace the module bla bla, I’ve been trying to avoid doing the coding stuff myself hence giving those guys a try today but I think I need to bite the bullet! Any links to hand for what software to use? I’ve seen some bimmergeeks app that looks super easy to use but you need to buy a license and it’s pricey for a one off task, would rather pay with my time than cash atm. Thanks again

[Tunafish]

Phone apps Bimmercode or Protools (coding)..
You can get free software online for PC all of which will need OBD connection..

Just for full disclosure, I haven't done this and only read it works, so you mechanic could be right.. But the above will disable that air bag..

[Codyyy96]

Originally Posted by Tunafish

Phone apps Bimmercode or Protools (coding)..
You can get free software online for PC all of which will need OBD connection..

Just for full disclosure, I haven't done this and only read it works, so you mechanic could be right.. But the above will disable that air bag..

Thanks for sending that over, I’ve just ordered an OBD to USB from amazon which covers E9x, going to try get the software going on my laptop and give that a try. Do you happen to know if I need to disconnect the airbag once I’ve coded it out or if it’ll be fine as is?

[Tunafish]

I am not sure most have had aftermarket seats put in so it has been disconnected.. But not sure it needs to be..

[lookalikehuuh]

Originally Posted by Codyyy96

Thanks for sending that over, I’ve just ordered an OBD to USB from amazon which covers E9x, going to try get the software going on my laptop and give that a try. Do you happen to know if I need to disconnect the airbag once I’ve coded it out or if it’ll be fine as is?

it doesn't need to be disconnected, 1 of my E90s has an issue with the passenger side occupancy sensor so I just coded it out because it was annoying and left everything plugged in. Its been years an no issues.

[F31B48]

Originally Posted by Codyyy96

Hope someone can help, have my MOT this week and have been told I’m going to fail as the airbag light in on. Have scanned and got the code 93AB which I can’t seem to find a lot about online, the desc is Passenger Airbag Stage 1. I have read everything I have found online regarding this code. I’ve replaced the passenger seat completely with a known working one, checked all wiring and I’m getting the same code. Can’t be occupancy sensor or tensioner. Have just taken the car to an auto electrician and he said the module was faulty and he can’t just code out the light or put resistors on the airbag. Already spent a lot of time and money at this point - looking for some advice! Do I buy a new module and program it to my VIN? Can I guarantee this will sort it?

Cheers!

If your fault code is saying passenger airbag stage 1, then that is referring to the passenger airbag in the dash, which has a 2 stage inflator. The fault code for the seat airbag is 93ac.

[Codyyy96]

Thanks everyone, appreciate the help and advice. These airbag issues suck especially since they fail the MOT when the car is otherwise mechanically sound! New cable comes tomorrow so will update in due course after figuring out the coding side of things, seems fairly straightforward and plenty guides online in getting set up.

[Codyyy96]

Okay so after getting the cable and downloading/getting set up on NCS Expert and Inpa ect, I went out and spent around an hour turning off everything that resembles my passenger side and airbag, to no avail. Afterwards i used inpa to clear the stored codes. Still no luck with this, I feel like I have turned off everything relevant to the fault and I can see that everything has worked in terms of the things I have disabled however the bugger of a light still comes on and the fault code immediately returns after I clear it.

I’m thinking tomorrow I will try to disconnect the passenger dash airbag and try clear the codes again now that it is all deactivated but I am doubtful that this will work. After this I think the next step is to replace the airbag module with a working 2nd hand one and code this to my VIN? Unless anyone can point out anything I’m doing wrong with the disabling of airbag codes on NCS Expert or suggest any alternatives to getting this light off... times running out with the MOT looming. The car is of 0 use to me without an MOT, it’s mechanically sound too which makes this all super frustrating. Really thought this would work!

[Codyyy96]

Disconnected the passenger dashboard airbag completely today and cleared codes on inpa, once again the 93AB lives on, this time along with 93B3 (stage 2). I’ve got both deactivated and now disconnected and still I’m getting these faults? Anyone know if there’s maybe anything I wipe off the module that may help? About to sell the car if I can’t get this sorted

[Codyyy96]

Conclusion for anyone reading this in the future - Taped over the lights and the LCD to get through the MOT today, they can only fail the car if the dash lights indicate a fault, not if the lights don’t show at all, so it passed today. Don’t feel great about it and I’m definitely looking to sell the car after this debacle. Only thing I didn’t try is a new module so that may be the fix.

[Alexvier]

I've been looking through, INPA and turned off some settings in regards to the OC3 and Passenger Airbag with NCS, unplugged the small black blue and plug cable for the seat sensor, unplugged the big yellow cable and cleaned it with WD40 and plugged it back in I've unplugged the battery and tried to the clear the codes, everything else goes except the 93AB code.

What did you end up doing here?

I've a vehicle warrant of fitness coming up in two months and would like to try and sort it out. Endless searching on the internet is not giving me the correct answer either.

what did you do? Did you sell the car with the lights taped over?

[jsunma]

There are lots of threads about this here on this E90Post as well as other places online. The one that I found most useful in that I finally successfully coded out my passenger seat sensor is:

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showt...=583819&page=4

In particular, posts 85 and 67 on that 5-page thread were useful to me.

The key is that you have to code out more than one item in the airbag module (after figuring out just which module in NCS IS the airbag module in your car) and then unplug the sensor mat and then clear the stored error. If you don't do this stuff in the proper order (again, read those posts), then you'll end up just going around in circles.

One issue though is that in a non-US car (I see you're in NZ), you may have some different options/choices regarding how that sensor mat works depending on model year. Again, there's tons of info about this stuff online and in coding forums in particular. If you're diligent, you'll find what you need.

Oh, and BTW, for others who find this thread someday, the OP seemed to be set on disabling his airbag module (so that he could solve the seat mat sensor error). No, that's the wrong way to do this. If you just disable the sensor, you should still have functioning airbags, just no warning light.

[Alexvier]

Thank you.

It turns out that the resistance to the passenger Airbag was over 9.Ohms. So the current was to high coming from the module.

The module needed replacing. 93AB

I've sourced a second-hand module. With ista-d or WinkFP, what would be the steps to write the new MRS module to the chassis/vin VO.