Airbag light on (passenger)

[evy]

Passenger air bag connector must have been stretched by the passenger swivel seat, the airbag light stays on.
I've tried everything, wiggle it, clean it, added dielectrique grease, etc... nothing seamed to work so I cut the connector off and connected the 2 wires directly.
I did all of this with the negative wire on the battery disconnected (over 15min) and the airbag light stays on.
I have a basic OBD2 scanner that reads a B1213(13) code that seams to be linked to the airbag light and the seatbelt buckle pretensioner.
I don't have a lot of experience in automobile fixin so I'm not very comfortable with deleting codes on my OBD2 scanner, I'm afraid of messing up the ECU.

I read that when you fix the problem you have to go to a dealer to clear the code, can anyone confirm?

Can it be a simple dirty Seatbelt buckle?

Thanks for any help!
(Ford E250 2010 V8 5.4L)

 

[boywonder]

Just delete the code...if it's not fixed the code will come back next time you start/drive the van.

If you've fixed the problem and haven't deleted the code...the code will persist....

If the problem is fixed, the code won't come back.

 

[1der]

You say you "cut the connector off and connected the two wires directly."

I am not clear what was done ..... did you cut the whole connector off(both sides) and then connect the two wires from seat together and two wires from the floor together, or did you cut the connector out (both sides) and connected the wires together in the same path the connector provided?

I guess what is throwing me is the "two wires" since my thought is there are four wires - a pair from the seat and a pair from the harness on the floor connected through the male and female connector housing.

Anyways - The circuit runs through a pyro device attached via a short thick cable to the seat belt buckle (inboard part of the seat belt) The OBD2 system is looking for a 1.7-2.75 ohms reading in that circuit in wire set attached to the seat itself. The two wires in the seat go to the pyro tensioning device connector. The device in the pic below shows two wires where the seat side wire set goes.

Disconnect the seat wires set from the floor harness and measure the resistance across those two seat side wires. A reading outside the proper range will indicate the pyro device is not functional and thus will display the airbag light and Error Code 1213. If the reading is within spec then the problem is most likely in the wire connections.

If you watch the airbag light when you first switch on the ignition it should start to flash four times, pause, then seven times. This represents 47 - this is also an indicator of what is causing the error - 47 is the light flashing code for the passenger seat pretensioner out of spec. Any other light flashing sequence points to a different error source per the chart below.

The seat belt buckle ITSELF has no electrical connection on the PASSENGER side. The DRIVER side buckle does have a switch in it since failure to latch the driver belt will flash the fasten seat belt light.





This thread should be helpful:
https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/f...t-passenger-seat-belt-pretensioner-30842.html

 

[evy]

You say you "cut the connector off and connected the two wires directly."

I am not clear what was done ..... did you cut the whole connector off(both sides) and then connect the two wires from seat together and two wires from the floor together, or did you cut the connector out (both sides) and connected the wires together in the same path the connector provided?

I guess what is throwing me is the "two wires" since my thought is there are four wires - a pair from the seat and a pair from the harness on the floor connected through the male and female connector housing.

Anyways - The circuit runs through a pyro device attached via a short thick cable to the seat belt buckle (inboard part of the seat belt) The OBD2 system is looking for a 1.7-2.75 ohms reading in that circuit in wire set attached to the seat itself. The two wires in the seat go to the pyro tensioning device connector. The device in the pic below shows two wires where the seat side wire set goes.

Disconnect the seat wires set from the floor harness and measure the resistance across those two seat side wires. A reading outside the proper range will indicate the pyro device is not functional and thus will display the airbag light and Error Code 1213. If the reading is within spec then the problem is most likely in the wire connections.

If you watch the airbag light when you first switch on the ignition it should start to flash four times, pause, then seven times. This represents 47 - this is also an indicator of what is causing the error - 47 is the light flashing code for the passenger seat pretensioner out of spec. Any other light flashing sequence points to a different error source per the chart below.

The seat belt buckle ITSELF has no electrical connection on the PASSENGER side. The DRIVER side buckle does have a switch in it since failure to latch the driver belt will flash the fasten seat belt light.

View attachment 49150

View attachment 49149

This thread should be helpful:
https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/f...t-passenger-seat-belt-pretensioner-30842.html

I'm back, it's been a while, my van was in storage and now I just sold it, the buyers are coming to get it next saturday...
So I really have to fix this issue now.
Dealerships in my area don't have any availability until the end of the month.
So I must do this myself.

Thanks for your reply
Sorry if I wasn't clear, I connected the two wires from the floor to the two wires going to the pretensioner directly (see pictures), I unconnected the battery and cut one wire at a time to make sure I was connecting the right wires together.

The passenger air bag light goes on but does not flash, so it does not give me a specific code. But my OBDII scanner gives me B1213-13 (see picture) and I'm guessing that 13 at the end is a reference to the Ford airbag fault codes page you attached, 13 means that the airbag circuit as shorted to the ground.

Is there a Fuse or a relay for the RCM (restraint control module)?

I will try to test continuity and resistance with my voltmeter after disconnecting the battery for 15min and watching youtube videos on how to do that after this post.

Just out of curiosity, what if I connected the wrong wires together (see 1st picture) what would happen? I'm pretty sure I didn't make that mistake but just wondering...

 

[ctb]

Yes swivel on chair, gone too far, check...did it twice...well not me, but...anyway, only way we could get code off (after I spliced coiled electric patch, DID NOT cut connector off) was for dealer to reset code...fyi, dealer also sd it would only affect the 'tensioner' function, not the airbag itself.

 

[Twoxentrix]

...fyi, dealer also sd it would only affect the 'tensioner' function, not the airbag itself.

That's interesting info I haven't heard before.

 

[evy]

Ok so I did these tests

Continuity and resistance test on the 2 wires (white with orange strip and beige) coming from the floor (under the passenger seat) going to the RCM (restraints control module)
I unplugged the wires going into the RCM and inserted a needle into the correct pin hole and got 00.4 ohms on both wires and continuity was good.

So now that I know those wires are good I can concentrate on the pretensioner.
I plugged my multimeter to both wires and I couldn't get a reading.
I read that if the pretensioner goes bad it's either a high number (over 4 ohms) or no reading at all (see picture with A and B tag).
Ideally I would've liked to unplug that yellow cap (see last picture) that goes into the pretensioner but I can't figure out how.

I hope that I'm doing this correctly because tomorrow I'm going to the scrap yard to get a replacement pretensioner and I will be testing them the same way.

 

[evy]

Finally Solved

Well I went to the local scrap yard, they had 6 Econolines.
The most recent was a 2012 but it had no more seats so no luck there.
The other 5 were 2007 and older.
All the passenger pretensioners were reading good 2.4 ohms.
It had the same yellow connector, but different colors wires going to the RCM.
I figured the colors out, plugged everything and connected the battery terminal.
I started the van with protective gear and voila...
No more airbag light.
I scanned the OBDII and no more codes, I didn't delete anything, the dealer wasn't involved.
So you fix it and the airbag light simply goes away.

Thanks for the help guys.