Clearing the Air bag warning light

[ti-fat-man]

Folks,
I have tripped the airbag light on the dash during the course of a small mod I was doing.
I removed the front passenger seat to explore the leisure battery and gubbins under there.
With the seat removed I fitted a CTEK indicator connector to the battery for future hook-up's
When I removed the seat I did unplug the cable from the loom in the seatbox to the underside of the chair.
Splitting it at a yellow three pin connector. I fitted my connector harness and replaced the chair.
Re-connecting the cable at the connector block. Bolted down the seat.
When I started the van, the amber airbag remains lit and a warning message arrives briefly on the MFD display.
Question: What have I done? Does the fault need 'clearing out' or re-booting.
Help required please :-(
Cheers Al.

 

[Loz]

You will need VCDS or carista to reset it.

 

[ti-fat-man]

Cheers,
are these products?
will just splitting and re-connecting that cable always do that 'thing'?
blokes at work, suggested I should disconnect the main battery, for say an hour. Reconnect and the computer would reboot.
Are they talking tosh?
Reading the manual this evening, It states that if you have a stop/start vehicle, it has to be configured by a dealer.
All I want is my light to go :-(

 

[Dieseldonkey]

Did you switch on the ignition when the yellow plugs were undone? If you did then this will give you a fault light. As Loz said it needs Carista or VCDS to extinguish it even though you've reconnected the plugs.

If you didn't turn the ignition on, then maybe best to examine the the airbag wiring under the seat for obvious damage and double check your plugs are properly connected.

 

[ti-fat-man]

Fess,
Yes I did. I removed the seat to get at the battery to see what size eyelets I needed for the loom (M6).
Once I'd got that I ordered my connector loom. That took about 10 days to arrive.
In the mean time I ran around in the van a few times to the shops with no passenger chair.
I saw the light illuminate then and kinda expected it.
Thought it would go back to normal when I re-connected the loom and chair. When that circuit was complete again.

 

[Dieseldonkey]

Carista is a dongle that plugs into the diagnostic port under the right handside of the dash. Connects via bluetooth to your phone via an app. You can subscribe to the app for a week or a year. Not expensive and a handy tool to have for some basic customisation features and fault light resetting.

VCDS is is software used by dealers and T6 professors (many on here) to do far more complex work with the vehicles little black boxes.

 

[Loz]

You could look and see if there is a vcds/carista member near you that might reset it for you for beer tokens.

 

[Dieseldonkey]

No. I think in days of old or with some makes of car the light would extinguish on reconnection. But unfortunately this isn't the case, as far as I'm aware with VW now. Although I have seen quotes about faults resetting after so many ignition cycles but they didn't relate to airbag circuits.

 

[ti-fat-man]

Cheers guys,
thanks for this, I was wondering if I had killed my new van!
Carista, is this something like a fool like me could operate.
I was wondering where the plug in port is?
I shall do some googling for costs etc.
Does this tool, then allow you to switch that light of, like re-set?

 

[Pauly]

Get it from amazon, less than £20, very easy to use, plug port is by your right knee under dash

 

[Dieseldonkey]

I've bought a Carista in preparation for some work I'm going to be doing with the seats with airbags. Haven't used it yet but my understanding is and if I recall correctly you can reset certain faults with it for free. However airbag fault lights require a subscription to rectify.

Carista appears to be fairly simple to use and reversible from what I've read about it.

Standing outside the van at the drivers door, look above the pedals to the right of the steering wheel. Diagnostic port is purple multi pin connector block. Carista dongle just pushes into place and lights up.

 

[ti-fat-man]

Cheers you lot,
Going to get one. Do I have to buy a specific model number?
What then makes it work?
be easy with me ...

 

[Dieseldonkey]

Not specific to a vehicle. It's a generic tool. As @Pauly says, just search 'Carista' on Amazon or Google. Maybe have a look on Youtube too. Bound to posted demonstration vidoes on there.

It bluetooths to your phone. You do need to download the app though from the app store appropriate to your phone. (Apple or Android).

The dongle is only the size of a box of matches. Its powered through the port itself. You can drive with it in place and can also be used with other apps such as Dash Command, to display engine parameters as you drive.

It's pretty straight forward and user friendly once you have it and see the app.

 

[Pauly]

Buy it and plug it into van, download carista app onto your smartphone and run it, phone links up with dongle plugged into van and communicates with the van
You get one month free subscription when you first use it, basically you sign up for one years membership @£33 and if you cancel before end of month you dont get charged
Using it is a doddle as its all menus on the screen you just scroll through and tap on items you want to change etc

 

[Dieseldonkey]

Should have added. Also search Carista on this forum. There are screenshots of the app that show what can be done with it.

 

[ti-fat-man]

ACE you guys ...

 

[ti-fat-man]

just been out to the van, spotted the purple tapered edge port

 

[Cham13]

Can anybody help? I removed the airbag end panel to remove the glove box along with the front passenger seat and now I have the airbag light on. I've checked all connections which are correct but I can't get it to go off, any ideas why?

 

[Ed Webb]

It's need to be cleared using VCDS or similar.

 

[Cham13]

I thought as much. I've had a friend hook up his Snap On computer but that didn't work, I guess VCDS is geared more for VW's - do you know if there is anybody in the North Notts location as I need the rear speaker fader activating to?