Freelander 1 SRS light on and running out of ideas

[Lilt31]

I'm having fun and games with the little Landy at the moment. After fiddling about with the connectors under the front seats in an attempt to get the SRS light off and failing, my next step was to replace the ECU. While buried in the passenger footwell trying to find it, I discovered that the heater matrix was leaking. Putting two and two together, I assumed that the cause of the SRS light being on was coolant leaking into the ECU.

Cue spending last weekend taking the dash out and changing both the matrix and the ECU. After putting everything back together, including my bleeding arms and fingers and reconnecting the battery the SRS light is still on

MOT time is fast approaching and I'm running out of ideas. Having scoured the web, I seem to have done everything possible short of taking the bulb out to fix the problem. Do any of you guys have any idea what could be causing this? She's too good a car to throw away for the sake of an LED

 

[GrumpyGel]

Have you had the codes read? I don't know what detailed the SRS codes are, but it might highlight which specific part is faulty.

 

[saxavordian]

How old is your vehicle because SRS is for airbags warning. some are 10 years and later ones are 15 years.

 

[Lilt31]

I haven't had it plugged in becuase from what I've read online only the proper Land Rover computer will read airbag faults and I'm trying not to spend a furtune on it if I can help it.

The car is a 2001 on a Y plate.

 

[Nodge68]

The most likely items to cause the light to illuminate are the electro-mechanical sections of the system. You have checked the seat connections. The other common item to check is the clock spring (rotary coupler) behind the steering wheel. It's best to get the codes read, to pinpoint the exact fault.
Air bags don't know how old they are. So won't put the light on, even when years out of date.

 

[Lilt31]

The most likely items to cause the light to illuminate are the electro-mechanical sections of the system. You have checked the seat connections. The other common item to check is the clock spring (rotary coupler) behind the steering wheel. It's best to get the codes read, to pinpoint the exact fault.
Air bags don't know how old they are. So won't put the light on, even when years out of date.

Do you know if there's a sign that this has failed? Apart from the airbag light being on obviously I haven't tried the horn but all the other steering wheel mounted switches - wipers, lights etc work as they should. Would that be the case if the rotary couple had died as I thought the wiring for them ran through it?

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[GrumpyGel]

I might be wrong, it it would make sense that only bits that move with the wheel go through the coupler! So airbag, horn and radio buttons if you've got them. The stalks are fix mounted to the column, so just plain wiring into the loom(s).

 

[Lilt31]

I might be wrong, it it would make sense that only bits that move with the wheel go through the coupler! So airbag, horn and radio buttons if you've got them. The stalks are fix mounted to the column, so just plain wiring into the loom(s).

Yeah that would make sense. The radio buttons don't work as someone has fitted an after market radio at some point. I'll try the horn tonight and see if that's working.

 

[Nodge68]

It's quite possible for just one cable in the clock spring to fail. The horn is a common one. But the airbag can fail too. It is possible to continuity test each clock spring circuit. But before removing the airbag wiring. Disconnect the battery for 30 minutes, before starting work.

If you find the clock spring is at fault. You'll need to source a decent second hand one. They are no longer available from LR.

 

[Lilt31]

It's quite possible for just one cable in the clock spring to fail. The horn is a common one. But the airbag can fail too. It is possible to continuity test each clock spring circuit. But before removing the airbag wiring. Disconnect the battery for 30 minutes, before starting work.

If you find the clock spring is at fault. You'll need to source a decent second hand one. They are no longer available from LR.

Great, thanks. I know the score with the airbags having had them out recently to do the heater matrix. I'll have a look at that over the weekend.

 

[Landy Rose]

Quite often it can be a faulty impact sensor, I have known this to be the cause on several occasions,

 

[td4van]

Don't carry out a resistance check on an airbag circuit as you'll pop the airbags!

Safest way is power the system down, remove/ isolate the airbags and carry out the resistance checks

Best bet is to get fault codes read so you know exactly what the issue is

 

[Lilt31]

All sorted. After taking it to be plugged in and the computer showing 8 different faults, I decided the replacement ECU must be faulty and ordered a new one. Cut the carpet tonight to fit and whilst fiddling about wondering how the hell I was going to get the old(ish) one out without removing the whole dashboard (again) knocked the connector with the back of my hand and felt it move inwards.

Reconnected battery. Turned ignition on. Ten seconds later SRS light goes off.

Feel like a complete numpty although in my defence the plastic clippy gizmo on the plug was fully pushed down so it did look like it was seated properly. Lesson learnt after an unnessesary £50 on a diagnostic and £20 on another ECU

 

[teddywood1]

all is well that ends well LOL