P38 4.5 SRS issues

mine is reporting the following using a faultmate:-
THE AIRBAG WARNING LAMP IS MEASURING OPEN CIRCUIT.

THE LEFT SIDE AIRBAG IS OPEN CIRCUIT.

THE RIGHT SIDE AIRBAG IS OPEN CIRCUIT.

THE SECONDARY WARNING LAMP CIRCUIT IS FAULTY.

1) I cant see any evidence of a secondary warning light anywhere unless this is teh message centre - all appears OK
2) Airbag warnging light open circuit - it lights up OK so done understand that one
3) the two airbags, both are connected oK under the seat. I have known pretensioner cables to get damaged over long periods of seasts being moved, but cant see any pretensioners on teh seat belts though I did not look that hard.

Any ideas would be useful.
cheers
Mark

Hi, this is a summary of a post I did 23rd june 11

I have airbag fault message on my 95 p38. I used faultmate to clear it but it only did briefly. It diagnosed THE AIRBAG FIRING CIRCUIT IS MEASURING SHORT TO GROUND. On another forum it recommended changing the rotary coupler which I now have done. However I am still left with the fault. I now suspect the DCU as a new fault now is THE AIRBAG CONTROL UNIT HAS DETECTED AN INTERNAL FAULT. I have checked most of the connections but did not want to go as far as testing the short diodes until I have exhausted all other possibilities. Any ideas appreciated

I got and fitted a tested & working ecu, got the faultmate updated, however after clearing the fault I am still left with THE AIRBAG FIRING CIRCUIT IS MEASURING SHORT TO GROUND.*
Can the whole system be disabled?
I use this as a commercialised work vehicle and only do short local runs with it towing a trailer. Being 95 I won't be selling it and I have for many years been in vehicles prior to airbags that I dont feel the need for them.

I am still trying to resolve this 'airbag fault' .
The recorded fault is 'firing circuit short to ground '.*
Clearing the fault only worked for a few seconds.
I fitted a different ecu & rotary coupler a year ago but no fix.
I have now fitted 2 bags and ecu from a p38 that did not have fault. However I still have the old fault and now also have warning lamp is short to ground, eventhough warning lamp is lit. These 2 faults won't clear even for a few secs.

I have not progressed from this situation and now have developed a blind spot to it. I also disconnected the speaker from behind the clocks so I don't get the beep beep

As I understand it there are two sensors on the front of the vehicle that detect an impact that triggers the deplyment of the airbags. If this is showing a short to ground then I would start looking at that point.

I have not progressed further on mine, other than now knowing that it is the SRS light on the dash that is not working - thats a pain to strip out - have not solved the airbags issues yet - will look at that again soon as my seats have to come out fot their heated elements to be sorted so will look at them then.

anyone know how long to replace the airbags on the seats?
Mark

Update as follows now I am sick of turkey.

1) warning lights open cicuit, easy, put bulbs and bulb holders in the dash pod - some donut had removed tham rather than having the SRS lught showing so thats two fauts down.

2) This leaves LH side airbag and RH side airbag open circuit faults.

OK, seats were out becausde I have been fixning the heating elements, so easy access to the SRS wiring loom. No obvious damage to the airbag wires on the seats unlikely to be them since the are only moved when you recline the seat and these are not affected by the seat movement backwards and forwards. so,,,,

Removed centre console, disconnected the SRS DCU, and there is a short between the two wires for the LH side airbag, and the same fault applies on the RH side airbag. The issue seems to be in the SRS DCU connector - I have stripped this down and cant see anything wrong, its pins 16,17 on the DCS for the LH and 18,19 on the connector for the RH side - its the two airbags on the seats.

Any ideas? Anyone know if this is correct or have I stumbled into another pile of range rover rubbish.?

Mark

Usual fault is the side airbag loom/connector under the seat. Careful with the multimeter you may end up firing an airbag, very destructive to the seat. The pin outs for the SRS ECU connector are in RAVE some pins are I believe connected together. I presume the airbags are actually in place? One is not on mine, it fired so both are now disabled. I have a mod to fool the ECU.

I have the battery disconnected, and appreciate the issues of use of multimeters.

I have disconnected teh seat, and the SRS computer under the console so that I can bell out the wiring between the seat and the CPU. The faukt is shown as open circuit, BUT the multmiter shows that it is a short circuit but at the CPU end of the wiring loom and is teh same for both left and right sides for the side airbags.

Yes teh airbags are in place, yes the wiring from teh seat base to teh airbag looks fine (cant check it without firing teh airbag so dont want to do that.

Mark

There are resistances hidden in the loom to allow the ECU to detect loom failure.