Need help with Airbag Code 01218

V8Boatbuilder · Jul 31, 2009

Hello,

This is my first post on TDIclub, my girlfriend & I just bought a 2006 Jetta TDI with the DSG. I've been a Ford guy, but this car is pretty fantastic.

Our airbag light came on, scanned it with my new Vag-Com tool and found this:

01218 - Side Airbag Igniter; Passenger Side (N200)
001 - Upper Limit Exceeded - Intermittant - MIL On.

Cleared the code, but it came back the next day/20miles of driving.

Thoughts on how to proceed?

PDJetta · Jul 31, 2009

Try unplugging and plugging in the wiring harness connector to the front seat. It should be under the seat somewhere. Other than that, I am not sure. The air bag may have to be replaced. I guess you could do this if you have a Bentley manual.

A 2006, is this still under warranty? If so I would let the dealer check it out.

--Nate

oilhammer · Jul 31, 2009

It is most likely in the yellow connector under the passenger seat.

First try unplugging and plugging it back in. If that does not work get a tiny pick tool and try squeezing the female terminals in the connector closer together. If THAT does not work, you can either buy both connector shell halves and all the gold-plated terminals and splice it in, OR simply splice around the connector (keep in mind if you do that you will not be able to remove the seat).

There is also a TSB for this, number 69 08 02 2011271 which states to eliminate the connector and splice the wires together with specific wire repair bits listed. But I would try and make sure the connector is seated first.

V8Boatbuilder · Jul 31, 2009

PDJetta said:
Try unplugging and plugging in the wiring harness connector to the front seat. It should be under the seat somewhere. Other than that, I am not sure. The air bag may have to be replaced. I guess you could do this if you have a Bentley manual.

A 2006, is this still under warranty? If so I would let the dealer check it out.

--Nate

Previous owner put almost 60,000 miles/year on and she just turned 120,000 miles.

Questions:
1) This is the bag in the passenger seat?
2) Will the rest of the system deploy in a crash if the light is on?

V8Boatbuilder · Jul 31, 2009

oilhammer said:
..TSB for this, number 69 08 02 2011271 which states to eliminate the connector and splice the wires together with specific wire repair bits listed...

I'm a boat electronics installer by day, so I have plenty of awesome waterproof connectors in the shop.

I should have known... replacing corroded/non-contacting electrical components is how make a living!

V8Boatbuilder · Aug 3, 2009

OK, had some time to work on the Jetta today.

Found these 2 connectors under the passenger seat:

Cleaned both with contact cleaner, light remains.

Which one does the TSB refer to?

OhioDubs · Aug 3, 2009

The TSB Oilhammer is reffering to is in regards to a 3 pin connector that's actually attached to the bottom of the seat. Take out the 4 bolts for the seat and you will easily be able to see it. It's an easy fix to eliminate the connector.

V8Boatbuilder · Aug 3, 2009

Do you what colors the wire is? There were 3 wires butt spliced already at the underfloor and underseat junction locations. In the second photo, you can see them in the lower left. White, Green, Orange

Before I go cutting willy-nilly, I want to know what others have done.

oilhammer · Aug 4, 2009

The SRS connectors are all yellow. The TSB refers to the yellow connector under the seat (attached to the seat bottom in a white holder). There may be a couple other connectors there depending on equipment, but the yellow is specifically for SRS components.

V8Boatbuilder · Aug 4, 2009

Ok,

So this TSB HAD been attempted on this seat. The airbag connector is indeed 3 wires, the 2-wire connector runs to the seatbelt buckle. Driver's seat is untouched, and has two sets of yellow plugs (3-wire for the bag, 2-wire for the belt).

I found a whole bunch, 9 in total, (3 per wire) butt splices in the line to the bag under the seat, and one of the wires (brown, at the floor junction) just fell out of the connector.

I redid the whole line with new wire, and the light is still on. I need to wait for the GF to come home with the windows laptop to run Vag-Com and clear the code. Keeping my fingers crossed.

oilhammer · Aug 4, 2009

Sounds like you found your problem. The light won't go out until the DTC is cleared.

V8Boatbuilder · Aug 11, 2009

Looks like this one is solved: Cleared the code and the light has been off for over 800 miles of driving. Thanks guys for steering me in the right direction.

Broken connector:
They not only didn't crimp it correctly since the brown wire fell out, but they "forgot" to heat-shrink them down!

I decided to replace the entire BS with a new piece of Belden cable & heat-shrink connectors (shrunk after install, of course!):

oilhammer · Aug 11, 2009

Yeah, there was some shoddy work in there before for sure. Glad you got it sorted out.

dachoeks3 · Dec 28, 2009

Hey great post. My dealer was gonna charge me about $300 for this. My problem was the harness underneath the seat not the one pictured above. All I did is I made the female part of the harness little bit tighter so it would make better contact and that was it. Thanks for the pictures it helped out a lot.

V8Boatbuilder · Dec 29, 2009

Glad it helped!

HoneyBeetle · Jan 3, 2010

I have a question, would much of this apply to my 01 New Beetle? I have an air bag light issue too. Lug_Nut ran a scan on my system and it appears I have lost the connection or have an "intermittant" connection at the driver's side air bag wiring harness. I was at the HO5G GTG and I could barely see the wiring under the seat, but it's seems to be a PITA to get to.

Is this procedure the same or similar to the way I need to diagnose my Beetle?

eng.Vladi · Jun 16, 2010

My wife's New Beetle 2000 TDI has had the airbag warning light for few weeks. I went to a local garage called Fine Tuning Performance in Seattle, WA, they connected the Ross Tech software scanner and found code 01218 (Passenger-Side Side Air Bag Resistance Too High Or Too Low, Short To Voltage Or Ground) associated with the airbag warning light. After I read the majority of the posts here regarding this issue I did the following:
1. Removed the Passenger seat to get access to the yellow side airbag connector.
2. Disconnected the connector from the seat, Inspected wires, routing, pins and crimps as well. Sprayed with electrical cleaning spray several times (used the nozzle so solution gets well inside the socket and pin side). Note: the sockets are on the car side and pins are on the seat side.
3. I removed each socket from its "seat" and inspected the crimp (be sure to remember the position just in case when you take it out, I think they were 4 "seats" for the 3 wires/pins). I did not use any special pin (socket) removal tools, just a pair of tweezers to push the little locking plate of each socket and then lightly pull on the wire, the socket comes out with an ease.
4. I use a simple sewing needle to check how snug the pin would go into the socket and realize that isn't very tight (that possibly could be sufficient to trigger high resistance at some point - may be when seat is moved hundreds of times causing the airbag control module to register the fault, so I decided to carefully bend the tiny contact plates located on the inside of the sockets (Note: be sure, if you do this to not push to hard, otherwise you could damage the socket). Repeated the fit. Apply this to all 3 sockets. I decided to leave the original connector for now, if the fault reappears in the future I may consider replacing it (I do not think splicing will be a great idea for connector replacement, in case some day you decide to remove the seat and then you are going to need to cut the splices).
5. Sprayed some more electro clean and reconnected connector to seat.
6. Installed back Passenger-Side seat.
7. Fine Tuning Performance cleared the fault, and 2nd day now no reoccurrence of the airbag warning light.

wildslag · Jan 11, 2011

Man I love this forum. I have access to an ODB II scanning tool, so after reading the code, reading this forum, unplugging the 4 yellow connectors under the passenger seat and plugging them back in again, then CLEARING THE CODES. The light is now gone.

sam2007 · Oct 14, 2015

long ago done thread this worked repair wires to stop air bag light easy fix

long ago done thread ...this worked for me this evening

this repair to stop air bag light. pulling the seat is a 15 min job ..10min to install. no need to clear code it goes away by its self if you repair as stated below the .contacts in all female plugs was the problem. used a small watch repair flat head to bend them to a tight grip. contact cleaner not required.

eng.Vladi said:
My wife's New Beetle 2000 TDI has had the airbag warning light for few weeks. I went to a local garage called Fine Tuning Performance in Seattle, WA, they connected the Ross Tech software scanner and found code 01218 (Passenger-Side Side Air Bag Resistance Too High Or Too Low, Short To Voltage Or Ground) associated with the airbag warning light. After I read the majority of the posts here regarding this issue I did the following:
1. Removed the Passenger seat to get access to the yellow side airbag connector.
2. Disconnected the connectors from the seat, Inspected wires, routing, pins and crimps as well. Sprayed with electrical cleaning spray several times (used the nozzle so solution gets well inside the socket and pin side). Note: the sockets are on the car side and pins are on the seat side.
3. I removed each socket from its "seat" and inspected the crimp (be sure to remember the position just in case when you take it out, I think they were 4 "seats" for the 3 wires/pins). I did not use any special pin (socket) removal tools, just a pair of tweezers to push the little locking plate of each socket and then lightly pull on the wire, the socket comes out with an ease.
4. I use a simple sewing needle to check how snug the pin would go into the socket and realize that isn't very tight (that possibly could be sufficient to trigger high resistance at some point - may be when seat is moved hundreds of times causing the airbag control module to register the fault, so I decided to carefully bend the tiny contact plates located on the inside of the sockets (Note: be sure, if you do this to not push to hard, otherwise you could damage the socket). Repeated the fit. Apply this to all 3 sockets. I decided to leave the original connector for now, if the fault reappears in the future I may consider replacing it (I do not think splicing will be a great idea for connector replacement, in case some day you decide to remove the seat and then you are going to need to cut the splices).
5. Sprayed some more electro clean and reconnected connector to seat.
6. Installed back Passenger-Side seat.
7. Fine Tuning Performance cleared the fault, and 2nd day now no reoccurrence of the airbag warning light.

jimnewt · Jun 11, 2019

Found a small black box

Small black box underneath seat any idea what that is
It wont let me upload a pic unless I have a url

Need help with Airbag Code 01218

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