new van, air bag light, crash data, catd in 2011, motd 5 times

[Ellneortic]

Hi guyys.
Trying to figure this out,
Bought van yesterday, I hpi checked and it is a catd. Guy said he didn't know and I believe it.
He bought the van 5 years ago, just after the time it was Accident damaged.
I viewed it and the air bag light was on. The accident was 5 years ago and it has had 5 mots since.
So I thought it's likely to be a connection under the seat.
Got the van home and the middle inertia belt was up tight it had fired and scanner confirmed it.
The Drivers airbag had fired too. on the scanner.
And the Passenger pre tensioner had fired too.
My launch pro scanner said.
SRS module Impact counter... 1 Impact Recorded.

So I'm thinking the guy couldn't have got it through all those mots like that and they were from 2 different garages.
But he had no idea it had been in an accident.
And if he had had another accident he would have known it.?????
Whats going on it doesn't make sense to me.
Is there any recording of the date when the Impact recorded?
I cant believe the guy wasn't telling the truth, why wouldn't he ? it's strange.

Anyways. so do I now need to send the srs module away to have the data removed for the light to go out.
Today I replaced the pretensioners, tomo will do the driver air bag.
Any ideas please guys?

[GiveMeABreak]

it depends on how thorough they are at the MOT place - if they just pull it to make sure it is locking they might not bother any further - as for the ABS light could the Airbag fuse of been pulled out for the MOT?

[Ellneortic]

it depends on how thorough they are at the MOT place - if they just pull it to make sure it is locking they might not bother any further - as for the ABS light could the Airbag fuse of been pulled out for the MOT?

The belt was super tight and no movement and going through 5 mots like that, how come i can never find a tester like that when i want one lol.
I did wonder that but i thought they are supposed to check the air bag light goes on then off after a few seconds.
its weird. thanks for your help dude.

[Paul-R]

If the back seats are folded down and/or filled with baggage then they can't test the rear belts. It'll still pass with a note that the rear belts weren't tested.

[Ellneortic]

If the back seats are folded down and/or filled with baggage then they can't test the rear belts. It'll still pass with a note that the rear belts weren't tested.

Thanks Paul, but it's a van with no back seats!

[Paul-R]

D'ohh!

When I saw centre belt mentioned I assumed that meant it was the rears. Presumably the front seat is a bench type and you can seat three abreast. My comment about the rears is based on fact as I have several times put our cars through when they've been filled with carp and unable to even get to the belts!

Also relevant is that the van has passed the MOT within the last two years. The regs changed a couple of years ago and I had to do something about both the Xsara and the 2003 C5.

The Xsara has had the airbag light on for years now and I'd been unable to find the source of the problem. I tried to do the job properly but even using the Lexia to disable all bags in the BSI the light still came on - I suspect the module the same as you do. In the end I had to do what I really didn't want to - took the dash down and put black vinyl tape over the airbag LED.

The C5 was slightly different. It too had been a Cat D damaged repaired car and it had the passenger seat airbag visibly blown. There was no warning light but a message did display on the centre panel. I had a spare car and changed the bag over. As a precaution I also changed the module at the same time and the job was done.

This was for the MOTs in 2014 so any MOT from that date should have failed the vehicle unless the warning lamp was obscured. I was told that a tester doesn't look for a brief illumination at start-up (the C5 doesn't even have one) but that he/she looks for a lamp that stays on or a message to that effect.

[Ellneortic]

Ahhh ha, Thanks Paul, sounds good. Ill have a look at it with Lexia and then go for the Black tape method. I l;ike that one. A lot cheaper than replacing stuff. will just drive a bit slower and put some bubble wrap on the dash just in case.
Cheers mateyyyyyy.