Pretensioner woes

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Steffe
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Pretensioner woes

Post by Steffe »

Hello there everyone!

I got a bit of a problem with my passenger pretensioner, it thinks it has gone off (but I can't see any traces of that it has actually gone off).

So I was a bit curious if:

1) it's possible to deactivate the pretensioner with Lexia and get rid of the error message temporarily (just to pass our MOT equivalent), or
2) is there any other way of fixing the error yourself? (It's not legal to sell used pretensioners here, so that's sadly not an option)?

I think I saw somewhere that the (erroneous) crash data gets written permanently to the airbag ECU, so I guess I might be out of luck :/
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by wheeler »

What kind of car is it & what country are you in where is is illegal to sell used pre tensioners ?
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by Steffe »

Ah, my bad. It's a Citroen C5 '03. And I live in Sweden, you can't buy them since they have to be destroyed when the cars are turned in for scrapping, due to the explosive risks or something.
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by RichardW »

If it's gone off, then I would expect the actual catch position to be much lower than the driver's side. What actual error are you getting? It may just be a poor contact in the under seat connectors confusing the ECU. It might be possible to swap the wires side to side to see if the fault moves?
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by Steffe »

"P1806 - Front RIGHT hand side pretensioner open circuit"
"P10A0 - Pretensioners fired Not Defined"

are the errors I am getting. The pretensioner isn't in the middle of the car though afaik, it's by the actual reels.

I guess it could have gone off inside that reel, but I'd expect it to be unusuable if it had actually fired.
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by BX »

When the pretensioner fires the reel usually locks up. If the belt was in use at the time it tightens on the person wearing it. When the person takes off the belt the inertia reel usually doesn't wind in the belt. If the belt was not in use at the time the pretensioner fires the belt will normally be tight and cannot be withdrawn to put it on.
In your case I would think that you have one of 3 possible problems.
1. A faulty pretensioner
2. An open circuit in the wiring.
3. A faulty airbag ECU.
To diagnose the problem you need a 2.2ohm resistor. The wattage is not critical a 0.5W is fine. Disconnect the plug from the pretensioner and connect in the resistor into the plug on the wiring. Switch on the ignition. The airbag light should light up, then extinguish and stay extinguished. If it does you have a faulty pretensioner. If it doesn't you have either a wiring fault or a faulty ECU. The ECU is located in front of the gearlever. You need to remove the console for access but it can be seen by lifting the gear shift gaiters. Unplug the ECU and buzz out the wiring. If the wiring tests out ok then you have a faulty airbag ECU.
Note: on the Citroën the airbag light resets when the ignition is switched on after the fault is cleared.On some other makes you need to clear the fault codes to get the light to go out. Some diagnostic tools reverse left and right so you may need to check both sides. Disconnecting the second one will prove the point. The 2.2ohm resistor will replace an airbag igniter for test purposes on most makes and models.
I guess that your second fault code "pretensioners fired" is just because the pretensioner is open circuit. I do not believe that there is any crash data on your system.
If you need a pretensioner you can probably get one on eBay from another country.
Edit: Yes the pretensioner is part of the reel. A pretensioner reel from most PSA cars of the same age will do. It is possible to wind on your existing belt to the reel.
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by Steffe »

Thanks for the reply!

Just ordered some resistors (a few backup, just in case one is broken or so). Sounds like I got a fun weekend ahead of me, if I get the time ;p

I did get an airbag ECU spare a while ago, but I've been a bit scared to connect it, in case it's got different programming making something else go off (yeah, I'm a bit nervous to play around with the airbag system, but think I got the hang of it now).
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by ajblamey »

I have the same problem, I think. My mechanic is telling me to have the airbag ecu reprogrammed, which is expensive and might not fix the problem. How have you got on?
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by Steffe »

The resistor test showed that it's probably not the pretensioner for me, never got around to test more, and tomorrow it's probably sold :x So I'm not much of a help, sorry.
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by darbuck »

I had that exact error and I've come across it on the net a few times I just changed the airbag ecu with one off ebay error cleared as soon as I turned on ignition not bad for a score

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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by darbuck »

Oh mines 03 mk1 aswell seem to be prone to this

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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by ajblamey »

Good work Darbuck, bad luck Steffe. Mine is now sorted with a used ECU (ebay, £10, from an '02). A quick job to install too (10-20 mins). I'm cheesed off that I took it to my local Citroen 'specialist' for advice. £50 +VAT for lexia use, the advice to scrap it or pa for the ECU to be reprogrammed that might not fix it anyhow, and a delay that led to missing the MOT free retest deadline. Time to shop for my own lexia3 interface methinks...
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by jgra1 »

yes, a useful tool aj, although there are a few of us around that have them..
I am not too far away from Guildford.. (About 35mins)

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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by Peter.N. »

You can get a similar fault on the 406 but this is usually caused by a poor connection on the plug under the seat.
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Re: Pretensioner woes

Post by darbuck »

Glad to help

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