[djb_rh]

I forget the exact wording, but the car is yelling at me about the passenger seat restraint. I used Carly (ugh, that’s some bad software) to pull the codes and it said nearly every part on the seat was complaining, including disconnections. I had already reseated the big yellow connector on the bottom AND the three connectors in the black box under the seat. I’m quite certain they are all back connected properly.

It’s a 2015 i3 with Rex, and it’s got 61k on the clock but is fairly new to me (I got it cheap enough that I’m not particularly mad at finding this very quickly, but I’m sure a dealer fix would change my mind quick on that!). It started when I had my first passenger in the car. Was intermittent for a time, but now is constant with or without passenger.

So where does the big yellow cable *go*? I assume a computer somewhere (under rear seat?) and I’d like to reseat the other end of that connector. But somehow I’m guessing maybe that black box has gone bad under the seat? The codes were literally for EVERY sensor on the seat, not just the mat (I know the mat is a fairly common failure point by itself).

Or did I cause all these codes by unplugging it to begin with and now I’m stuck with them until it’s reset? I don’t recall Carly having an option to clear codes, but it’s terrible software and I didn’t dig around too thoroughly. (I bought a Carly WiFi dongle for my car way back when there weren’t nearly as many options and wanted to try it since it was all I had at the moment, though I do have a BMW capable USB->OBDII cable if there’s some Mac or Windows software I really should be using instead).

Help?


—Donnie

[ilidon]

Download bimmercode app and buy vgate connector in amazon. Turn off the chimes and alerts and you are good.

[djb_rh]

Originally Posted by ilidon

Download bimmercode app and buy vgate connector in amazon. Turn off the chimes and alerts and you are good.

Not exactly. I’d actually like the safety systems to function properly in a crash. As of now, I’m pretty sure no airbags would deploy on that side of the car. I’d rather fix it. Just looking for troubleshooting recommendations.


—Donnie

[djb_rh]

Oh, and I don’t think it matters, but it’s really a 2014, not a 2015. My bad.


—Donnie

[djb_rh]

Okay, I think I may have caused the persistent codes by pulling that yellow plug completely. So I think the next step is actually to clear ALL the codes and then see what comes back. I don’t know why but somehow I thought these codes would clear themselves if the systems came back normally, but I think they may be persistent.


—Donnie

[djb_rh]

So I did clear the codes and in one test run with a passenger, it did not come back. I’m still not convinced it’s “fixed”, just pretty sure it’s likely a single point of failure OTHER than the black box under the seat (tensioner or mat, more likely the mat) that’s the problem and it’s just intermittent. This started as an intermittent problem and I think I *made* it permanent by messing with plugs. So now I at least know to go read the codes the next time this happens before fiddling with things.


—Donnie

[djb_rh]

Error came back. Checked the codes and it says it’s the sensor mat due to “moisture.” So the sensor mat is bad, likely due to moisture from the previous owner somehow. Anyway, I’ll order a sensor mat and try that.


—Donnie