Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Aero Air Bag Help

Hello Everybody

I was wondering if anybody had investigated an air bag fault on an aero?

I have an aero plus 8 with a passenger and driver air bag and the air bag light has come on unexpectedly. I suspect the systems are similar across the aero range.

I have hooked the car up to my 10 year old Autel code reader and two further code readers - Bosch garage system and a Snap on code reader - and none of them have been able to communicate with the air bag module.

So I was wondering if anybody could help me please with any answers to the following.

Has anybody been able to get a code reader to talk to the air bag module, if so what make?

The system looks fairly simple. Two air bags a controller module and possibly some crash sensors.

Does anybody know if they have any crash sensors? If they do - do you know where they are located?

Does anybody know where the controller module is located with in the vehicle or are the airbags controlled by the main ECU? That would be highly unusual however.

Does anybody know if the module will self clear faults one they are fixed or if the faults have to be cleared meaning that I will need a code reader to communicate with the module.

Thanks in advance.

Before you go too far have you tried flicking the inertia switch and leaving it for a while to see if the issue disappear?

Yes i’ve tried that - disconnected the battery for 24 hours fault still present when I reconnected and started again.

Probably resistance in a loom somewhere, being different to what is required due to oxidation, a lot of restraint modules check the condition of the charge detonator, usually about 2 or so ohms, oxidation in a connection doesn't need to be much to put it out of range.

I beleive there is a sensor in the seat so might be worth checking the wiring underneath the passenger seat.

Common fault on BMWs, particularly from the 90s and 2000s...

Thanks for all the responses. I’m fairly certain that there are no seat sensors. I have a pair of wires going into each seat - two pairs of power wires for the heated seats back and base.

I don’t believe it is a BMW system as my code reader will talk to the air bag system on our 2003 e46. It may however be a BMW Morgan hybrid system.

I think it is likely to be a loose connection generating excess resistance I just need to find and check all the connections.

For what its worth - On Rover and land Rover products the issue is often caused by a small yellow wire connector under the seat. Simply unplugging it and then firmly reconnecting often sorts out the light being on.

That might not be relevant to a morgan but I'd check for thin yellow wires under the seat anyway and the plugs.

On our Discovery 3, a similar fault was a poor connection at one of the connectors.

Just for reference are we talking about the recent aero +8 model ?

My older S2 has a cable going into the seatbelt release button. If you unplug this the warning on the dashboard goes out. I am guessing that if water is around the base of the seat it could be shorting or trapped?