TLDR: Connector to driver's seat side airbag is poorly designed, needs to be disassembled, and have its internal two wires glued into place before reconnecting.

Making a new thread for this with a title that will hopefully get indexed so others can find this solution before having to do all the detective work I had to go through. This happened on my 2004 XK8, but I think it may apply to many different Jags using the same seat parts.

My Airbag light stayed on all the time. No blink codes, just stayed on. Saw a lot of stuff about getting to the Airbag Control Module (ABCM) and cleaning the contacts and/or replacing. Before doing that I decided to check the fuse (for once!) and discovered it was blown. It's fuse 10 behind a yellow safety clip in the drivers side fuse box. After replacing the fuse, carefully standing out of the way in case the bags blew, I found that my airbag light blinked code 22. I'll get to that code in a minute but let's first deal with what happened next.

After a little driving the fuse blew again. This made me think I needed to replace the ABCM. Luckily I found out the ABCM will blow the fuse on purpose if it finds an unsafe situation. This was good news as it meant the ABCM was acting normally and maybe did not need replacing. As a risk taker, I kept replacing the fuse to see if I could pin down the circumstances for when it blew. Try as I might, it just blew at random times. Sometimes it gave flash code 22 for a while before blowing again.

To see why the fuse was blowing I used an ODB-II code reader and found DTC code B2295 "Restraint System - Side Impact Air Bag Status". This explained the blink code 22 I found above. I looked it up on this technical bulletin. Basically it says the airbag connectors are disconnected, shorting to each other, or shorting to ground. Reading on the net, a lot of people said to disconnect the battery, slide up the drivers seat back leather to expose the airbag connector, and clean and re-seat the connector. You may need to remove the seat to do this, which I did. After doing this, to my delight, no airbag light at all! ... for about 30 minutes of driving, then it came back.

Things turned around when I began to examine the airbag connector (SD15). It's the connector that plugs into the seat air bag mid way up of on the outer side of the seat. The connector is poorly designed and as a result the wires, and attached female wire mounts, move around loose inside the connector. The result is that even when it seems plugged in, the mounts do not seat properly causing it to be prone to disconnect and even short between the two wires. Finally I was able to understand the issue!

The fix was to glue the two wires in the correct position inside the connector and reconnect it. Finally no airbag codes and light just flashes on momentarily on startup as it should. Taken many trips since and still no issues.

Regarding the airbag blink codes: To find the code you can count the blinks for each of the two digits that make up an airbag blink code. After startup the light will blink the first digit, followed by a brief pause, then blink the second digit. It then pauses for a longer time and repeats the code two more times before staying on solid.

Here are all the codes taken from this thread
13 - Crash data memory full
16 - Pass seat weight sensor CAN fault
17 - Pass spatial sensor CAN fault
18 - Pass airbag deactivate lamp circuit fault
19 - Airbag circuit status fault – driver
21 - Airbag circuit status fault – pass
22 - Side Airbag circuit fault – driver
23 - Side Airbag circuit fault – pass
33 - Seat Belt Pretension fault – driver
34 - Seat Belt Pretension fault – pass
42 - Impact sensor circuit fault – front
43 - Impact sensor circuit fault – driver side
44 - Impact sensor circuit fault – pass side
51 - Seat belt switch circuit fault – driver
52 - Seat belt switch circuit fault – pass
53 - Airbag audible warning circuit fault
54 - RCM configuration failure

 

Well done. These airbag issues can indeed be extremely difficult to diagnose. Kudos to your for your diligence in tracking down and resolving your issue....

 

Johnjj,
I have a similar problem with my drv. seat bag light. Get the '22' code, and then steady light. I sometimes 'wiggle' the wires under my seat, and the light stays off for a drive or so, then returns.
When you say, "wires about 1/2 way up the seat, are you referencing the 'SEAT' of the seat, or the backrest of the seat. Mechanic is blaming this and several other lights/problems(no cruise control) on a Body Control module. Local mech suggests going to dealer. I am trying not to if at all possible.

 

Not sure why the tech has made a connection between cruise and the BPM as it's handled by the ECM.

Do you have any codes?

Also see this other thread for drivers air bag code 22:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...20/#post876392

 

I will p/u car on Monday, know more then. He did say it had set several codes. I had only detected '22' and '013' with my generic OBDII. Getting a new OBD that supposedly covers the Jag codes(iCAR?) Will know more then, and post to the forum for any assistance.

 

Apologies for the late reply. Traveling.
The connector is mid way up the back of the seat on the outside (door side) of the seat.
To get to it I removed the seat (Move seat forward and remove rear screws, move seat backward, disconnect battery, remove front screws, disconnect electrical connectors) and then had to unseat a flap that fits into a grove running along where the back and front of the seat meet. Removed the paperboard seat back. Then I folded up the seat covering unhooking white seat back stays that hold the seat back snug to the seat frame. Having done it a few times is seems like a big job but just takes a few minutes. You may have to wrestle with putting the flap into the grove when finished. Good luck.

 

THX> Sounds like a good 'day' project.

 

There has been some good useful information on here regarding the 2.2 fault.

Seems to be a common problem. For future readers who may need help I did a video on one of the fixes some time ago. Take a look you might find it useful. Click Me to See

Hope it helps someone. If you do find it helpful a 'thanks' click would be nice, I always like it when someone recognizes my efforts.

 

Great info frank. I was about to start pulling up the seat upholstery. Glad I watched this. I had the seat up, but did not clean any connections. Next job.

 

Thanks Sam. The first fix I tried was removing the seat back. Alas did not work, but dont rule it out if the fix I posted does not work. You many have to remove the seat back anyway later on to fix the headrest adjustment? However for now its the easier solution to try.
Good luck with it and let us know how you get on won't you? Thanks!

 

Will do.

 

Update: After several months the code/burnt fuse reappeared. The solution was to add dielectric grease to the airbag contacts. I removed the airbag to do this (very carefully) thoroughly.

One note to add to the process: When removing the seat the tendency is to grab the front bottom of the seat by the plastic Seat Control Module (SCM) case. This houses the circuit board for the seat control module. If you lift the seat from this it will likely break off in many pieces. A better thing to grab is a metal bar running left to right across the seat just beyond the seat control module going from front to back. This bar is part of the seat adjustment mechanism.

My passenger seat had this module case broken off with all the bits duck taped back on. I'm guess this is what happened. I was able to rebuild it with epoxy and fiberglass cloth.

A last note is to remember to mount the cable coming out of the floorboard to the bottom of the seat via a clip that a cylindrical fitting on the cable pushes into. A loose cable can be smashed/shorted by the seat when adjusted all the way down. This happened in my case.

 

Good advice....

 

One more update. The issue continues to come back but every 4-6 months or so. By now I can remove the seat, pull up the leather, refit the wires, and return the seat in about 30 minutes so it is kind of like changing the oil.

I think I am pushing the outside of the seat hard as I enter the car. To protect my trick knee I enter the car by facing away from the car and sitting down sideways on the seat. In doing so I support myself by putting a hand on the seat near the airbag. My theory is that this pushes around the area of the seat by the airbag and that causes it to loosen over time. Each time I refit the connector I think about soldering the wires in place but then think it is best to keep the car as designed. Next time I may add a zip tie to the wire just below the connector to keep it in place.

 

Hopefully the last update. I kept getting the error message. Fiddled with the air bag connector many times many ways. Was about to solder the connections directly to the airbag but then said "this is basically a bomb, I shouldn't be soldering it." At this point I gave up trying to get the air bag to work and just bypassed it. The airbag has a resistance of 1.5 ohms. I didn't have a 1.5 Ohm resistor but I did have 5 - 10 Ohm resistors that I could put in parallel to make one.


I then cut the airbag connector under the seat and put the above resistors in place of the wires leading to the airbag.


So far so good. No seat airbag, but it was so wonky it never worked anyway.