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Airbag light after recaro swap

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Location
Westchester
#1
Hi everyone, I considered myself lucky enough to be able to score a pair of fairly clean recaros out of a totaled st with slight front end damage at a decent price. However today I went to swap just the fronts (was under a time restraint). I disconnected the battery and upon completion reconnected the battery. When I started the car I got an airbag light. Anybody else run into this when doing this type of thing and is there a remedy, or any suggestions? Bring it to the dealer perhaps? I just don't want to catch any problems from them for something that seemed so simple to change. For those wondering it was 4 t50 torx bolts and one connector on each side.Thanks ahead of time!
 


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OP
S
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Location
Westchester
Thread Starter #2
Also I tried disconnecting the battery for an hour then reconnecting with no result. Double checked my connections there all clicked in all the way any thoughts?
 


JDG

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#3
Did you use your original side airbags or the side airbags out of the totaled car? To my understanding, they are the same and if you reused the side airbags out of the totaled car, they may be generating a fault due to another airbag going off when the car crashed. I would try unplugging the airbag and plugging in the original airbag (with the battery disconnected) and see if the light goes away.


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OP
S
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Location
Westchester
Thread Starter #5
I used the airbags out of the totaled car just took them out drove home and installed the fronts in mine. I don't think I have what it takes to disassemble the seats and replace air bags (intricate work) however I still have my oem seats.I got them from a place in NJ. Anybody with any other ideas or will I have to bring them to a upholstery shop body shop to have them sorted? Thanks for your replies thus far! Really trying to get to the bottom of this, as these are such an improvement over the base seats.
 


JDG

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#6
I used the airbags out of the totaled car just took them out drove home and installed the fronts in mine. I don't think I have what it takes to disassemble the seats and replace air bags (intricate work) however I still have my oem seats.I got them from a place in NJ. Anybody with any other ideas or will I have to bring them to a upholstery shop body shop to have them sorted? Thanks for your replies thus far! Really trying to get to the bottom of this, as these are such an improvement over the base seats.
Check out Post #63 on this thread:
http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/...s-in-Fiesta-ST?p=211027&viewfull=1#post211027

This was the previous owner of my car who did this. He did a very good job writing up how to swap the airbags and in my opinion, it is not very difficult. You can test out my theory by wiring up the old seats, with the battery disconnected, and seeing if the light goes away. I still think it is a fault from the totaled car affecting the airbags.
 


Messages
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15
Location
Fairfax
#7
I think he's got Fiesta seats. I'm pretty sure we bought the same seats actually. I paid for them, they called me back like 8 hours later and told me someone else had bought them too. I imagine they probably sold them to you because you're local, or you offered them more money.
 


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Location
Niwot
#8
I did a recaro swap and when I got a accessport and flashed a tune the light went away
 


OP
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Thread Starter #9
I did a recaro swap and when I got a accessport and flashed a tune the light went away
Interesting, it was on my list of things to do but further down the road. Might have to give this a go, did you just flash an OTS tune on the accessport? Were your Recaros out of a wrecked fiesta? Thanks for the replies guys.
 


JDG

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#10
Interesting, it was on my list of things to do but further down the road. Might have to give this a go, did you just flash an OTS tune on the accessport? Were your Recaros out of a wrecked fiesta? Thanks for the replies guys.
Have you at least tried disconnecting the battery for an hour and reconnecting? Any luck?
 


OP
S
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Location
Westchester
Thread Starter #11
Have you at least tried disconnecting the battery for an hour and reconnecting? Any luck?
Yes twice actually, no luck. I'm considering just bringing it to ford, a couple of my Tech friends (non ford) have leaned towards the idea that the passenger seat may need to be recalibrated for the air bag. But Id be very interested to hear any more about the accessport solution or any other suggestions.
 


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Location
Houston
#12
Nope, you just need to reset airbag SRS using forscan. I did the same swap.
 


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Location
Niwot
#14
Yup, I just flashed the stage 1 s tune and it went away. The seats were from a wrecked Fiesta.
 


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818
#16
I used the forscan android app, then scanned for faults and SRS showed a fault, tapped to reset it and boom light went away.
Well that's interesting, thanks for the tip. Seems a bit weird, most cars I know needs to be reprogrammed or something.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #17
To update guys, I brought the car into ford and they cleared the codes/checked the components according to the work shop manual. Everything passed and is good. I guess if I had forscan I could have done it myself, but atleast I'm assured everything is up to par. Wahooo recaros!
 


JDG

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#18
To update guys, I brought the car into ford and they cleared the codes/checked the components according to the work shop manual. Everything passed and is good. I guess if I had forscan I could have done it myself, but atleast I'm assured everything is up to par. Wahooo recaros!
Awesome! Thanks for the update - this is good info.
 


Hypergram

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Location
Orlando, FL, USA
#19
Just found the same issue after my swap a few hours ago. Gonna take it to Ford (probably) just to ensure that the airbag components In the seat are safe. Seats were from a mildly damaged salvaged car.
 




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