DrBimmerM3

I have been lurking this page for sometime now, but now I need some help. I have a 98.5 1.8tqms that is brill. yellow and sprot package. I ran my power wire for my stereo through the hole for the hood release cable and have had no problems for weeks. We got a lot of rain lately, and yesterday I spent all day cleaning a 3" pool of water out of my driver side floorboard, front and back. Not a fun day. Today, I get in the car, and the Airbag light is on. Any advice on what I should do? Was thinking that the side airbag harness should be unplugged, dried, and reattached. Help.

omidius

That the 3" water pool has given all the mountings and harnesses in or near the driver's side footwell and big ol soaking and now that the harnesses have dried, a thin film of rainwater crap has formed between the connections an rendered them useless, or even better the connection gets on/off sputtering breaks that the sensor picks up as a faulty airbag response.

You're best bet? Take apart the fottwell trim to the lower footwell harness location where the airbag harness is located, remove the harness, clean with alcohol and q-tips. Reinsert the harness 2-3 times to ensure a good solid connection.

You may experience even more evil gremlins because of this so you may want to consider doing this to EVERY one of those harnesses.

Doctor Steve

Dielectric grease the connectors to prevent further problems.

omidius

Ahh! The one thing I forgot! TRUE TRUE!

Dead

level in the car can get pretty high. This can cause some problems. When I was a Car Tech we use to get flooded cars and they would have problems if they were left closed up with water in 'em.
Pulling the carpet and leting it dry is the best way. You can put the car in a garage with the windows down/doors open and use fan/fans to help dry it up.

RKA

Start with pulling everything up and letting it dry THOROUGHLY before you spend a ton of money at the deal, or a ton of your own time. Once that water evaporates out, I suspect your problems will too.

RageRacer

In addition to cleaning/greesing your connectors, I recommend spraying Ozium under the carpet. Ozium is an air freshener that is used in hospitals to kill odor/mold/bacteria. Its available at most automotive stores.

Good luck!

A4 Freak

I got my amps installed at sound advice in orlando, fl.. They cut a whole for my power wire right in a drainage spot.. One night when my car was parked on a slope driveway in pouring rain, my car got flooded with water.. Sound advice paid to recarpet my whole car and replace all the padding and everything underneath the carpet which was good.. But still was a major b*tch to deal with..