tipo158

Got a 97 A4 with a sport wheel. The airbag light is on and VAG-COM says:

00588 - Airbag Igniter; Driver Side (N95)
32-10 - Resistance too High - Intermittent

After some searching on the internet, I saw that some people have reported a problem with the harness to the airbag. Some report fixing it by seating the connector better; some report fixing it by having the dealer replacing the harness.

I took the airbag off this afternoon. There is a single lead with a clear rubber cover that goes to the airbag unit. It looks like there is more to the airbag that is part of the steering wheel. The airbag lead fits in a slot on a PCB-looking thing. There is a sharp bend in the lead from where being in a slot, but no obvious break.

I prefer doing most anything on the car myself, but the airbag scares the crap out of me. Does anyone know if there is an outstanding TSB that covers this so that I can get Audi to fix it?

alan

grey-2002-ar-6sp

Sprayed the cleaner on both sides of the connector, waited for it to dry, sprayed the dielectric stuff, reconnected connector, cleared code.

It's been 6 months, and the airbag light hasn't recurred.

tipo158

... not a connector down in the steering wheel end of things

grey-2002-ar-6sp

...talking about. Still, pretty cheap to try.

tipo158

The fault that VAG-COM reports says "N95" which is the airbag unit in the steering wheel. The only things between the N95 and the Airbag Control Module is the F138 "Airbag Spiral Spring" (which is in the steering wheel) and the T2i connector (which is in the vicinity of the instrument cluster).

Do you have a car newer than 97? The newer cars seem to have a connector under the seat for one of the side airbags (maybe it is the T4r connector for the N199 side airbag igniter).

grey-2002-ar-6sp

I'm a little disappointed they didn't try cleaning/dielectric as a permament fix.