mattsimis

Yeah thats the error. Just to note I dont quite have a "white" wire, its a creamy whitish pink colour.. but that could just be aging of the plastic (or heat damage). It is a thin wire though, along with the black one. The other wires are much thicker (heater element).

silverd2

The more I look into this, the more confused I get...but I'm very curious and would like to help you sort it out.
A couple of observations and questions :

My Bentley manual doesn't even show a 98 S8 (just 01-03), but does show Recaro seats and standard seats for 98 model A8.

Plus, the combined 6 pole plug, with heat and occupied sensor is supposed to be for "seats with side air bags, only".

There are different drawings for different versions.

One version shows the seat occupied sensor going separately to a 2 pole black plug under the seat (BLUE wire & white wire), then directly to the air bag control module.

There are also 2 six pole plugs under the seat:
- Red plug "in the seat"
- Green plug "UNDER the seat"

Plus, the wire colors in your photo don't all match with any drawing I have (?) ...with either color plug (Euro model difference?)

I DO believe these are the same plugs in question, but don't know about color coding (sizes should be similar to carry current for heat element, etc. ) or if "occupied" wires are included in the 6 pole or in seperate 2 pole black plug...if so, don't understand what the extra 2 wires are in the 6 pole(?)

The plug in your photo looks green on the inside with red on outside (?)

1- Does it come from the seat or TO a plug from the seat?

2- Does it connect to a GREEN on the outside 6 pole plug?

3- Do you have side air bags in the seats?

4- Are they Recaro seats?

silverd2

SORRY...please see my edit correction in last post.
Colors on drawing are in German:
Seat occupied wires are supposed to be 1 "BLUE" & 1 white...in the drawing that shows them going to seperate 2 pole black plug under seat.

The notation in another section, saying that the wires are combined in the 6 pole plug under seat IF seat has side airbag in seat, do NOT say what colors the "occupied seat" wires are.

Hope this helps, rather than confuse...I sure am

mattsimis

Ok, some updates.
The reason Bentley doesnt show an pre-01 S8 in Bentley is its US centric and none offered there in that period. I had the same issue with my 1998 Audi S4 on my old eBahn subscription. :|

- The Seats are Recaro sports
- I dont know if they have side airbags
- The plug I pictured goes into a "pink" plug covered in grey foam insulation!?
- There is a Blue + White 2 pin wire and connector just like the ones in the rear seat bench. This is what I thought was the Airbag connector originally but I just couldnt find it on the drivers side for comparison (maybe obscured due to seat memory controller) so I wasnt sure.
On the passenger side Blue White Wired Connection I checked with a Multimeter and found:

- Male Connection (appears to be from car floor) Resistance varies from 5kOhm to 11kOhm to open continuously
- Female connection (appears to be from seat) - always reads open, no resistance at all

Neither of these readings sound correct! Vag COM DTC is a Resistance too high error, makes no difference to the error if the plug is connected or not, same error comes back instantly.


Incidentally on the driver side (which is the right side for me) there is a Purple and Brown wired connector just floating there, not connected to anything. I guess this is a red herring though and unrelated.

mattsimis

From reading the thread about faking the signal with a resistor in the rear (https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...=airbag+sensor) I thought since I have a 2.2kOhm resistor right beside me, why not pop it inline with the Blue White wired connector as he had done.

DTC error changed to "intermittent" which when cleared didnt come back. The big question with this fix (other than why this fixes it?) is what happens in a crash. Well I checked Group 3, Channel 2 on the Airbag controller which I believe shows the passenger side occupancy (seat and seat belt) and now it permanently shows Occupied, which is of course a much better fix than if it thought no one was there when you had a passenger.

I think this is acceptable!

silverd2

I hope so..and sorry if I confused the issue.
If you have side airbags, it would be clearly labeled on the side of each seat.

mattsimis

Hey no problem, still a mystery what the 2 small wires are for in that 6pin harness. At least I found and fixed the melted wiring, though I dont think the heating in the seat base works, just the back part.

Jackmup

Just started working on this myself. Reading diagram it shows a blue and white wire for passenger side front.

The blue and white wires are connected to a seat occupancy sensor

Considering you would be driving the car I don't think they have a seat occupancy sensor in the drivers front.

I can not find one on my 2000 or in the diagram.

Also the problem occurred when my passenger front seat was being moved back and forward on a regular basis.

from studying the electrical diagram there is no drivers front seat occupancy sensor or harness/ blue white wire listed.

mattsimis

Makes sense. Since the fix unfortuantely the heated element never came back to life, but I can live with that. The passenger seat sensor error never came back either, which is nice.