Greetings All. I took my 06 997 Carrera S to a local place today to have it detailed. I left it and returned hours later. I turned on the ignition and the damn airbag light is staying on. I brought it to their attention and they didn't know,but will assume any responsibility.The guy was of course cleaning every inch of the interior and moving the seats around.
I played around with the seats a bit and the warning light flickered on and off,but now is staying on. I checked the manual and it says there is a switch to turn the passenger airbag light on/off.Right now the light says its off,on the center by the emergency brake. The manual shows where there is a switch but it doesn't exist in that spot.

It hopefully is nothing,but its driving me nuts considering I have to take time to get to my mechanic.

Any insights are greatly appreciated. Cheers

 

My 05 997 had it's airbag system fault light come on. The airbag light came on suddenly.Turns out it was a faulty airbag black box behind the stereo head and the dealer had to put a new one in...$900 for the unit. I had a 801C fault localized to the harness of the passenger seat but after they replaced it, it wasn't clearning the light.

Not sure if the detail job was the cause of the airbag alert. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

FYI. This question may get more hits in the 997 forum rather than the 911 forum (which I think covers the torsion bar air-cooled 911s that ran production until 1989.)

 

You would read to read the fault code with a Durametric, or have the dealer read the code and determine the problem. Those codes can also be caused by seat belt buckle issues as well.

 

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Don't know if that's true but even so the light telling you its off shouldn't come on.

OP: same thing happened to me after a detail. Could be them pressing on the passenger seat while they work. Pressing down on the seat (or putting a package etc on it) will turn on the light for a while.

IMO wait a day or two to see if it goes off before investigating.

 

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He has an 06 C2S. I have an 07 T4S and the light doesn't come on unless something unusual is on the seat.

 

If you want a quick fix, your local dealership would reset it for you. If your car is under warranty, it's free. If not, maybe 1/2 hr labor. If you have a good relationship with them, they might do it for free.

 

reviving an old thread, but my car just did this same thing. washed, waxed and a little buffing on the outside only. Nothing to the inside. light just came on and code on dash says airbag fault. Hopefully it resolves itself!

 

reviving a old thread.. after searching for also having airbag sensor error. looks like its coming from passenger side seat. sensor is $900 from porsche and i believe 1 hour service to repair. if not repaired passenger airbag is always active and sensitive? minor bumper to bumper will deploy airbags

 

If the seat is in the full aft position, you can get a false airbag warning. Try moving it forward an inch.

On the 997.1, the front control module is prone to ESD damage from polishing the front right part of the bumper and/or the headlight. It's a know issue that was fixed with a re-design. Not sure if this control module monitors the airbag system or not.

 

I had this exact issue and replacing both front airbag control modules behind the front bumper fixed it.

 

Are there also two in the rear? I'll have my car scanned by another shop see what they say . I've heard two different reasons for my airbag sensor warning now

 

if you get the seatbelt receptical wet it'll throw an airbag light. this happened to me so i had my indy reset it.

 

We had such a bad winter here in DC that I didn't drive my 09 997 much and let the battery die. When I finally got it charged back up again, all kinds of lights and warnings came on but eventually went out EXCEPT for the air bag light (on the instrument cluster). I took it to my independent who reset the code for me (cost me a six of his favorite beer) and it has not reappeared. He did tell me that the dealers will normally default to replacing something even though nine times out of ten, all you need to do is get the light reset.
Cheers, Ollie