I took my 2004 BMW E60 yesterday to the BMW dealer. The purpose of the visit was to fix the air bag warning message that I have in my car. I haven't received the recall letter but the a BMW employee at the main office advised me that If i have two red lights in the dash board and the warning in the idrive to take the car to the dealer. He contacted the BMW dealer and spoke to the service manager so i can bring the car for the recall even i dont have any recall letter.
I told the service advisor that If i have to pay for anything that i dont want the work to be done. I just want to recall for the warning to be perform.

Yesterday I email my advisor to know about the status of my car and i get this response.


Hi Mr. XXXX !!

Your car is in the process of programming it may not be ready for today the programming has 4 hours left. It will be for tomorrow .

Thanks

XXX


Then today I get this second email

Mr. XXXX

During the programming to find out the problem with your car is not the seat mat is a bst cable that is related to an accident that the car had previously

That is why the air bag light will stay on the part is $215.00 and the labor is $591.50,sorry to give you the bad news. If you were on accident previously you can claim

this to your insurance.



Thanks ,

Does this look normal? I bouth the car on january 2006 and drove it all the way to oct, 2008 with out any air bag warning and no accident. It seems like the car
had an acciden on the passenger front door but it was fixed back in 2005. I got the warning 2 weeks ago about the air bag so I thought it was the problem mention on the air bag sensor mat recall.

How does the car need a BST ( Battery safety terminal cable ) today? if the cable was bad I would have never been able to turn on the car. I think the damage the cable and they want me to pay for it.

Also the car is out of warranty too.

Please let me know what you think
Aaron

 

just take it back from you dealer, put there (BST cable has a sensor-load type) a 5 Ohm resistor for 10cents, go back, let him to clear that error code and call it a day...

 

Can an independent mechanic clear the error code? or that type of error code cleanning have to be done by the dealer?

 

I have the same problem with my 525i. Did this work with the 5Ohm resistor? How do I install the resistor if it work?

Thank You
Tony N

 

+1 and where do you measure the resistance?

 

I'm currently experiencing the exact same issue!!! I went through this whole ordeal with the stealership about the mat seat sensor recall only for them to tell me that its the cable. I'm at the point now where i purchased the BST cable online for $215 and will have an independent shop install and code it for $120 next week. This is supposed to get rid of that dreaded "passenger restraint malfunction" message related to the air bags.

Apparently there is a sensor in the BST cable that is related to the air bag. Once the sensor fires from an accident (or in my case i hit a pot hole) it has to be replaced because it throws off the impedance that the car wants to see. Its some sort of safety feature. Some people have fixed this by putting a resistor to simulate the correct impedance. I on the other hand bought the cable because i dont want to take any chances of airbags not deploying with my kids and wife in the car.

I will let you know how it turns out once i get the new BST cable installed. This is a simple job, dont let the Stealership charge you $900. That's ridiculous!!

 

Hmmm...I don't think the BST cable needs coding. Anyway, this is an old thread. I once had the airbag error after I was installing an amp. I was in a hurry and just put everything back together including connecting the battery back up. In my haste, I did not properly tighten the battery cables. This will cause a high resistance. I then cleared the codes and properly tightened the battery cables and the error hasn't appeared since.


Clean and retighten the battery cables. It's worth a shot and it's free.

 

I have the same issue with my 2005 530i. Can anyone tell me more about the resistor? My car has NOT been in an accident. Is using the resistor a possible fire hazard if I'm in an accident?
Thanks

 

RESOLVED!!! Replaced the BST cable and no more airbag warning lights. No more "passenger restraint malfunction"....

 

+1

Good stuff. It's an expensive part, but it works like a charm.