Hi today i got an airbag warning light all of a sudden as soon as i start the car after having lunch. Was fine before but it just pops up. Please help as seat belt is working fine. Its a bmw 535d e60 2005.

 

Can you post a pic of the warning light?

 

I currently have the same passenger restraint airbag malfunction in my 2010 535. Like you it just turned on and nobody has been in the passenger seat for a few days. Don't know if it is the battery going out (the original battery is still installed.) or water got into the trunk, or something else. I plan to further investigate this weekend. If I find anything relevant I will report back.

If anyone has experienced please chime in. Looking for a proper fix and not a band-aid.

 

If you're on the original battery, then it might not be a bad idea to change it anyway. However, some people get the error after changing the battery. The restraint system measures the battery resistance. If the new (or current) battery is not tightly connected on the + or - posts, it would register as high resistance and could trigger the error. So make sure the battery posts are clean and are on tight.

A downside to troubleshooting this is that you have to reset the error to test if just tightening the battery gets rid of it. The error won't go away on its own. Have the error cleared and see if it comes back.

I had this error on mine. The main fix was to change the damaged passenger occupancy sensor matt inside the front passenger seat. You could damage it by standing on the front seat or placing heavy pointy objects on it. The weight should be distributed like a passenger's butt.

I also had this error when I disconnected the battery to work on my radio and half-ass connected again loosely when needing to go to the store really quick.

 

Great call! My light never came back on after I shut it down for the night. The most likely reason was that I was cleaning the interior and my weight was shifting all over the mat so it may have triggered it. All good for the past two days.

 

Just a quick question: was it a orange light of a red light?