Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing!

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Mon 24 Jun 2019 16:17
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - Stu E.

Hi All,

New to the forum and after a bit of advice if poss.

Last Thursday my daughter brought an Audi A1 1.2 TFSI 64 plate 30,000 miles, which is a CAT N, private sale.
I went with her to look at the car and it's in great condition overall and is lovely to drive, so much so that I had no clue why it had been classed a CAT N! The only issue I could find with the car was that the heater control temperature dial didn't rotate fully and was stuck on the 'HOT' side, so we wasn't sure if the aircon worked or not. But overall the car was very nice for the price.

I did the relevant HPI checks and all checked out fine. On Saturday morning, we MOT'd it and it passed with no advisories.

So, on Saturday afternoon, I decided to have a look at the heater control to see if it was something obvious. After removing the glovebox, I could get to the back of the control panel and it was simply a case that the cable on the back of the temperature control was not fitted properly. Disconnected and re-fitted and now the dial works as it should including ice cold AC!

However.... When I removed the glovebox, I noticed that there was a wire dangling down with a yellow plug. And no passenger airbag!

My question is, as the plug is just dangling, should I see an airbag fault somewhere?? There are no lights or messages showing at all.

Obviously now I've found this, I want to put an airbag back where it should be, but I'm wondering if there are other things I should be looking at now as well? other airbags, missing warning lamps... etc.

I do have VCDS diagnostics, which I bought to sort an issue with my wifes VW EOS , so I think I'll get it connected and see what that tells me.

In the meantime, anyone any thoughts on this?

Many thanks in advance.....

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Mon 24 Jun 2019 17:15
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - sammy1

Nice car the Audi A1. If the bag is missing then the Dash was probably blown in a bump for it to be a Cat N. It is relatively simple to renew a dash in a Audi/VW and another clue is probably the heater cable being disturbed. As you are probably aware there is a switch on the top of the dash to turn off the pass airbag, this may have been rigged to disguise the missing bag. With a new MOT I cannot think you have too much too worry about.

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Mon 24 Jun 2019 17:30
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - skidpan

With a new MOT I cannot think you have too much too worry about.

Not with regard to the MOT but you will need to inform the insurers that this important piece of safety kit that was standard when new is now no longer fitted.

Presume you have told the insurers its Cat N.

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Tue 25 Jun 2019 17:36
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - Stu E.

Insurers are aware its CAT N and I've just got a replacement airbag that will be fitted this evening, so hopefully will get that bit sorted.

I then have to figure out why the airbag check light in the instrument cluster is not illuminated. Surely it should be if the whole airbag is missing!! I'm guessing that I will find that the bulb has been removed.

Edited by Stu E. on 25/06/2019 at 17:38

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Mon 24 Jun 2019 17:31
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - elekie&a/c doctor

As above . Cat N or S are both write off categories. The car has been repaired on the cheap ,so who knows what parts of the Srs/ airbag system have been bodged to put the light out. Biggest downfall of the mot test ,is that it only checks the operation of the warning light, not the integrity of the system.

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Mon 24 Jun 2019 19:06
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - sammy1

here is NO need to notify the insurance company as the industry obviously has a record of written off cars. They will only pay out market value of a W/O in the event of a claim and their premium is NO higher for the insurance quote than a non W/O. The owner can easily buy an airbag and away to go.

Too many people are rightly afraid of W/Os but if you are mechanically minded anything can be fixed within reason. I would rather save £3k or so on a cat N (non structural) than pay a dealer. If you buy wisely there are big savings to be made.

The terminology write off has little to do with the damage to a vehicle it is all to do with the money needed to repair. There are thousands of repaired cars out there which are not classed, but how good are the repairs? There are badly damaged cars outside the insurance industry advertised as UNRECORDED and these can find there way back on the road offered for sale to the unwarily. This appears to me to be a glaring loophole in the whole system

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Mon 24 Jun 2019 19:23
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - skidpan

here is NO need to notify the insurance company as the industry obviously has a record of written off cars

They do indeed have a record but when they ask about the car when quoting and a specific question is asked if its ever been written off saying NO when the answer is actually YES would be considered sufficient reason to refuse a payout should any claim be made.

Any untrue facts or omissions are a get out of jail free card for the company.

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Tue 25 Jun 2019 17:40
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - elekie&a/c doctor
So how did it pass an mot with the airbag warning light not working? There is no bulb , it’s an led on a printed circuit board . Probably been covered with blu tack or similar . I bet the airbag Ecu has loads of crash data stored.

Edited by elekie&a/c doctor on 25/06/2019 at 17:44

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Tue 25 Jun 2019 17:52
Audi A1 1.2 TFSI - Passenger airbag is missing! - Brit_in_Germany

Could a resistor have been substituted for the airbag? I thought for the MOT the warning light had to show and then extinguish.

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