Air Bag Systems: Service Precautions

General Instructions/safety Instructions

The following points must be observed during vehicle diagnosis:
- After the battery is connected, volatile memories must be reprogrammed. In the case of radio coding and tuning, the customer must be informed of decoding and the deleted tuner memory.
- After troubleshooting or repairs, erase the fault memory with the 9588 Porsche System Tester II and carry out a test drive.
- After the test drive, read out the fault memory with the 9588 Porsche System Tester II again.

DANGER:
Danger of injury through triggering of driver's airbag.
- Never hang the 9588 Porsche System Tester II over the steering wheel.

WARNING:
- Observe safety regulations when working on the airbag system.
- Danger of injury and damage to property as a result of incorrect handling of airbag units'.
- Please observe the following points:
- Inspection and assembly work must only be carried out by specialist staff.
- After the battery is disconnected, assembly work or work on the vehicle with a hammer or similar tools must not be started until after a waiting period of 1 minute.
- This is necessary in order to interrupt the power supply to the airbag system and to ensure it is not triggered accidentally.
- Airbag units must be fitted immediately after being removed from their storage location.
- Airbag units must never be left lying around unattended.
- If work is interrupted, airbag units must immediately be locked away again.
- Airbag units must not be allowed to come into contact with grease, oil, cleaning agents or similar substances.
- Airbag units must not be exposed to temperatures above 90 °C.
- Airbag units and control units which have fallen from a height of more than 0.5 m must not be installed.
- Additional linings, stickers or similar must not be attached to the steering wheel or in the vicinity of the passenger's airbag.
- Changes must not be made to the wiring or the components of the airbag system.
- The battery must always be disconnected before starting straightening and welding work with an electrical welding unit.
- Danger of injury and damage to property as a result of incorrect handling of airbag units.
- Please observe the following points:
- The airbag units are pyrotechnical items in hazard class T 1.
- Handling, transport and storage of these units must conform to the explosives legislation.
- The listed statutory requirements refer to the Federal Republic of Germany.
- The relevant valid regulations must be observed in all other countries.
- The commencement of work with pyrotechnical items must be reported 14 days in advance to the Trade Supervisory Office (responsible authority).
- Airbag units must only be dispatched in transport packaging officially approved for that purpose.
- Airbag units must not be transported with other hazardous goods.
- Internally, they must always be transported in the luggage compartment or cargo hold of a vehicle using the transport packaging referred to above.
- They must not be transported in the passenger's compartment.
- Airbag units must be stored in accordance with the second ordinance of the explosives legislation.
- This ordinance stipulates that small quantities of materials and items may be stored at certain locations without special storage approval.
- According to the Explosives Storage Directive of August 1997, these quantities are 10 kg (net) max. in a work room and 100 kg (net) max. in a storage room in the case of Class T 1 pyrotechnical items.
- Danger of personal injury if the drive link test is carried out when the vehicle is in motion.
- Never carry out the drive link test when the vehicle is in motion.
- The following conditions must be observed when carrying out the drive link test:
- The drive link test must always be carried out on a stationary vehicle in a workshop with sufficient commercially available tools'. The driver's seat must then be partially removed in order to re-activate the cut-out relay. Only then can the engine be re-started.
- Danger of injury due to the risk of fire in the event of short circuits in the wiring harness or of emerging fluids when the cut-out relay is actuated (for disconnecting battery).
- The cut-out relay (for disconnecting battery) must only be actuated by trained and authorized staff.
- Damage, abrasions or squashed wires in the wiring harness must be located and either repaired or replaced in accordance with Porsche guidelines.
- Short circuits to B+, short circuits to ground and open circuits in the entire wiring harness must be eliminated and, if necessary, repaired or replaced in accordance with Porsche guidelines.
- Mechanical components must not be damaged in any way that could cause locally emerging fluids to ignite in the event of a short circuit.
- Danger of injury as a result of malfunctions (loose contacts) in airbag modules when unplugging module connectors and belt tensioner plugs.
- When installing and removing airbag modules and belt tensioners, the plug connections provided must be disconnected using an integrated short circuit bridge.
- Never pull off plugs connected directly to airbag modules and belt tensioners.
- Do not remove wiring harnesses from other vehicles in order to connect these to 'third-party' airbag modules or belt tensioners.
- Danger of injury and damage due to unusual vehicle handling when plugs or components are disconnected.
- Never disconnect plugs when the vehicle is in motion or drive the vehicle with plugs disconnected.
- Drive only with all parts fully installed and connected.
- Danger of injury if vehicle is driven with special tools in place (commercially available tools included).
- Never drive with special tools or commercially available tools attached instead of the airbag units.

CAUTION:
Danger of damage due to improper handling of batteries and control module plug connections.
- Never disconnect battery terminals with engine running.
- Never start engine unless battery terminal clamps are connected securely.
- Never pull off or push on plug connections for the control units or other electronic components when the ignition is switched on.
- Always disconnect the negative terminal of the battery and pull off all plug connections to the vehicle electrical system control unit when carrying out welding work on the vehicle.

NOTE:
- The airbag warning light in the instrument cluster lights up to indicate sporadic faults (loose contacts, etc.) in the airbag ignition circuits. The airbag warning light remains on even when the fault is no longer present. It can only be turned off by reading out the fault memory, eliminating the cause of the fault and then erasing the fault memory, provided there are no other faults in the system. This means that even faults that only occur briefly are reported to the driver and stored in the fault memory.
- The wiring harness between the airbag triggering unit and the driver's airbag unit has a number of disconnection points, which must be considered as most likely causes of the fault. The following disconnection points must be checked for correct contacts, possible corrosion or damage with the battery disconnected for at least one minute before actually replacing the airbag triggering unit as a last resort:
- First disconnection point in front of spiral spring (behind top steering column switch)
- Second disconnection point in steering wheel pod
- Third disconnection point directly at driver's airbag unit (only inspect this visually - never disconnect plug.)
- Never disconnect plugs that are connected directly to airbag modules and belt tensioners because these have been connected at a defined contact pressure in order to prevent a malfunction due to the plug becoming loose during the life of the vehicle. The plug connections (mostly 3-pin) provided for this purpose must be disconnected using an integrated short- circuit bridge.
- The wiring harness between the airbag triggering unit and the side airbags in the seats has a number of disconnection points, which must be considered as most likely causes of the fault. The following disconnection points must be checked for correct contacts, possible corrosion or damage with the battery disconnected for at least one minute before actually replacing the airbag triggering unit as a last resort:
- First disconnection point under seat area of driver's and passenger's seat (3-pin cut-off connection with short circuit bridge)
- Second disconnection point between 3-pin cut-off connection and the side airbag (2-pin cut-off connection with short circuit bridge)
- Third disconnection point directly at side airbag (only inspect this visually (this involves disassembling seat - should only be done in exceptional cases) - never disconnect plug.)