TheOtherEric

I think you're mistaken about it tripping the airbag light. When I drive without the seatbelt attached, my airbag light does not illuminate.

Two questions:

(1) Isn't your seatbelt warning light always illuminated? Surely you have one, no?

(2) How did you get a different wiring diagram for 1996+? My shop manual just has one airbag diagram and I don't see any seat belt inputs. I'm surprised Porsche would use seat belt pins in 993's: back in 1995 I'd think we'd have single stage airbags and thus they wouldn't care if the seat belts were on or not. Perhaps you're looking at a 996 wiring diagram that uses some type of seat sensor (belt or weight)?

EDIT: Aha! PAG obsoleted some airbag ECUs and now specifies 996.618.217.01 for 96+ and that's the same ecu as in 996's. So yeah, maybe it's a 2-stage setup needing a seat input (belt or weight). The parts catalogue specifies this on 1996+, but why not 1995 too??

leeshephard

Am I right in thinking that the airbag ecu's are 'coded' to the car? In this case you would not be able to swap one over from another car, and what about new units? do these need to be setup with a PS2 etc?

Bill Verburg

No, it's never on. There is no seat belt connection at all
2)I didn't design it. I just looked at the wiring diagrams for 1995/2(mycar) and 1996. pin 12 on the airbag controller up under the dash is the seatbely interlock. It is not used on 1995/2 it is used on 1996. Haven't looked at the other year wire diagrams.

Bill Verburg

Bingo!, Got the answer from a Pro(Thanks Will!) you do use the 996 controller, but it has to be recoded by someone w/ a PST2.

TheOtherEric

Ouch, that sucks. Hopefully won't be too much of a charge.

Bill Verburg

It'll be zero, I'm going to go back to the RS wheel. This is what i get fro trying to do the right thing.

slider

had the same problem with a faulty air bag controller...only option was to go to the dealer for the install and recoding....$700... sigh