About a month or so I got an airbag light on the dash out of nowhere. Figured it would be a million to fix trying to chase down an electrical issue like that. Searched the internet and found nothing until recently. Someone on Renlist had a similar issue, but on the passenger side. I figured I put it all together in one neat step by step with fresh pics, so here goes...

Issue: Airbag light on dash. Fault code says driver seat sensor open position. Could also be passenger seat sensor, then it's on passenger side.

Cause: broken wires within the rubber boot of the door.

Fix steps: ( based on driver side error)

1. Use a flathead to push down in the boot release attached to the car frame on the driver side. Then pull the boot back and twist inside out a bit to make it stay.

2. Unhook harness release and pull away from the car frame.

3. Look for green and red wires and inspect their condition. Mine were broken where the shielding stops.

4. Push the boot on the door side into the door to expose wires that you'll be working on.

5. Cut, strip, solder, shield, and extend the broken wires with 2" of new wires.

6. Plug harness back into place

7. Reseat to rubber boot properly.

8. Find someone who can clear fault codes for you. There will be a few additional codes for the door components since you unplugged the harness on top on the already present airbag light which won't go away on its own.

See attached pics. I used a Piwis II clone to reset all faults.

Hope this helps someone.

 

Nice work! I find this type of repair so satisfying... If not a little frustrating that wires can break this easily... I lost control of my passenger window motor when using my driver side window control because of a damaged wire too. Had to take the entire door apart and trace the wiring and sure enough, a section had failed.

 

Pretty crazy. You'd think the wires/shielding is better quality in a P car.

 

Lucky you found it. Like finding a needle in a haystack. What pointed you there? That would have been the last place I would have looked.

 

Like I said, I found a post by another person on here, but... there was no write up for this. I'm super happy I did this. That one light made me feel like I was driving my old Ford explorer.

 

There is a write-up now.. https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...nsor-open.html

Thanks for the great DIY content. Well done!

 

Bumping an old thread as my cayenne has this issue. I unplugged the harness on both driver / passenger doors but don’t see any torn wires.

Do I need to cut through the black “protector” which the wires run through to properly see if either the green or red is torn? I tugged on both but they all seem to be intact.

any help would be appreciated !!

 

As I recall..... I had to cut open that black loom they run through, then it was obvious

 

I have the same issue- airbag sensor issue- dealer trying to sort it out. I just read that there is a recall of airbags- Porsche seems to use ones made by the company that is having an issue- perhaps there will be a recall by Porsche to replace them- maybe this is why some of us have experienced problems with airbag codes.