Graham

Photos!

4927 is overall - side facing seat
4937 is closer detail showing stubs of wires broken off the "dome."
4939 close up broken connection pair are connected to yellow connector. You can see the ends of the wires and the two dots - the place of former connection.

I assume the "dome" is the trigger for activating the pretensioner. I think I could re-solder the wires, but FEAR this might set the trigger off if it is heat sensitive. I need EXPERT advice/warning here. I will NOT proceed without some kind of assurance.

Thanks

 

Graham asked me to weigh in on this.

In short, my recomendation would be to get a salvage unit as a replacement.

I think there is definitely hazard to repairing this. A strong, reliable solder joint needs mechanical integrity, which mean carefully grinding away some of the plastic dome to get access to sufficient wire for solder contact area or better yet physically looping the wires prior to soldering. You would then solder and refill the lost plastic with epoxy. Just soldering to the wire ends will not last long. Since this is potentially a life saving device, reliablility should be a concern.

Between the grinding and the heat, it is a pretty hazardous job on an explosive device.

You could use a conductive epoxy such as Circuit Works CW2400: Conductive Epoxy Kit instead of soldering, but it costs as much as a salvage unit would and you would still need to grind material away to get a good solid contact area.

 

Well, it's been an exciting ride. I am not trying to fix this animal.

Am off to the dealer @ $260.00. Cannot find salvage parts around where I live. That and the uncertainties with the color and actual model (recyclers do not seem to catalog by VIN) leave no choice.

I want to thank all, especially Graham, for the assistance.

Stephen

 

The new pretensioner is in the car and the airbag light is off. Cost of part after tax was $283. This is from the dealer in famous Hamptons. A Connecticut dealer gave me a price of $217 (no tax), BUT this item is a "hazardous material" and would suffer special shipping charges (another dealer in Ohio would not ship it). Installation was rather easy.

I have one caution about removing this part. The manual indicates that the pretensioner be unfastened before taking out the seat. If one is taking out the seat it seems better to me to have the buckle attached to the seat, NOT flopping around while wrestling with the seat to remove it. Once the seat is out, you can unfasten the buckle without any incumbrence. Also, as mentioned before, my model had the buckle attached via a torx from the outside of the seat, not the inside as per the instructions.

The parts man at the dealer said he would convey my info to Jaguar with the idea of MAYBE getting money back (LOL). He also said that I should check the car manual, because SRS stuff, airbags and pretensioners, should be replaced after a certain passage of time. The would be expensive! The car is 8 years old. Anyone want to comment?

Until the next problem, I am signing off. Again, lots of thanks to everyone on the forum. What did anyone do before the internet??

Stephen

 

Stephen,

Good to hear you've fixed the airbag light although that's probably the most expensive broken wire you'll ever come across. I'll think twice before getting into my car with these 'hazardous' safety features!

Airbags etc do have a shelf life. Quoted variously at 10-15 years. Audi attach a label to the vehicle with the replacement date. It's likely the component cost would exceed the value of the vehicle at that stage.

Graham

 

Better late than never..

I returned the dysfunctional pretensioner to the dealer, explaining what happened - thinking it might, maybe, improve quality control. They took the pretensioner leaving me with the distinct impression that I was using them as a disposal utility. I have not heard anything back from them in the intervening months.

Stephen