2006 XK8 with 51,750 miles....

The airbag light on the dash came on solid today after flashing what I counted to be Code 17. According to the airbag system codes documentation, this points to the Passenger Occupant Position Sensors. There are apparently four of them: Sensor 1 is in the center headliner, Sensor 2 is in the instrument panel console, Sensor 3 is in the passenger A pillar, and Sensor 4 is in the passenger outer headliner / B pillar....

The documentation also states that this could be caused by a passenger OPS calibration fault, or a passenger OPS communications fault....

I'm looking for guidance on where and how to pinpoint the actual culprit. There are apparently at least 15 different potential sensor, connector, or harness components that could be causing the issue. I surely do not want to blindly start ripping the car apart looking for the eventual fix without hearing from someone who has relevant experience on resolving this issue....

Any experienced assistance would be greatly appreciated....

 

Jon,

I can't give you a resolution but I can give you relevant experience from someone who has had the same Flash Code for the last two months.

Mine flashes Code 17 three times and then settles to a constant warning light.

So far I've borrowed and temporarily swapped all the passenger sensors one by one followed by an Instrument Pack. Absolutely no difference. Still the same Flash Code sequence. Original parts now all put back.

This definitely eliminates component failure on mine unless it's the Airbag Module which I think is extremely unlikely.

The swapping procedure was completed by last weekend and got me to the point where I think it has to be a harness or calibration fault.

Graham

 

Thanks very much for your detailed response, Graham. Very discouraging, though. Given your expertise with these cars, I know that if you cannot find it and fix it, I have little chance of getting lucky enough to do so myself....

The car's state-mandated annual inspection is due by the end of February 2013. It cannot pass with an airbag fault indicator lit up on the dash. So I essentially have four-and-a-half months to figure it out and fix it....

What tools (if any) are capable of reading whether there are any proprietary airbag codes in an effort to nail this down to a specific component?

How will you proceed in attempting to get your issue diagnosed and repaired?

 

The dealer WDS/IDS can read the airbag system and also AutoEnginuity if you have the Jaguar expansion pack.

Beyond those, I'm not sure there are many choices. Airbag systems are for the most part manufacturer specific so I doubt any of the more common tools will be of much use.

 

There is a fuse on the left door fuse box you need to check. My light came on, and that fuse was burnt. Can't remember which one. It is listed in the glovebox manual.

 

P.M. Me if you would like. Let's talk on the phone. I have had some problems with the passenger airbag light, and they were resolved.

 

Update:

After two drive cycles last night (out to eat dinner and back, a total of probably 35 to 40 miles), the airbag system was back to normal first thing this morning. No flashing airbag codes, no illuminated solid amber warning light. I'm certainly relieved, but this is very strange and disconcerting. Was it a temporary problem with a sensor? A component in the intermittent stages of eventual failure? My wife's pocketbook sitting in the passenger seat and confusing the sensors somehow? Who the hell knows. These quirky Jaguar electronic module miscues can drive us nuts sometimes....

Graham, please keep us updated on your continuing struggle to solve your own Code 17 problem. I'm sure we can all learn from your methodical efforts, and I sincerely hope that you are able to get it sorted very soon....

 

Jon,

If you'd like to take your wife out to dinner in my car next week to apply the same fix, I'll pay.

Good result and I'm sure you're mighty relieved. One good thing about SRS faults is the Airbag lights goes out by itself once the fault is rectified unlike the MIL which has to be reset.

I have AutoEnginuity with the Jaguar Enhancement and this will both read and clear Body DTC's.

Blink Code 17 is setting Code B2291 - Passenger Spatial Sensing (Occupancy Position) CAN circuit fault.

I've been clearing it after swapping each of the sensors in turn but it just comes back. The search continues.

Graham

 

Graham,

Believe me, if I could cure your Code 17 condition the same way I apparently cured ours, I would....

We did about 175 miles in the car yesterday afternoon (by far the greatest distance I've ever driven it myself) with no issues. The airbag warning system behaved perfectly....

Hang in there with your Code 17 situation and keep us posted on your progress. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you....

 

Dear Jon89,
I wouldn't get too comfortable with the thought that it's fixed, just yet. I have had this problem on and off for at least the past year. Air bag light warning will sometimes blink, sometimes stay on, and often disappear for days or weeks at a time, only to return at its own discretion. It seems that if so many of us have experienced the same symptoms a solution would have been found by now, but I guess we'll have keep searching.

 

I realize that this issue could return at any time. That's the primary reason why I'm asking those who have experienced this problem to post their attempted fixes in this thread. I know that the electronic modules in these cars are quirky, and the more details we all share, the better the odds are that we can find cost-effective ways to resolve our issues as they pop up....

 

Graham,

Any progress to report towards resolving your airbag code 17 problem?

 

Jon,

Sadly the answer is NO, the blinking light is still there. If it had been a bulb I really needed it would have burned out long before now!

The last thing for me to check is a harness fault from the RCM under the Centre Console to the Instrument Pack and the Occupancy Sensors but I need a day or more to devote to that.

I'm still hoping to avoid having to take it to the dealer for recalibration but it's looking increasingly likely. The worry here is many of the SRS components are listed as 'not serviceable separately' which could mean a very large bill.

Graham

 

Graham,
I'm sure that Jon won't mind my hijacking his thread a bit.
To quote JTIS
Individual components of the front passenger seat occupant classification sensing system are not serviceable. The system must be replaced as a complete unit and due to its sophistication, each replacement system requires calibration, so to avoid the need to provide calibration equipment to each dealer, a pre-calibrated service kit is available. The following components are combined and calibrated during manufacture to form the front passenger seat occupant classification sensing system:
Front passenger seat cushion
Silicone filled bladder
Front passenger seat occupant classification sensor control module
Front passenger seat occupant classification sensor

I'm sure you will have read this 100 times but do you think you need to transplant the
complete occupancy sensing control module together with its own A, B pillar and console sensors as a unit to retain calibration ?

 

Steve,

Read it? I have a framed copy on the wall!

It's Jaguar's TB logic carried to the absolute extreme. Make it impossible to repair a component or system by not supplying individual parts and throw the whole thing away. Why fix a wire or a module track when you can sell the owner £x000's in parts instead. (rant over)

I borrowed all three Occupancy Sensors, Instrument Pack and RCM from an XK8 with heavy side damage but no airbag deployment. The ignition check on the SRS was extinguishing the warning light on this car so it was a known operational set. Substituting all of the components one by one still gave me a Code 17.

The only parts I didn't substitute was the seats. I believe I can eliminate the Passenger Seat components as exhaustive checks with a high tech Crash Test Dummy (Mrs G) confirm the Occupancy and Proximity sensing is working properly.

This is what leads to think it's harness or calibration but the SRS is so over engineered that it doesn't pay to make any assumptions.

Graham

 

Steve,

You didn't hijack, you provided appropriate information....

I'm as furious as Graham regarding the possibility of him having to replace the entire front passenger seat airbag system due to Jaguar's refusal to diagnose/provide individual components that may be faulty. I applaud Graham for meticulously attempting to find and fix his issue using spare parts from another XK, and I hope this approach eventually resolves his problem....

I cannot imagine having to throw out an entire front passenger seat airbag system and pay for the installation of a new one simply because one or two internal components failed. I would be looking for a Jaguar systems engineer to strangle....

Keep us posted, Graham....

 

+1 Graham
Having worked on the early series (post 1) Apollo modules I would not go to the moon in a Jaguar.
Complexity for complexity's sake. I'd rather have a full harness than rely on this amount of complexity.
Didn't I see an incredible F1 crash the other day when everyone walked away and not an airbag in sight.
If you did a complete module + sensor transplant then, obviously, it has to be downstream.
As far as I can see the goings-on in the seat are not physically connected to the ultrasonic sensor stuff (i.e. the ultrasonic modules go straight to the OSCM, not via the seat stuff so it shouldn't be the seat harness).
The bad news is that the dealers don't have a calibration tool so if it is the modules it is a complete new factory calibrated set.
Sorry I can't help more.

 

Graham,

Any progress to report in solving your Code 17 issue?

 

Well, after at least 6 months of the airbag warning light somehow correcting itself, it reared its ugly head again, yesterday. For the past day and a half, sometimes it's on, sometimes off, sometimes blinking, sometimes constant. Frankly, I'm not a big airbag fan (I've seen some pretty nasty injuries from the airbag deployment), so I don't care if it works or not, I just hate the flippin' light pointing its "finger" at me.

 

What are your inspection laws in California? Can your vehicle pass with a blinking or illuminated airbag light?

My wife returned last night from another one of her solo trips to and from Tampa to visit her elderly parents (and to pay yet another visit to the biggest tourist trap in the U.S. - Disney World in Orlando). She reported that on several occasions during her 1,600-mile trip, the airbag light was on, the ABS light was on, and the "DSC unavailable" message was displayed. All three warnings usually turned off once the engine was shut down and restarted at the next drive cycle. When I moved her XK8 out of the driveway early this morning to gain access to my Ram, the ABS light came on and stayed on for the 30 seconds or so I was in the car....

I would typically attribute this to spurious warnings from a failing battery, but I replaced her factory battery in late September 2012 with a new Bosch one. We replaced the brake pedal switch in late October 2012, and I cleaned all four wheel speed sensors per Sam's video in late September 2012 just before replacing the battery....

I told her to just keep driving the car for the next couple of days, see what happens, and report any additional warnings to me. I'm really getting tired of having to deal with this crap every time I turn around....