AUDI RS3 AIRBAG LIGHT FIX (When Removing The Passenger Seat or Using Lightweight Seats)

For over a year now I had NO idea that when the airbag light is on in your RS3, all of the airbags are disabled. Reiter Performance and I dug into this problem and found a reasonable solution for all of you die hard drag racers that are removing all your seats for weight reduction.
I hope this guide helps all of you be a little safer in your RS3 ensuring that all of your airbags work. If you have any questions related to this fix please comment below.
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Thanks for watching!!!
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#Audi #RS3 #Airbags

[@SeanMclaren]

Great Info! I ended up fitting a corbeau clubsport seats, obviously had to mount the stock seatbelt to the car, however I used 5ohm resistors for the airbag plug, and coded the Occupancy sensor off, so that I had no Airbag light! It worked flawlessly! Just means you dont have to buy the occupancy sensor seperately or butcher some seats😱

[@VancityAudi]

Wicked! Had no idea you could specifically code out the occupancy sensor! Wish I would have know that before hand.

[@VancityAudi]

Did you VCDS or OBD11 to code?

[@SeanMclaren]

VCDS dude! Just need to remember which part of VCDS its under! Lemme check and get back to you!

[@VancityAudi]

@@SeanMclaren thank you very much! I'll make sure to pin this comment to let everyone know.

[@SeanMclaren]

Cheers adam! Ill have a look in VCDS and Ill make sure I get the correct info out there!

[@Kevin_MK7RSR]

Great vid Adam, thanks 👍🏻. Question, what about the side airbag? Is there an error code because the Kirky seat doesn’t have one, or does the seat occupancy take care of that somehow?

[@VancityAudi]

Not sure what side airbag you are talking about? By removing the seats you only get one code for the passenger seat and one code for the driver's seat for the airbags.

[@Kevin_MK7RSR]

@@VancityAudi Thanks for the reply Adam. I have a 2016 Golf R with side airbags. I ordered some heated Recaro CS’s (no airbag) and am now sourcing all the info and parts needed to mount them properly with as few errors as possible. I figured since my OEM seats have side airbags it would throw an error. I had also assumed that the resistor trick was related to the side air bag and not the occupancy weight sensor. Does the RS3 not have side airbags? Maybe the occupancy sensor is all you need to avoid the airbag error? IDK 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@Ardux1]

Great fix I prefer this idea to trying the resistor method. What you’re saying at the beginning of the video is that basically you would have trouble getting things fault free without the factory sliders due to the seat position sensor not being connected correct? Would this still work if I am using different sliders or would I still get a code due to that sensor? I would still plan on using the OEM seat belt buckle so I know I wouldn’t have seat belt ‘ding’ issue in any case.

[@VancityAudi]

I'm honestly not 100% sure, but from what others have told me if you use aftermarket sliders for the driver and you aren't using the same wiring harness you will get codes.

[@rubenm.391]

Video saved for later this year when the race tracks actually/hopefully open up again!!! Thank you sir!!

[@VancityAudi]

You are very welcome

[@miaep3]

Thank you for the info. Now prices for seats will go up haha. But that’s the info I needed. Reason why I didn’t want to do it until I knew I can have no airbag light on. Once the lights on you have no airbag.

[@VancityAudi]

No problem.

[@phamtasticman13]

Just saved this video for future mods. Super informative! But I gotta ask one question though. I'm getting Corbeau RRX seats soon and I want to ask what did you do for the driver side seat as for wires and harnesses? Is the seat belt wire only connected?

[@VancityAudi]

I show what I did for the driver's seat in the video.

[@owenbrunet1279]

​@@VancityAudiwhat did you do with air bag senors though? You just left it unplugged under the seat?

[@FKfilmphotography]

Hi Adam. When removing the seats, cables sensors etc. did you disconnect the main car battery? And technically one could removed the occupancy sensor matt and wire from the OEM seat rather than trying to find a used seat.

[@VancityAudi]

No we did not disconnect the battery. Yes, technically one could remove the occupancy mat sensor from your OEM seat but that would just be silly because they are such nice seats and quite expensive to replace. You're better off to just buy a ghetto A3 seat which costs much less.

[@M.G2103]

You should definitely try to do an eventuri air intake comparison with the unitronic air intake!!

[@VancityAudi]

If someone wants to provide me with an Eventuri intake I'd be happy to do an unbiased comparison and dyno them both

[@M.G2103]

I really hope you manage to get your hands on one! I think the comparison would be really interesting!!

[@Izzy-the-equestrian632]

Great video, I have wingbacks from a 8P I’m looking to fit , can I confirm what resistors you used for the airbag plug? Working on finding a occupancy mat , thanks in advance

[@VancityAudi]

I honestly don't know anymore. We tested each one and just keep testing until one finally worked.

[@braa_psh]

Can you share the part number from the sensor mat? I grabbed the part number from the module when you showed it to the camera and it’s a VW part shared with the Passat and Jetta.

[@Joshlifts22]

If the airbag light comes on after disconnecting the seats and I decide to roll with it without doing what was shown in this video, is it there permanently even after you reconnect everything?

[@AHigherPerspective]

Hey Adam, great info as usual. Maybe unrelated to the video, but whats your thoughts on a fixed suspension vs mag ride. I am about to purchase an RS3 and I am torn between two vehicle right now, Ara blue with fixed, or Daytona Gray with Mag ride, however they are 2 provinces away so I cannot test drive them both. I am absolutely in love with the Ara blue but I dont know if fixed is the right choice for me, I test drove a fixed suspension locally and thought it was alright but, I dont know what I'm missing out on Mag ride. I currently drive a Civic Type-R and that thing is pretty damn stiff already, however I believe the fixed is roughly the same as my Type R in sports setting. I drive quite a bit so I typically drive in Comfort just for the better ride since the roads are horrible here in Nova Scotia, espetially on 20" wheels. Whats your thoughts? Thanks.

[@VancityAudi]

If you are using it as a daily driver and your roads are garbage in NS I would recommend the Mag Ride option. Toss on some 18's and Comfort mode and it should ride better than a fixed suspension in my opinion

[@AHigherPerspective]

@@VancityAudi Thanks for the reply. I will keep waiting for a Mag ride Ara Blue to show up then :( If I get desperate I might just go with the Ara blue with the fixed suspension setup and put some 18s on it to compromise. Our 2nd vehicle is a B9 A4 and I haul around the family in that typically so its probably livable. Thanks for your help.

[@VancityAudi]

@@AHigherPerspective No problem. Good luck!

[@joshfeinstein4934]

Hey Adam, I have a question a little off topic. How do you run an IROZ cat less downpipe with having to get emissions testing. I’m in NY and would love to run the IROZ DP, however I don’t think I’ll pass emissions. Thank you.

[@VancityAudi]

As far as I know any catless downpipe will not pass the emission standards of any of the States. Unitronic is currently working on a catted downpipe option that will pass emissions. I'm not sure how long it will be until they release them, but I've been told they are in the works.

[@joshfeinstein4934]

I’ve been waiting on the unitronic dp, and looking at the IE downpipe as well. Hopefully unitronic has it out soon. Looking forward to going Unitronic Stage 2. Thanks

[@mbadger7017]

I have stock seats, out of the blue I get a parking brake malfunction, airbag light and my passenger seat won’t move. Please help

[@VancityAudi]

use an OBD2 reader to scan the car and see what it tells you

[@alexisnoble6993]

How do you do the back seat airbags? I took my backseats out of my 2004 Audi A4 and since I unplugged the airbag system in the back I have an airbag light.

[@VancityAudi]

You have to put resistors on every single yellow airbag plug you see.

[@alexisnoble6993]

@@VancityAudi where would you get those because I’ve tried looking online and I haven’t found anything

[@VancityAudi]

@alexisnoble6993 it's not something you simply buy. We had to figure out the exact frequency for every plug and install a resistor. We used VCDS to check on every sensor input, one by one.

[@chobitrial]

It will be nice if we can disable the air bag system with the vcds for full race car

[@valentinocostello4177]

What about all the other connectors doesn't the system still look for airbags? what happens when somebody sits on that sensor , does the system then try and find if there's an airbag in place will you get a light.

[@VancityAudi]

As I explained in the video you can even have the sensor mat plugged in and sitting on the floor and the airbag light will still be off. If someone sits on it while on the seat then it detects a passenger and activates the passenger airbags. The other connectors are not plugged in and we do not see any fault codes for the airbags as I demonstrated.

[@fifthcylinder]

Bro tell Reiter performance to open a shop here jeezus. they know everything :sobs:

[@VancityAudi]

Haha, I'm a lucky guy to have him that's for sure.

[@dylandope4402]

Where did u modified your car ? Which shop?

[@VancityAudi]

Reiter Performance in Abbotsford, BC

[@performancebuilds1323]

What size kirkeys you have?

[@VancityAudi]

The 17.5 inch wide seats

[@performancebuilds1323]

@@VancityAudi 17 or 18.5? Those are 55 series right?

[@performancebuilds1323]

@@VancityAudi I'm 6'2 with a 33 pant size.

[@performancebuilds1323]

@@VancityAudi if they open the strip I'll come down and race you with my b8 S4.

[@InwestorStrategiczny]

If you're loking out for occupancy mat for A3 8V US specs, there is no option to buy it from Audi, but mat from VW Beatle works like original. This is a part numer - 5C5959337. You welcome :)

[@VancityAudi]

Have you tried this mat in an RS3 and can confirm it works? They don't look the same.

[@gacoolawong8132]

I went to the Volkswagen dealer, they said that there are many options for Beetle’s airbag control module 5c595337b. Can you tell me which option do you use?

[@braa_psh]

@@VancityAudi What's the part number on the mat?