Error message - Front Left Malfunction - Consult Workshop - 2012 E250

[Jason1145]

Has anyone had this error message fixed?

This message appeared after MB Bedford main dealers did the air bag recall, I have not had a chance to take it back to a dealers and they want it booked in further diagnostics at £234.

I have now got my new icarsoft scan tool and it gives me the error code 9CEE - Sensor mat “Front Passenger” Has a malfunction.

I erased the code but it comes back on 5 seconds later.

Will they fix it as part of their earlier recall works, or is this mat totally unrelated to what they did replacing the front passenger airbag?

 

[tony gee]

erase the code and see if it comes back.

 

[Jason1145]

Sorry I’ll update the main post - yes I erased it and it comes straight back

 

[markjay]

Failure of the Front Passenger Seat Occupancy Sensor (aka 'sensor mat') is a very common issue.

The sensor mat lets the car know when the front seat is occupied by a passenger, to prevent the unnecessary deployment of the air bag in the event of a crash when the front passenger seat is unoccupied.

Replacing it involves a new mat - around £150-£250 depending on model - and labour (seat disassembly and reassembly), around £100-£150.

You can also get cheap Chinese-made emulator on eBay, but I would recommend against it.

However, the first step, as tony gee said, is to erase the fault code and see if it comes back.

 

[Jason1145]

Failure of the Front Passenger Seat Occupancy Sensor (aka 'sensor mat') is a very common issue.

The sensor mat lets the car know when the front seat is occupied by a passenger, to prevent the unnecessary deployment of the air bag in the event of a crash when the front passenger seat is unoccupied.

Replacing it involves a new mat - around £150-£250 depending on model - and labour (seat disassembly and reassembly), around £100-£150.

You can also get cheap Chinese-made emulator on eBay, but I would recommend against it.

However, the first step, as tony gee said, is to erase the fault code and see if it comes back.

An interesting read thank you.
I’ve just watched a 32 minute video of a Scottish chap who showed exactly how he replaced this sensor mat in a C207 with a 2nd hand item he bought still attached to the foam seat… I was with him right up to when he got the front passenger seat out the car and in his lounge, but then he lost me with the next 25 minutes of dissecting the actual seat pad!
Lost all my enthusiasm for such a repair, the risk of failure, breakage, forgetting where things go was just too much for me.

I’ve now seen those seat occupancy emulators you mentioned ( Poland, not China) and they sound like a good solution in principal… you just unplug the faulty mat sensor plug and insert this connector, it makes the car think there is always someone sat in the passenger seat, so the airbag will always deploy if needed in a crash.

What’s not to like about that… if it works

I thought it would be more aghast if these emulators just disabled the dash warning message and they never detected anyone sitting in the front passenger seat, thereby offering no airbag protection ever.

The only downsides of fitting these emulators would be you can’t carry a rear facing child seat in the front seat which I’m not likely to do again, and if it actually works or not.

If it came to a £400 fix at MB I would probably swallow it for peace of mind… I was just hoping for longer than 2 weeks before I’d have to start repairing this new to me car.

 

[ALFAitalia]

I have that same message.....I just hit the ok button... and it's gone until the next time I start the car. ..... unless there is a passenger in the seat, then it does not come on at all. I'll sort it one day....but since you can turn the message off with ok and it's not an MOT fail it might not get fixed that soon!

 

[Jason1145]

I have that same message.....I just hit the ok button... and it's gone until the next time I start the car. ..... unless there is a passenger in the seat, then it does not come on at all. I'll sort it one day....but since you can turn the message off with ok and it's not an MOT fail it might not get fixed that soon!

Yeah I need to test it again with a passenger in the seat, if it goes off the whole time someone is sat there, there is no problem as the airbag is active.

 

[ALFAitalia]

That's the point ...if the warning is on dash the airbag is ALWAYS on. The reason for the sensor is to make sure that the passenger side airbag does NOT go off in the event of a crash when there is no passenger in the seat. With the fault I have the airbag will deploy, passenger or not. But to be honest if I crashed the car hard enough to deploy the bags, the passenger side one going off unnecessarily will be the least of my problems!