Help with passenger seat emulator install

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GeneralBanter

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Aug 21, 2020
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Location
Norfolk
Car
C220 CDI
I've got an '05 W203 C220 CDi and the passenger occupancy sensor failed, SRS warning light followed shortly after! I've bought an emulator to rectify the issue but it didn't come with any instructions and I'm keen to not mess this up.

I've included some photos and I've got a good idea where the wires need to go but the colours of the wires don't really match with the colours of the existing wires. Possibly of more concern is the switches on the emulator box itself, do these need to be set to a certain way?

Any help appreciated, thanks!
 

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Wouldn't it be more sensible and potentially much safer to fix the problem, rather than cover it up?
How much is an occupancy sensor?
 
Wouldn't it be more sensible and potentially much safer to fix the problem, rather than cover it up?
How much is an occupancy sensor?
Safety is not going to be an issue with this method, the only difference is that the passenger airbags will now fire regardless of passenger occupancy as opposed to selectively like before.

More sensible? Yes, probably. However this error showed up on the morning of my MOT (typical) which means that the car is unusable at the moment, this is the quickest way I could think of doing it.


Do you have any info that can help me install this?
 
All it would need is SDS coding, 15 minutes and sensor mat is off... you may need clear the codes anyway.

How we can help when no one has a slightes idea whats inside the box, and how it supposed to be 'configured'? Those are certainly not 'stardard' stuff. Contact emulator seller?
 
Hi,
Have to agree with Mersum1es, and you really need to talk to the supplier as the wrong connection could cause other damage.
As you cant fit the emulator yet, just something to try first and may negate the need for it.
I have had problems with the occupancy sensor mat/Seat Airbag on my Audi, a Passat and two MLs and managed to fix it on all of them without replacing the mat/airbag
Take the connector(s) apart that has the female pins in it and pinch them slightly with a pair of pliers, to make the male pin a tighter fit. fiddly but worked in every case stated above, was a big relief for my mate who one of the MLs was as the occupancy sensor was only available with the whole seat cover cover base as circa £500.
There maybe two pairs of connectors dependent on exact model, one pair at the seat removal point, and another at the Mat (airbag in the case of my Audi).
Connector issues were acknowledged by Audi and there workshops didn't replace them they cut them out and soldered and insulated the connection.
Worth a try until such time you can fit the emulator.
 
Wouldn't it be more sensible and potentially much safer to fix the problem, rather than cover it up?
How much is an occupancy sensor?
Over £1000 for an R171... You have to replace the seat squab entirely!

OP, see this thread: R171 - Seat Occupancy Mat Connections | Electronics and Audio

The poxy things didn't work; my car is bog-standard, so they should have. I had continuity across the connections on the seat base. In the end I had the sensor coded out.

If there had been any conceivable circumstance in which I might have a child seat fitted in the front passenger seat, I'd have had to stump up for a new seat squab.

The emulators I bought were exactly the same as yours; only the suppliers' names were different. If you look on eBay, there are a couple of suppliers in Northern Ireland, both with fitting instructions on their websites.
 
Depending on the model/year, the seat occupancy sensor provides up to four states: seat empty; seat has light person (child) on it; seat has adult on it; seat has sensor-equipped baby seat on it. An emulator makes it always report that it has an adult on it, which is the same result as if the seat occupancy sensor is disabled by coding.

Even with a sensor-equipped baby seat and a working occupancy sensor, the user is responsible for checking that the airbag has been disabled when a baby seat is fitted. There are warning stickers in the car regarding this. If the user fits a baby seat that doesn't have the correct sensor, or fits the baby seat incorrectly, the airbag will not be disabled. As the disable indication is a light coming on (rather than the opposite sense of coming on to indicate when the airbag is enabled), this is easy to overlook if the baby seat becomes dislodged during use and it could be safer to insist that a baby seat should not be fitted to the front seat.

For an older car with a seat occupancy sensor failure, a quality emulator from a reputable supplier can be the most cost-effective solution: look for an emulator with a moulded plug rather than pins, a decent business web site with online instructions and expect instructions to come in the package, too.
 
Depending on the model/year, the seat occupancy sensor provides up to four states: seat empty; seat has light person (child) on it; seat has adult on it; seat has sensor-equipped baby seat on it. An emulator makes it always report that it has an adult on it, which is the same result as if the seat occupancy sensor is disabled by coding.

Even with a sensor-equipped baby seat and a working occupancy sensor, the user is responsible for checking that the airbag has been disabled when a baby seat is fitted. There are warning stickers in the car regarding this. If the user fits a baby seat that doesn't have the correct sensor, or fits the baby seat incorrectly, the airbag will not be disabled. As the disable indication is a light coming on (rather than the opposite sense of coming on to indicate when the airbag is enabled), this is easy to overlook if the baby seat becomes dislodged during use and it could be safer to insist that a baby seat should not be fitted to the front seat.

For an older car with a seat occupancy sensor failure, a quality emulator from a reputable supplier can be the most cost-effective solution: look for an emulator with a moulded plug rather than pins, a decent business web site with online instructions and expect instructions to come in the package, too.
Actually, let me correct myself a little: one way in which the result with an emulator may be different to coding out the sensor is the seat belt reminder. With an emulator, you will want to disable the seat belt reminder by making it appear that the seat belt is always latched, to avoid a warning. If your passengers are forgetful about buckling up, then coding or spending a fortune on a new occupancy sensor is probably the best bet.

Incidentally, when I have added an emulator in the past I also looked into buying an unambiguous "Do not fit child seat" sticker to place in the car, but it actually had one already: on the side of the dashboard, when the door was open, there was a large sticker for that even though the car came from the factory with a seat occupancy sensor with child seat sensor. There was a much smaller sticker somewhere else that explained the sensor and warning light. It seems that even Mercedes think that the simplest, safest thing is to not put a child seat in the front.
 

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