Side Airbag Help

Ok to make a long story short, I put leather seats in my 07 with the side air bags which I didnt have before. I got a new RCM, and the plugs for the side bags was under the seat which I hooked up. Now another member gave me a link to the wiring diagram for the side impact sensors, but when I looked under the carpet I see where they bolt up but dont see the harness. Anyone have any idea where it would be? Do I need to undo the tape covering the wires or is it taped up somewhere else? Not sure why they would have the wires for everything else and not these..

And if I can find where these wires are anyone have some side impact sensors they want to get rid of?

thanks
nick

the wires are there...

If you found the three holes where the side impact sensors go, the wire is there also, but it is more toward the bottom seat cushion, under the carpet, (about 6 inches perpendicular to the mounting holes). It is a small black connector. Ford taped the connector at a 180 degrees to the wire, kind of in a loop to shorten the wire. Its there you'll find it. The sensors are about $40 each. I assume you got the RCM for a car with side airbags. You will have to connect everything then follow the depower and repower instructions. You should be golden. Keep in mind, if you bought a used RCM, impact data is recorded in the RCM and kept until an impact with greater force occurs, then the new data is kept. This data can not be readily deleted.

My explanation sucks, let me try again...starting with the drivers side. Locate the mounting holes there are two or three holes. The impact sensor only has one bolt. (do not over-tighten it). Now that you have located the holes, pull the carpet upward a bit further, look straight ahead under the carpet toward the seat bottom slightly left toward the cross member the seat is on, you will find a taped wire with a small black connector. If you can't find it, PM me, I will take a picture of mine when I get home.



follow air-bag depower instructions, disconnect battery. wait a few minutes to insure no residual power is left in system...

Replace RCM
Add side impact sensors
connect side impact sensors
remove side bag terminators
connect seat airbag harness to chassis harness for side bags, in place of the side bag terminators.

try forddirectonline for parts their prices seemed reasonable.

follow air-bag re-power instructions, watch air bag light to make sure it goes off after 6 seconds.

done!

Bryan

Thanks Bryan I will look tomorrow (raining today bla). I looked with the seat in and didnt see it but if it was taped I may have missed it, I need to put the pass. seat out anyway so I will check then.

And yes I did get the RCM for side airbags. When I hooked it all up (no realizing I was missing the side impact sensors) it was showing a crash code and there is a place that can reset these it worked on mine now I just have two codes for the impact sensors. So anyone that has hit something and the bags did not go off but you got a airbag light you can get this fixed for about 45 bucks.

Good to know about the re-set

being able to delete crash data means you can buy a used one. Of course it also brings up potential legal issues... someone could delete the info before being legally required to submit it to the authoritay!! Also be aware that the side impact sensors have no moving parts and if they are not physically damaged they can be re-used.

If you have to take out the passenger seat anyway, start hunting for the wire there, because once you find the wire on the passenger side, you will get a better idea of where the driver wire is located. If you have not yet removed a seat, make sure you take the head rest off first. MUCH easier that way!!

Keep me updated man.

Bryan

P.S., do the seats you added have seat heaters? did you wire those up? If you want to, be aware it is a pain in the ass. I am finishing mine up tonight and I am only going to be sucessfull because I had access to a donor car. The inline connectors aren't a problem, (c200 and c211), but the connector going to the heater control is going to be a pain if you don't have access to a donor. I was able to remove the wires along with the pin, from each of the connectors, except the guy helping remove the harness forgot the wire on the driver side, which is what was making me crazy yesterday, the harness he gave made no sense at the time because it was one wire short and I did not know that. After finding out it was missing a wire, well now it makes sense. You will also need the little box on the driver side that contains two micro relays for the heated seats. Again, if you have access to a donor it will work, otherwise, screw it and go aftermarket. I was already too deep to go aftermarket. (funny, my P.S. was longer than my actual message)

No i was hoping they had heated seats when I bought them but they didnt oh well. After reading all the issues with yours kinda glad they didnt lol. I will let you know what I find tomorrow.

Bryan I pulled the seat out today, and no luck I dont see the plug anywhere, I dont know why they wouldnt have put this in there when they do have the plug for the bags themselves. If you can get me a pic so I can verify one last time that would be helpful. Now if it is definatily not there is there anyway to make the RCM think it is there?

thanks for all the help
nick

CRAP!!

Let me see what I can come up with. I am pretty sure the wire is there, but its difficult diagnosing via internet.

Stupid question, but after pulling out the seat, you looked 'under' the carpet right? The wire is under the carpet along one of the cross members that is between the frame rail horizontal with the bottom of the door opening and the tranny tunnel. Use a flash light, it will appear as if it is part of the wiring harness. I have the mustang at work, I will go down, look at it again and draw it for you. I will try more later on.

Bryan

me again, better description

ok here is drawn depiction based on memory.

The forward mounting points on the front seats bolt to the seat from rail. The wire you are looking for is on the back side of this frame frame rail.

In addition to the location obove; on the side door frame rail where the door entry trim reads Mustang, looking at the 'a' in mustang, perpendicular to this 'a' under the carpet beneath the seat, you should find a large wiring harness. Coming out of this large wiring harness should be a small two or three wire plug that matches the side impact sensor you purchased. If you have found the large harness and you can not find the plug I speak of, they may have taped the plug to the wiring harness protector, 'the black plastic covering over the wire'. If it is not taped to the outside of the harness, maybe they got creative and put it inside. Only one plug is the correct size and shape to fit the impact sensor.

Let me know what you find this time.

Bryan

I will look at lunch when my wife comes home with the car, When I had the pass. seat out I lifted the whole carpet up, but didnt see it. YOu dont remember what color the wires were do you? I should have took a pic while the seat was out to show you. The only other plug I seen was already plugged in was a three wire one that was hooked up where the bottom of the seatbelt bolts to the frame.

no idea on the wire colors, mine were wrapped in a seperate smaller black harness branching off the other harness behind the seat mounting frame rail. I assume you found the main wire harness under the carpet right? You may have to feel around on that harness and maybe move it around to see if the plug is taped to the harness or hidden somewhere. I can probably get the wire colors for you later on today.

pictures and corrections...

my wire for the seat harness was taped to the before mentioned harness, however it branches off from the main harness on the vehicle side frame rail. The wire colors on the passenger side appear to be brown and white. I took three pictures to try and show what I am talking about. You may have to save the pics to your pc and enlarge them if you can't enlarge them on this site.

Bryan

Well I looked the other day and again today just to triple check, I dont see the wires anywhere. I even looked to see if there was a white and brown wire in that side of the harness, and no!! Just white with yellow stripe and brown with lt blue stripe(i think it was blue). So something must be different in that part of the harness. Now you think there is anyway to trick it into thinking they are there? I am guessing the pins on the RCM have no wires on them. Or maybe I could run new wires? I guess I am going to have to check the RCM plug side. This is begining to be more headache than its worth. I would have just put the old RCM in but I traded the guy for the one with bags. So if I cant get this figured out soon and you still have yours maybe we can make a deal (I stll have the resistor plugs), but I would like to have the side bags.

nick

I'm stumped!

If you checked that entire harness and did not find it I don't know what to think! That really stinks! I read that in 07 Ford started using one main wiring harness for all Mustangs. Maybe yours was built before the change over. How close to Fredericksburg Va are you? If you choose to go back to the rcm without heated seats I still have mine. However be aware that another member here was able to simply plug in the yellow termination plugs to get rid of his side bag errors when he went to new seats. Try that first, if it doesn't work or if you prefer my rcm let me know. I know we can work something out, hell, just make me an offer I want you to suceed in this project but if the wire aren't there I don't know what to do. Check on the wiring harness for the rcm and see what you come up with. If you need plugs I can probably get them from the junkyard I got most of my daughters parts from.

Did the photos help in terms of pinpointing where the wire should be?

Bryan

Yeah the photo' s helped me verifiy I was looking in the right place. I think your right about the harness, see when I got the seats they were out of a 08 and the pass. seat had a square main plug, and mine has a rectangle plug. I didnt think anything of it then. I just switched them and all was fine, well I thought lol. See I am almost thinking I may be able to add the wires to the RCM harness, I have a feeling those wires just were not put in.

The resistor plugs would have worked if I would have already had the side impact sensors. But the problem is the RCM is programmed to have a signal from the side sensors but its just a open circuit right now and thats why its throwing codes for both side sensors.(If you understand what I am saying).

I am about three hours from Fredricksburg.

Thanks for all the help I will keep ya posted on what I find

nick

more

keep in mind the brown and white side bag wires were on my passenger side, the driver side should have different colors. The driver seat and passenger seat have two different seat plugs, aside from the side bag plugs. The driver seat power plug I believe is roundish, and the passenger seat plut is rectangle like.

Another option is to remove the center console again and check the RCM for the color wires you are looking for. (I can take out my driver seat and give you the colors.) Trace the wires from the RCM to the seat. Most likely the RCM wires do not go through the smart junction box, but around it. There are large intermediate plugs on both sides of the car, the driver side is around the hood release and the passenger plug is next to the SJB, if you are facing the SJB it is on the right. You should be able to find the wires you are looking for in these harnesses, then just follow them down the cars side frame rail and see where they end. The pictures I sent show the color wires on the passenger side. It looks like a light brown wire. Maybe we should set a time to call, I can take my car apart and guide you then we can determine with certainty if yours are missing or if Ford got creative and hid yours.

Was your mustang the deluxe or premium? That may be the issue. Mine is the premium. Worst case scenario you might be able to add the wires to the RCM, but you need to find the pins that fit into the plug that connects to the RCM, or obtain a plug from the junk yard and re-use the pins from it.

Yeah thats the plan going to trace the wires from the RCM down. The car was just a deluxe but since I seen the resistor plugs under the seat I thought it had the standered harness they had switched to but now I dont think it was the car was built 4/07 so I am thinking they had not switched yet.. I am not going to work on it till the beging of next week though me and the wife going out of town till late sunday. But I will let you know what I find out. Thanks for all the info its been alot of help.

nick

Baron11 said:

....However be aware that another member here was able to simply plug in the yellow termination plugs to get rid of his side bag errors when he went to new seats. .....

Click to expand...

That is a misleading statement. I am pretty sure the he made a relatively long post about all of the sensors he plugged in and/or terminated in order to keep from having codes. And it certainly was more than just plugging in the terminators.

Bryan
Well took it apart today and just as I thought the side impact wires are not in the harness so now I ether have to put them in there, get a whole new harness or go back to just the front bags. bla

I would like to keep the splicing to a min. if possible you dont happen to know anyone that has a whole harness they would sell do ya I would almost rather do that than cut wires (thats one of those systems I would like not having the chance of a short)

nick

I did take some pics of the harness if you wanted to see

Hawgman,

If I remember correctly there were many error codes he was wanting to get rid of, not just the side bag errors. One of the codes were the side bag codes another was the driver side position sensor, then there was the passenger side front air-bag error, which as I recall was the most challenging in that he had to put the passenger sensor bag in the new seat. I don't recall all the rest of the errors he was getting rid of But, if I remember correctly, if you break down what he did into sections, he was able to get the side bag errors to stop with the termination plugs while still using his RCM designed for side air bags. He did many other things to get his custom seats in, but I was only referring to the sidebag errors. I am sure we will find out soon enough if the termination plugs are enough for the sidebag errors. Keep in mind the OP is not putting custom seats in without airbags and sensors and what not; he is using original Mustang seats and trying to retrofit 'only' the side airbags like I did. Unless of course I mised something.

Bryan

Smoken1986

Nick,

Man it really depends how deep you want to go. I can get a harness but I just wouldn't recommend it. If you are determined, which, ok, obviously you are, much like I was with the heated seats. This is what I would do:

I agree keep splicing to a minimum.

You don't need a harness.

You have the side impact sensors and the plug they came with, you need the other end to that plug. One for the drivers side, one for the passenger.

You will need a wiring diagram for the plugs that go into the RCM. This will tell you which pin does what. I would try and source the plug(s) that go to the RCM from a wrecked car that had sidebags. At the very least you will have to obtain the pins that go inside the plug, FORD does not sell them. Once you determine which pin inside the plug you need to have, carefully take the pin out of the plug along with its attached wire, usually there is a very small piece of plastic holding the pin in, release this with a jewelers screw driver or something really small and then pull the pin out. (the pin kind of snaps into the plug, releasing it is similar to releasing a nylon zip tie, you have to rais the little finger holding the grooved portion of the strap.) Leave the wire attached to the pin. You will splice this wire with an appropriate length that goes to the plug that inserts into the plug from the side impact sensor.

so basicly you are only splicing the length of wire between the used plugs obtained from the wrecked car, four wires total. The wiring diagram will tell you which wire goes where and because you left some wire attached to your sourced plugs the colors will match the diagram. I think this would be less of a pain than a wiring harness which would then plug into, (my guess) the passenger seat sensor, the driver side seat position sensor, the driver air-bag, the passenger air bag, the side impact sensors and the front impact sensors, I am sure there are more connections.

If you decide you want to go back to having no side air-bags and want my RCM, with all the trouble you have gone through man, hell, just pay for shipping and its yours.

Bryan

I hope all this crap makes sense.