Get rid of your Audi's airbag warning light by fixing it for good

All of us who own Audi A4s, and many owners of A6 and A8 models, are all too aware of the airbag warning light on the dash. It's a common issue with our cars (those equipped with seat-mounted side airbags), and it's very often not an actual fault with the system. Nonetheless, it's still there and it's annoying. It's usually caused by moving the seat just a little too far - the airbag connector for the seat bag gets strained and opens up just a hair, for a second or so, which is enough to set the fault light, even though the bag is fully functional and the problem was a momentary disconnect. Here's how to fix it.

Look under the front edge of the seat - you'll see two sets of connectors. One, the larger one, has a black harness plug and multiple wires on it (this is for your power seat motors, and seat heating elements). The other, toward the center of the car, is bright yellow with only a few wires. This is the airbag connector. What I did in my car was to use small zip-ties, and zip tie the connector halves tightly together - be careful not to pinch any wires while doing this. Once the zip tie is looped around the connector, pull it tight, turn off the airbag light (either have a shop do it, or look at my Tips and Tricks and see the one about diagnosing your own check engine light - there's a way you can do it yourself for minimal investment), and you should be good to go. Over time, the zip tie may stretch and need to be pulled tight again, or replaced, as I've had to do, but to me, that's a small price to pay to have the light off, and to not pay a dealer $60 to do it for me each time.