Air bag light came on, possible cause?

[Fredo]

my air bag light has recently come on and has stayed on throughout the duration the the trips with my car. What possibe causes can contribute to this happening?

my car is a '96 318ti base.

[yeehawbob]

The sensors pad in your seat, or the wiring that goes under the rear seat could have a break in it due to age.
The belt buckle's are commom defaulters too.

90 % of us Ti's have the Air bag light come on and stay on for as long as I can remember.

[cooljess76]

99% of the time, it's the driver's seat buckle receptacle. There's two kinds, depending on your build date. Older models had cable actuated locking mechanisms while newer models have pyrotechnic mechanisms. Replacing them will require removal of the seat. I don't feel like typing the instructions again as I've already done it twice in one week. A simple search will reveal several threads. One thing that I will warn you about, Be sure to disconnect both battery terminals prior to disconnecting any plugs and only after all plugs are reconnected should you reconnect the battery. Also, be sure to follow the exact same routing that the factory installed the wiring for the seat belt receptacles as they can become frayed and chaffed if not routed properly.

Also note, the front seat belt receptacles are armed with an Automatic Locking Tensioner. This device retracts the recepticle about 2 inches in the event of an accident. 318ti's built up to 03/97 use a mechanical auto-locking mechanism(part#'s 72118167711 left and 72118167712 right) while models built after 03/97 use a pyrotechnic auto-locking mechanism (part#'s 72118221013 left and 72118221014 right).

[Fredo]

thanks for the replies