SRS warning light problems

I have had the SRS warning light on for ages and decided to try and fix it. I has a suspicion that the left hand passanger seat was causing the problem, as when I changed the seats the cable was being crushed under the cross member of the seat. The SRS light had been coming on intermittently before the seat change but had been on permanenty since.

Having disconnected the battery and after much sweating and swearing I finally got the seat out, untaped the protective sleeve and discovered the 2 cables looked fine

I then squeezed the connectors with some pliers to make sure connection was good. Reconnected the battery and warning light still came on

As I still have the original seat I decided to swap the seat belt pre-tensioners, as the light was only intermittent when that was installed so battery disconnected, wait 30 mins, plug in orignal pre-tensioner, reconnect battery and light still on :nonod:

I thens squeezed the connectors on the driving seat with no luck :slapme:

I an sure that I have read somewhere that if you have this issue then as long as the horn works you can discount a problem with the driver's airbag. My horn does work but I was getting desparate by now so battery procedure again but this time check plug on air bag, which appeared to be seated ok. I unplgged it, gave it a quick blow to make sure it was all clean and, with absolutely no hope of a positive outcome, put the keys in the ignition and turned to position 2:

SRS light comes on then after a couple of seconds goes off (as usual) and does not come back on :bang:

So I have spent an entire day wasting my time when, if I had not been under the impression that it could not be the driver's airbag because the horn worked, I could have fixed this in 15 minutes :lol:

So did I imagine the 'horn works' scenario or is that info out there? If it is then, based on my exploits today, it may be incorrect.

As an aside, Clives post on this mentioned the rubbish connectors on the pre-tensioner, which is under the rubber sleeve. I had a look at my original ones and thay are soldered, so another example of 'project drive' cost cutting (I bet that must have saved at least 50p per car). Here's a pic of the inside of the MGF version:

This is a reason a lot change the connectors to bullets / spades.

I have the same problem. Pauls MGF had this problem he changed the SRS ECU and it was fixed.

But have you seen the, possibly erroneous, 'if the horm works then the driver's airbag connection is ok' info I believe I have read somewhere? :dunno:

You're right Larry!
That is a widely held belief, including by me...:lol:
I think 'the horn works so...' scenario is that 99% of the time the problem is a damaged ribbon in the rotary coupler. This will also cause a horn failure.
As you have now found that doesn't cater for a dodgy connection on the actual airbag. Useful information!:yesnod: