Need air bag help and IDing of plugs 2000 RS

[mellow65]

so i'm helping a friend of mine put back together her 2000 RS that was taken apart to find a water leak. well one thing lead to another and here it sits with 3 and half years later with no interior, a pile of parts and me not being the person that took it apart.

 

so i'm doing my good deed for the year and helping her get it back together and making it mobile again.

 

but i'm running into some problems. i got it running, and i have a air bag light on. so in searching around to see if anything was unplugged i'm noticing that the air bag module is missing 2 plugs. no where in the car and in any of the pile of parts (keep in mind, some stuff might have gotten tossed) can i find the 2 (and should be yellow) plugs that plug into it.

 

My only thought is that these 2 plugs may have been part of a sub harness that could be removed from the car and might have got tossed or miss placed. And that maybe that sub harness plugged into one of the plugs I don't know what they are for.

 

But I snapped some pics so i'm not just using words to describe it, i'll use blurry pictures to help.

 

but if you can identify any of these plugs it would be much appreciated.

 

 

back of the air bag module

 

mystery plug #1, located behind the radio area. not for the radio.

 

mystery plug #2. comes from the back of the radio area, but has a super long lead to it. streached out it would touch the front of the back seat. but i don't think it goes that way. it does have an inline "bus" style fuse (think old school round tube) that comes off the power wire for the radio.

[idosubaru]

retrieve the air bag codes, it's really easy to do. i forget how but search here or online and you'll find out. find out the codes and let us know.

 

i was looking into intricate stuff once on an air bag light and finally read the codes, it gave me the drivers side air bag code and it just happened to be disconnected. light went out when i plugged it in.

 

i've done a few, normal and with side impact air bags too, and can't recall specifics. i don't remember but could it be that your model doesn't have those plugs? like maybe those are only used in models with side impact air bags and yours are supposed to be blank?

 

removing an entire harness seems unlikely but i guess if they really stripped it down good?

 

those mystery plugs are not air bag related. as you know, the air bag connectors are always yellow and easily identified by also having those absolutely insanely difficult to remove clips. they require you to play twister with your fingers to remove, if you've ever done one you know what i'm talking about. they make it such that it's almost impossible to remove them without damaging one every now and again, absolutely brilliant.

 

those mystery connectors are probably for options you didn't have that were available on other vehicles. subaru installs the same wiring harness across a wide swathe of vehicles making it easy to install options. like seat heaters, subwoofer, amp, remote CD changer, i'm making stuff up but you get the point, or if it was a legacy the climate control and VDC buttons would be there.

[OB99W]

Impreza 2001 airbag info:

http://www.subaru-car.ru/imp1/imp01_body_3.pdf

http://www.subaru-car.ru/imp1/imp01_body_4.pdf

http://www.subaru-car.ru/imp1/imp01_wir_1.pdf

[idosubaru]

Nice links OBW.

 

Section 6 looks like it is showing 3 connectors of the configuration you're picture shows. Section 6 page WI49 shows the main connector you have. page WI51 shows the other two connectors and what they go to.

 

Page WI51 indicates those empty plugs are for side impact air bags and the ELR system (the locking front seat belts). But I don't know if they're used for other things, might want to skim that info and find out because I don't think your car has side impact air bags or ELR right?

 

I didn't scan through it all but I guess it's possible those connectors (AB17 & AB18) are used for something else too, but I didn't find it.

 

Really hard to imagine someone actually pulling an entire harness like that out.

 

You obviously checked for those connectors to make sure they didn't get stuffed somewhere else right?

[Fairtax4me]

they make it such that it's almost impossible to remove them without damaging one every now and again, absolutely brilliant.

When they say child proof them mean it!

 

Don't get too reliant on the yellow for airbag component ID. Ford uses all different color plugs on their systems.

 

The two unidentified plugs could easily be for options the car doesn't have. Thins is, if side airbags were an option for the car, I would expect for there to be harnesses for them even if the components aren't there.

[idosubaru]

if side airbags were an option for the car, I would expect for there to be harnesses for them even if the components aren't there.

i was about the same thing, i wouldn't expect blank plugs on the controller. and i didn't think side air bags were an option on any model in 2000. none in 99 and if 2000 had any it would be high end legacy's, not impreza's.

 

i think he's got some info to check in on though if he wants to start plugging around. i'd be looking for the harnesses and the sensors associated with his vehicle.

 

it's rare but sometimes sub-harnesses aren't installed but everything else is in place so the options are plug and play.

[mellow65]

those pdfs are perfect thanks.

 

maybe it was easier to just use the same controller through out the models. and so maybe this is the same one that was used in the higher end legacys with side air bags.

 

i mean they make so much else interchangable why stop at the air bag stuff.

 

regardless, harness supposed to be there or not, it doesn't have side air bags so that's all i care about.

 

i'm going to try and flash the codes next weekend and see what it says and go from there.

 

thanks

[Fairtax4me]

Yeah, no sense worrying over what should or shouldn't be there until you figure out what it's looking for.

 

Good luck getting it figured out and put back together.