550m Air Bag Warning Light

Airbag ECU is gone. $1300. Sorry.

 

I've got a "redundant" airbag ECU if you're interested. No more airbags in my car...

 

Airbag warning lights may indicate MANY different malfunctions one being the ECU.

 

Good news , I dont think the airbag ECU is gone. This ECU does not have a permanent memory or backup battery so when the main battery is out for a long time the ECU goes into default mode=show warnig light. Only the Ferrari dealer can reset this proprietary code.

Ferrari of Houston reset mine for $100.
Good luck,
Ron

 

$100.00 for a 5 minute job, what a rip off. I have had the odd warning light come on from time to time and the ferrari dealer I go to will reset for nothing as a service, takes but a few minutes.

 

Same here, $100 is better than $1300, but is a total rip for plugging in SD2 and clearing the error code, which is literally a 5 minute job.

 

They tried to do mine twice for free. FWIW, I have a friend who has the software on his TREO. He uses it to shut off check engine lights for his friends with test pipes.

 

But FoH did give me free coffee and a chance to read their Cavallino mags!

Anyway the solution is clear you just need to reset the airbag ECU status if you do any long jobs on the 550 with the battery disconnected.
Either that or you hook up a temporary supply to the ECU.

By the way,the quiz for today is where is the ECU located? Since it took me some time to find it, I throw it out as a challenge to the rest of you for giving me a hard time over the $100.

Regards,
Ron

 

It's obviously right behind the air bag, and I don't own a 550!

Get rid of the air bags!

Save you life!

 

Wrong, sorry, not behind the airbag,
Anybody else want to try?
Ron

 

I am kidding!

 

Which ECU are you talking about, there are close to 10 of them in the car?

 

Dear Stephen,
We were talking about the location of the airbag ECU,

Taraaa....its on the top of the transmission tunnel underneath the carpet.

Most drivers probably rest their elbows on it without even knowing its there underneath!

Anyway if you ever have to replace the airbags, you also have to replace the ECU and then get it reset by the dealer.
Regards,
Ron

 

Algar Ferrari told me if you unhook the battery for any reason to hook it back up and start the car without touching anything including the gas peddal and let it idle for 15 minutes and the ECU will reset. It's worth a try.

 

They mean the engine igniton/injection ECUs (one per side) which have default settings for startup. The above discussion is for the separate ECU for the airbag and its default startup condition is "failed" for safety reasons (or is it to make the dealer rich?).
Regards,
Ron

 

I forgot to add, the airbag ECU does hold its memory for some time, not sure how long, presumably weeks, since its has a bank of capacitors inside that can hold a charge.
Regards,
Ron

 

Whilst this has little to do with air bags it is closely related. My '98 550 suffered a suspension problem and initially a Ferrari main dealer told me that it needed new suspension units and controls. I took it to a non main dealer specialist who spent a lot of time investigating the problem and eventually established that the ECU wasn't talking to the units. They reprogrammed the ECU for relatively little cost and it now works fine. Ferrari said that at some point in the car's past it must have had the battery disconnected or flat for a year or so for the ECU to have lost it's memory.

Having read the above accounts, the puzzling thing is, if the car was disconnected for that long why didn't all the ECUs lose their memory?

Steve

 

Most likely the main engine ECUs have their programs and default parmeters stored in permanent computer memory, i.e. memory which does not need electrical energy to maintain the storage. Just like the bootup memory on your PC.

The smaller ECUs for the suspension and airbag on the other hand probably use the cheaper type of memory that requires a small power source. When the main battery is disconnected - the stored energy in the power supply capacitors will last for a few weeks but not forever.

I am curious about your suspension problem, what symptoms of malfunction did you have? Suspension warning light and anything else?
Regards,
Ron

PS for background reading on memory types see
http://www.answers.com/topic/non-volatile-memory

 

Ron,

I actually did a post on the suspension problem on 22nd Sept 2005 so I won't repeat but would add that there were no warning lights at all - the car didn't know anything was wrong, if you know what I mean.

Actually, when I first got the car I posted on the FOC owners club about what I thought was oversteer and was told that this was not possible unless I drove like a complete hooligan. Thinking it must be the way 550s were I carried on with it as it was for nearly two years.

Steve

 

Dear Steve,
I found and read your post. So the only way to know is from experience of how it should handle or a full system checkout . Since my battery was disconnected for a long time, I guess I will never know for sure if the rear units are responding correctly.
Anyway, feels fine and tightens up nicely in Sports mode and with ASR off.
Regards,
Ron

 

Dear Ron,
Good news I think on the basis of what you say. My car never felt any different between sports and normal mode before I had the work done, I guess I just thought sport mode made no difference - I was wrong.

You should be OK
Regards
Steve

 

Hey Darth:
You mentioned you had a friend who has the SD2 software on his Palm Treo?
Do you know where someone might obtain a copy of the software? How do you hook up a Palm Treo to the 550? What type of cable and connection do you need and where is it hooked up to?
I have been lucky in that I have not had a check engine light for about three thousand miles, after resetting it about 8 times. Nothing needed fixing but now it seems to be alright. I think for owning the cdar long term, maybe having the sd2 software and a palm treo anf cable in the glove box might be a smart idea.
Any thoughts?
Gary