I have a 2001 a6 and last November the airbag light all of a sudden came on when I started my car.

The light will not go out when driving (it remains on) and ever since it came on this one time in November it has always illuminated when I start my vehicle.

One thing to note is that I do live in Minnesota and people have stated that they have seen this light come on when it is cold out. It was probably 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit when the light first came on and the temperature has dropped all winter (many days to -15, it sucks). We had a 35 degree day yesterday and the light still came on but I am hoping once the temperature gets up to 40 degrees the light will go off.

Has anyone else experienced this issue, and if so, what was the root cause?

Also, I am considering purchasing a vag-com to figure out why it is on (as Audi wants $100 to hook one up), but am not willing to spend the money just yet.

If you are going to suggest the vag-com route where do you suggest I order one? This site http://www.vagproduct.com/product/usbvag.htm sells the cable for about $30 and recommends just downloading the shareware version of the software. I know you can get them at ross-tech but I want to avoid that price if possible.

Thank you in advance for all of the responses,

Matt

 

Buy generic ebay cable for cheaper, and download shareware version from rosstech. The shareware version does most of the things that the licensed version does. If really needed, you can buy the license only for $99 which will work with the ebay cable.

As for the airbag light, VAGcom will be the only sure way to find out.

 

Thank you for the response hxgaser. I took your advice and ended up purchasing this cable http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/USB-O...motiveQ5fTools

Do you think I will be able to see the airbag fault code if I download the shareware version from Ross-tech?

 

Yea the shareware version will show the airbag fault and it will clear the code once you fix the problem. Once the airbag light comes on it will not clear itsself unless done so through a scanner or vagcom.