2002 Polo Airbag 01221 code issue.... Please help a newbie....

[arsvs]

Hi all,

Newbie site member here. I've had a scoot around the site hoping just to come across my issues and thoughts, but I just could not find my answers, Anywhere.
So, I will start from the beginning and see how I go. Around two years ago I thought i would never have the need to get oily with cars again when I got a 2017 A3 This was until I decided to get my son a runabout for his 17th birthday. I decided on a 2002 Polo 5dr 1.2s, which i bought in early April.
I spent around a month compounding the paintwork and getting it as clean as I possibly could (for a 17 year old car) outside and in. As I were buying a new battery for it anyway I had the radio on in the car while doing my magic on the last day. Later that day when it was ready to be moved to my drive, i turned it over but it didn't surprise me that it turned very slowly but it just got that spark and fired up. I moved it, but saw that the airbag light was on. I had a look around and found this was more than likely caused by the low power in the battery. so I bought a cheap VW/AUDI OBD box off Amazon to reset the light. Now then, today the box turned up, i ran the SRS test on it and it showed 01221 as the fault code which I'm sure everybody reading this knows what that fault is, so here are my issues.

1) The airbag light was definitely NOT on before the battery was low as I had been moving it around while cleaning.

2) I have checked as much as I can (without taking the seat out) of the drivers side on the connector under the seat and that seems to look and feel ok.

3) When i click on the ROSS-TECH information, it does say that code is the drivers side. BUT, I noticed that is an American site with Euro cars. So is that drivers sideleft hand drive? or right hand drive?

4) Where the heck is this side airbag sensor??? I seem to have gone from A-Z of Google to no avail. At first it said "it's in the door" so i took this as gospel, took of the door panel and saw nothing. Which is where i went deeper into Google and the best I saw was an old thread from this site from robert1z. I checked around the rear area under the seat, carpet and dead spiders which was directed as "The sensor is in front of the seat toward the sill" Now I do assume that this is meant as the rear seat as there is another picture on that thread showing the sensor at the rear of the car. I got the carpet up as far as I could without taking the seat out and still could not see anything.

The MOT isn't due till late October but as he is learning to drive and he is my first born, I want everything working as it should for him.
Which is why I am here. I can strip down and rebuild an MGF no problem, as this is my usual weekend car. But as I put in my second line i have a 2017 A3 with 9k on the clock which needs nothing doing to it and as the Audi was my first dip into the VAG scene, i have zero idea what the score is. I bought my son the polo because I have been extremely happy with my A3 so thought getting this nice low millage polo was a good idea. I don't regret buying it as it drives perfectly, it's just this airbag light.
Thanks for reading this and if you can help, please do. I don't have the sort of money to take it to a garage, which is why I bought the OBD box in the first place. So hope at least one of you lovely people have good pictures, diagrams, etc, to help out.

[Crasher]

Remove the drivers seat and the sill panel moulding and it is under the carpet. The trouble is with the code reader you have it has not defined the problem as "faulty" or "open/short circuit to +/-" . I get the part number for the one fitted as 6Q0 909 606 J 003 and they are £189.12. To see if it is the sensor, swap it with the passenger side as they are the same and see if the code swaps over.

[arsvs]

Excellent, thanks. Looks like i'm going to have to find my Torx sockets out now. I'm just happy the weather is fine right now.

[arsvs]

can anyone please tell me what socket and size I need for the seat bolts?

[Crasher]

Off the top of my head it is an 10mm XZN, also called a triple square and incorrectly, a spline drive. The bolt is VAG part number N 908 921 01 at £1.26 each and you are supposed to replace them when removed, also from memory the torque setting is 25Nm.

[arsvs]

IMG_1955.jpg
wonderful !! Thank you. I got hold of a socket set on same day delivery. I took the drivers seat out and found the said sensor under the carpet bolted to the floor bar facing the front of the car. I swapped it over for the passenger sensor and it flew up the fault as passenger side, so that's that. I've popped a picture up of the sensor so people know what they're looking for. It's started raining and I don't have the replacement yet, but I will upload some more pictures of the area just as a helper.

[arsvs]

ok, so I actually looked at the part number and it's the 6Q0 909 606D. Is this a rare thing to get? as I was actually trying to track down a used part that carries some kind of warranty. Or no warranty is cheap enough. I seem to have found loads of them on ebay that just have the number of 6Q0 909 606 but without the D at the end. So i am wondering if there is another module, maybe newer that i can swap it out for. Also if there is any way I can bypass the sensor? As i said in my first post, this is my sons car so i do want it 100% for him but if it means just bypassing one sensor just to get the rest of the airbag system working for now it would be a great help. It took me long enough just to save up for the car, pay his insurance and tax, let alone spending 1/4 of the price of the car on this sensor. the cheapest i found a like for like sensor was for £50 + a staggering £14 for postage costs. which right now may as well be a million pounds. I appreciate the help being given and any extra would make my year.
so here is one I saw on ebay. it is the same code without the D at the end. Same shape, but black. any idea if its a swapper?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seat-Leon-Cupra-R-Mk1-Airbag-Sensor-6Q0-909-606/323797114798?hash=item4b63cfdfae:g:PY8AAOSwJxRcomV i

[Crasher]

If you bypass the air bag you MUST tell your insurance company, if he was involved in an accident and it came to light that the unit had been bypassed, his insurance may be invalidated. The parts look up system I have at home gives very stark warnings about the ordering of this sensor and I can’t check the finer details until tomorrow. Private message me the REG number.