# what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)33-00 - Resistance too Low



## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

My Vag com is giving me an AIRBAG error code
My airbag light is lite up on my cluster
here is the code I get from Vagcom
Control Module Part Number: 6Q0 909 605 A
Component and/or Version: 06 AIRBAG VW5 0004
Software Coding: 12342
Work Shop Code: WSC 00066
1 Fault Found:
00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)
33-00 - Resistance too Low


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## Theresias (Feb 11, 2004)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)33-0 ... (turbobugger)*

There is a problem with your driver airbag, could be one of these...
http://wiki.ross-tech.com/index.php/00588


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## jonesin4boost (Oct 19, 2004)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (Theresias)*

GET AN AIRBAG. FOR SURE. THE CODE IS BASED ON THE IGNITER FOR THE AIRBAG AND REPLACING IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO CLEAR THE AIRBAG LIGHT.


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## Theresias (Feb 11, 2004)

huh? I rarely object to people answers, but this one is simply over the top. There are a lot of tools which help you diagnosing airbag problems like this and based on the year, make and model I would much more tend to look a problem in the clock spring section rather than starting to replace the most expensive parts immediately. Keep in mind, airbags and airbag wiring can be checked without replacing components so throwing the big money into the car is not always the solution to problems.
BTW: Your capslock key is stuck...


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

*Re: (Theresias)*

I cleaned the wiring with some new electronics cleaner airspray that I bought from the auto parts store. Then I pluged the igniter and airbag back in and the codes are still there.
There is actually 3 codes. 
VAG-COM Version: Release 409.1-US
Control Module Part Number: 6Q0 909 605 A
Component and/or Version: 06 AIRBAG VW5 0004
Software Coding: 12342
Work Shop Code: WSC 00066
3 Faults Found:
00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)
33-00 - Resistance too Low
01221 - Shareware Version. To Decode all DTCs
28-00 - Please Register/Activate
01222 - Shareware Version. To Decode all DTCs
28-00 - Please Register/Activate
where do I buy the spring at? I do not see a clock spring on the airbag. The airbag looks new and the wiring looks new and very clean.
Very confusing!


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## penclnck (Jan 27, 2003)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)33-0 ... (turbobugger)*

There is a known issue that can cause the 00588 DTC. Long and short of it, 1 vendor made the clock spring, another vendor make the terminal housing. The terminal housing plugs into the clock spring, but the shunt inside the terminal housing can still make contact with the terminals and thus cause a "resistance too low" fault. 
The shunt, by design, is suppose to short the wiring harness of the airbag when it is unplugged so that there can't be a static build up in the wiring that might cause the airbag to deploy when plugged up.
Anyway, I've replaced a lot of the lower terminal housings, part number 6E0 971 582C to resolve this issue. As I recall, it tends to be a winter issue (cold weather). There is a technical bulletin 01-00-07 from VW that goes into detail on this.


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## jonesin4boost (Oct 19, 2004)

*Re: (Theresias)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Theresias* »_huh? I rarely object to people answers, but this one is simply over the top. There are a lot of tools which help you diagnosing airbag problems like this and based on the year, make and model I would much more tend to look a problem in the clock spring section rather than starting to replace the most expensive parts immediately. Keep in mind, airbags and airbag wiring can be checked without replacing components so throwing the big money into the car is not always the solution to problems.
BTW: Your capslock key is stuck...










YOU NOTICED. DOES THAT BOTHER YOU. I HAVE CONCLUSIVELY FOUND THAT THE CODE IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE AIRBAG NEEDING TO BE REPLACED.
THERE ALWAYS HAS TO BE SOMEONE WANTING TO CONTRADICT SOMEONES ADVISE OR TALK DOWN ON WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. I KNOW AIRBAGS ARE COSTLY. BUT ANYONE WHO POSTS ON THIS FORUM AND ATTEMPTS TO FIGURE HIS OR HER ISSUES OUT. SOMEWHAT HAS BASIC UNDERSTANDING ELECTRICAL WIRING AND HAS ALREADY CHECKED THERE WIRING SO UNLESS THIS PERSON HAS THE ADAPTER TO PLUG INTO THE CLOCK SPRING AND THEN TO THE AIR BAG TO CHECK IT THEN IT WOULD NOT REALLY HELP WHAT ANYONE SAID WOULD IT.
YA MY KEYBOARDS WORE OUT AND I CANT TELL WHICH BUTTON IS WHICH AND MOSTLY THE CAPS BUTTON. THANKS FOR NOTICING THOUGH.
IM JUST PLAYING THOUGH AND I DID NOT MEAN TO CONCLUDE TO THE MOST EXPENSIVE PART. I HAVE JUST BEEN VERY FAMILIAR WITH WORKING ON THESE VEHICLES AND HAVE COME ACROSS THIS QUTIE A BIT....THANKS.


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## penclnck (Jan 27, 2003)

*Re: (jonesin4boost)*


_Quote, originally posted by *jonesin4boost* »_I HAVE CONCLUSIVELY FOUND THAT THE CODE IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE AIRBAG NEEDING TO BE REPLACED.

i, on the other hand, have not. while true an airbag itself can go bad, it is not the most common failure by a long shot... in my +8 years of vw repair i've found that the wiring is more likely to be the cause, as noted in my post above. 
if one were to follow your advise and just replace the airbag, what happens if the fault doesn't go away? you can't return an airbag, you're stuck with it. a costly gamble if you ask me. a better bet would be to buddy up with another vw owner swap the airbags to see if the fault moves with the airbag that is suspect, and no fault moves with the known good airbag.
i guess i should also point out to the original poster, airbags are not the kind of thing you want to learn by the seat of your pants. i've seen a few threads over the years about people trying to work on their airbag system only to cause more problems and then get into debates about underwater basket weaving and who knows more about it. this is one of those things where it might be best pay a skilled hand for the repair.
and might i suggest for you a model m keyboard, they never wear out. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (penclnck)*

today I changed the Clock spring. Then I loged into the airbag module with ross-tech 409.1 and cleared the fault codes
The 3 codes came back right away.
I did not see a terminal housing. I see wire harness plug that plugs into the clock spring. I do not know what else I should do before I decide to go try a new driver airbag here.
I checked all wiring under the driver seat and it looks great. I do not think the igniter seat belt wiring is a problem here.


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (turbobugger)*

bump


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## Theresias (Feb 11, 2004)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (turbobugger)*


_Quote, originally posted by *turbobugger* »_The 3 codes came back right away.

Your original post only states 1 fault code. Which 3 are you talking about?

_Quote, originally posted by *turbobugger* »_I do not know what else I should do before I decide to go try a new driver airbag here.

Test the whole system incl. wiring by using proper test equipment.

_Quote, originally posted by *turbobugger* »_I checked all wiring under the driver seat and it looks great. I do not think the igniter seat belt wiring is a problem here.

The wiring under the seat belongs only to the side airbag, the seatbelt itself has no igniter. There is a belt tensioner and depending on your exact model there may be an igniter or the system may be mechanical only but neither of those is by any means related to your problem according to what you have posted.


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## penclnck (Jan 27, 2003)

*Re: what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (turbobugger)*


_Quote, originally posted by *turbobugger* »_
I did not see a terminal housing. I see wire harness plug that plugs into the clock spring.


Terminals are the bits that are crimped onto the ends of the wires, and then these terminals are fitted into a housing. Thus, a plastic housing with terminals in it is a terminal housing... the "plug" you saw in the back of the clock spring, the flat yellow one with 4 wires in it, that is the terminal housing I'm talking about in my post (scroll back up now).
IMHO, I think one could test the airbag wiring harness for the N95 (steering wheel airbag) with a single strand of copper wire and VCDS. It would seem to me that if one were to remove the N95, then turn the key on, go into 15-08-001 and read field #1 they should see "Too Large" displayed. If you were to take a single strand of copper wire and use it to short the wiring harness of that little pigtail that plugs into the N95, the display should read "Too Small". If the the reading is "Too Small" before the copper stand is used to short the terminals, then you'd know there is a short in the wiring somewhere. The single stand of copper would be so thin as to not deform the tiny terminals. *IVE NEVER TRIED THIS, I JUST CAME UP WITH THIS OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD AND THERE MAY BE A PROBLEM UNKNOWN TO ME IN MY CURRENT STATE OF MIND IN WHICH THIS COULD CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE AIRBAG SYSTEM.*


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

thank you pencilneck,
today I took the airbag off. with only the 2 wires from the airbag off the code will read 
00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)
Resistance too High
With the 2 wires from the airbag in the plug. the code will read
00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)
33-00 - Resistance too Low
Conclusion: Driver Airbag is faulty http://****************.com/smile/emthdown.gif 

_Modified by turbobugger at 12:33 AM 8-3-2008_


_Modified by turbobugger at 12:34 AM 8-3-2008_


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

*Re: (turbobugger)*

Today I got a New driver airbag
After installation I am very disappointed to say that the error has not gone away.
I tryed to clear the codes with my ross-tech vagcom.
The codes cleared but came back right away after I started up the vw beetle.
I have no clue what is wrong with the driver airbag at this point
the airbag did not come with the wire for the airbag to clock spring connection. i used my old wire.


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## Theresias (Feb 11, 2004)

I am not going to say "I told you so"...
...but basically the problem was your previous conclusion. I didn't bother replying to that because all I have said before seems to have been unheard by you, sorry.
I still think the problem is your wiring or the slipring.


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

Nevermind:
The airbag connection was grounding on the 2wire plug. I pushed the outside ring outward away from the 2wire plug and the fault code is now gone










_Modified by turbobugger at 5:01 PM 8-12-2008_


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## turbobugger (Jan 26, 2008)

Thanks Theresias
*u told me so*


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## ATPTourFan (Jul 14, 2003)

I also have the N95 resistance too high (intermittent), but it came up after my mechanic took the steering wheel off to replace the ignition electrical switch. I thought that job didn't require the wheel to be removed, so that pissed me off a bit. 

They gave me the car back and said, "did you know you had an airbag light on? We cleared it for you." I said, "no, it's never been on before". 

Sure enough it came back. I cleared it once with the VAG-COM Rosstech cable but it's back. 

I will say that I can sense a very light grinding noise when I turn my wheel. Part of me thinks it is coming from the slip ring, but I'm hoping just to see a loose wire that may be scraping against something to create the open connection. 

What do you guys think? Thx.


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## scooty (Oct 5, 2010)

*Possible solution*

I guess if the resistance is too low, there could be a short-circuit on the connector or on cable under your (driver side) seat. Check the isulation, if is damaged, the two wires can be shorted and be the reason for this error. I had the almost same error, but resistance too high, and the connector was loose, so almost every time i lift up my seat, this error came up. I put connector together and fixed it with insulation tape  and now it's fine 

Hope this helps someone..


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## scooty (Oct 5, 2010)

Lol, I didn't see, that this was already solved.. but anyways.. :laugh:


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## ATPTourFan (Jul 14, 2003)

scooty said:


> I guess if the resistance is too low, there could be a short-circuit on the connector or on cable under your (driver side) seat. Check the isulation, if is damaged, the two wires can be shorted and be the reason for this error. I had the almost same error, but resistance too high, and the connector was loose, so almost every time i lift up my seat, this error came up. I put connector together and fixed it with insulation tape  and now it's fine
> 
> Hope this helps someone..


 Scooty, N95 is the steering wheel airbag, so the cable under the seat wouldn't be related. You might be thinking about the N195 driver SIDE airbag in the seat? 

There's tons of confusion and mis-information on Vortex and elsewhere confusing these two (N95 and N195) airbag codes.


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## scooty (Oct 5, 2010)

ATPTourFan said:


> Scooty, N95 is the steering wheel airbag, so the cable under the seat wouldn't be related. You might be thinking about the N195 driver SIDE airbag in the seat?
> 
> There's tons of confusion and mis-information on Vortex and elsewhere confusing these two (N95 and N195) airbag codes.


 You are right, i was thinking on driver side airbag.. Thanks for correcting me! I'm sure I'll pay more attention on difference between these two now  
:thumbup:


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## latinvw (Dec 31, 2012)

*2wire plug? Outside ring?*



turbobugger said:


> Nevermind:
> The airbag connection was grounding on the 2wire plug. I pushed the outside ring outward away from the 2wire plug and the fault code is now gone
> 
> 
> ...


Hi,
I wanted to PM you considering how old this post is.. but your box is overquota.

Can you tell me what/where is the 2wire plug? Is that the one attached to the airbag? or did you mean the 2 ground wires?
Also what did you mean by "pushed the outside ring outward"?

I am having the exact same problem. I am trying to look for possible grounding before removing the steering wheel to access the clockspring/slipring... I assume you found the above problem between steering/clockspring and airbag, not behind clockspring?

Thanks much in advance!


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## vwtuner304 (Jan 23, 2006)

*what does this mean: 00588 - Airbag Igniter: Driver Side (N95)33-00 - Resista...*

I'm having a issue with mine, but passenger side. I hit a high spot in the road and took a chunk out of my subframe and the air bags blew. I replaced all the blown bags and dash, now have these codes that won't go away. The seat air bags didn't deploy and the seat belt did not lock. I tried to do the seat recognition but it will not let me until the other codes are cleared.

Please help!!!










Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## [email protected] Parts (Nov 27, 2006)

This is not an acceptable scan.....

Please post one.


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