Front passenger seatbelt stuck & air bag light on!

[vwgolf_boy2b]

Hey folks,

I have 96 Golf GL & I got it into a small accident & I hit a car from behind.
My airbags came out but luckly nothing happened to my engine just the front
bumper & lights. Anyways, I got the body stuff fixed and replaced my airbags.
However, my airbag light is still on and my front passenger seatbelt is stuck
i.e. I can't pull it out to fasten it.

Anybody has any tips on how to fix this this or experienced anything similar??

ThanX in advance!

[veedubmechanic]

Replace the seatbelt and have the codes erased at a dealer

[dugan50]

Airbag systems are different for every manufacturer. What may be true for a Toyota will not necessarily be true for a VW, etc. The seat belts (Pretensioners) deploy before the airbags to asist putting you back into position milliseconds before the airbags deploy. Once they fire they need to be replaced also. On VW, you cannot reset the control unit after a deployment, only after an electrical or component failure. Once an airbag component deploys, you need to also replace the airbag control unit as well. In addition, most new VW control units need to be programmed by a dealer even after they are installed. They come empty and don't know what vehicle they are in until a dealer programs your VIN into it.
Lastly, I would check the passenger seat belt aslo. If yours locked up in my guess is that the passenger belt may be locked up tight as well & won't extend. The older vehicles fire both sides simultaneously. The newer smart systems fire independently and determine passenger presence (and weight) as well. Check out this site for complete info on airbag systems.

http://www.airbagsolutions.com