Seems every time I get these little "challanges" of dash lights appearing on the dash and later slove them a new one appears!

The latest one. I want for a short drive today enjoying the car when I glance down and see the "Air Bag" light on. This is the first time I have ever seen this. Does not seem like it is too common -- tough I see one mention of it on this forum a while back. The real pain is that it apperantly cannot be diagnosed or reset with a standard OBDII tool. One has to use lamborginis special OBDII connector, a laptop and software. What a pain! To make matters worse, I tried switching off the passanger side airbag with the key supplied to see if that would help. It did not. On top of that the light "Passinger side airbag off" now stays lit even when I turn the bag switch to on.


Would like to hear comments and suggestions as to how common this is and what might be the cause. It's a 6.0L Diablo 2001. Never any crashes etc. It was very hot today (104C), and I do remember going over a few road bumps but I have done that before without any problem.

Live in San Francisco bay area. Anybody got access to the lamborghini diagnostic tool/software so I can see what it saya and perhaps reset the thing.

The lamborghini software is hardware key protected so that pretty much means such a setup isn't going to be leaving a "dealer" real easily.

Isn't the LIE computer (and its connector) the central storage for all these codes ie the OBDII connector is just another, more standard, connector back to the LIE.

My point being shouldn't a LIE reset (via the jumper) clear all the errors codes?

-mick

Anybody else care to comment on the above reset via a LIE computer reset. I tried the on/off switching of the ignition key 400 times somebody else suggested back in Feburary

Airbag Light: Free Drink on me contest

that did not work! Really a good point though. Does the LIE computer control ABS and Airbag codes. I suspect not since there is a seperate "SDM control module" in the center consol of the car. Things like ABS and airbags tend to be made by seperate specilized manufactures and sold to groups like Lamborghini as complete independent units. But I am open to comments.

I got interested in how this stuff works together and so this is what I have been able to put together using my '99 roadster as the sample. Corrections gladly taken and noted.

LAMBO ECU's

There are two "electronic injection" control units aka "Lamborghini Iniezione Elettronica" (LIE) computers. These units are hooked up together. They each manage half the engine. These units also present themselves to a diagnostic connector (LDAS). The LIE system and diag connector are located behind the passenger seat. The lambo diag software hooks up here. In this connector is also a reset line. The reset clears all sorts of engine performance parameters stored within the LIE units. These units do not do anything but deal with the engine. These are key Lamborghini engine management intellectual property. These units talk to what I see as the main computer called the "GFA control unit" and they do so via the CAN protocol. The same basic design is present in the murci and gallardo. These LIE computers are programmed via the diagnostic port and such programming will tailor the computers to the specific engine. Resetting the computers will not only clear all previous performance data but remove any custom programming. A simple example of programming would be throttle balancing.

The GFA is the central piece that ties all the other control units together. It is located under the dash. For example, it is this unit that outputs "all" of the dash warning lights including the SRS and ABS lights. Inputs to the GFA include single lines from each the SRS control unit and the ABS control unit. I surmise that these lines are just to control the error lights via the GFA. Sample other control units inputting to the GFA include the KONI ECU and the tire pressure ECU.

By default, ABS and SRS diag information is not available on the OBDII connector (nothing to do with lambo). However, there are a number of undefined or "vendor specific" pins that can be used, for example, to make a path from the OBDII connector to each the SRS and ABS control modules. These paths are direct to the specific controllers and do not go via the GFA. The OBDII connector in the 99 roadster has the SRS controller routed to pin 11 and the ABS controller routed to pin 12. The critical point is that to gain access to each the SRS and ABS controllers you need a specialized SRS or ABS reader that plugs into the OBDII connector. From there you can reset the controllers. I *think* this is done by reading the error codes a number of times. There is no other INPUT to the SRS or ABS controllers.

So... if we could find the vendor of the SRS control unit , I suspect you would then be in fat city controlling it via pin 11 on the OBDII connector.

Misc Points:

• The "400 on/off" trick probably resets ONE of the cars ECUs. Knowing which ECU or even a sample symptom that was cleared would be nice as its doubtfull this trick clears or resets more than one of the ECUs.
• On an at least an OBDII car (1996+), you should not reset the LIE computer to clear CEL engine codes. They should be cleared using an OBDII reader or better yet, lambo diag software.
• Dash lights other than the CEL's maybe controlled by the LIE computers (via the GFA) for example the catalyst lights. These lights/conditions are not 'codes' but rather direct conditions that can only be "cleared" by fixing the problem.
• Check Engine conditions are generated by the LIE computer. The dash lights are controlled from the LIE via the GFA. On OBDII cars the lights will go out after the condition clears for 2 minutes.

-mick

IF IT HAS A KEY TO TURN OFF PASS. SIDE AIR BAG IT IS A 6.0 OR NEWER.
THERE IS NO PLUG TO BRIGE TO RESET LIE CODES, MUST BE DONE TRHU
LIES OR CAN BE DONE AT OBD2 CONNECTOR. aIR BAG LIGHT IS DIFFERNT
SYSTEM THOW & WILL NEED FACTORY SOFT WEAR. PROB. WILL BE L/S
CONTACT RING IN THE STERRING WHEEL.

Thanks everyvody on this - particulary gday on the great detective work. I just dug through the wireing diagram manual myself and can conform that pin 11 (BR1) of the OBDII goes directly to the Airbag controller. I spent a little time reading up on the OBDII specifications (signal formats etc.) and have just enough electronic experience to be dangerous. It seems that the Lamborghini ABS/Airbag diagnostic setup communicates via a serial link to the Airbag controller on pin 11. Since there is no direct CTS signal to the Airbag controller I suspect it just continously sends out serial data on this line and the GFA unit actully resets the Airbag controller chip. The only way for those of us to reset the Airbag controller would be to get the "pinout" for the airbag controller chip. It is quite common for these chips to have a specific reset pin. Anybody got any contacts out there?

To make matters worse I suspect the generic ABS/Airbag handheld diagnostic devices would not work either tough it would be interesting to determine this. Anybody got access to one to try. These are passive devices that just plug into the OBDII socket. If they allow a reset they will tell you after they gather the data. They are also not cheap. See for example

http://www.toolrage.com/prodView.asp?idproduct=1558

That's almost the price of the Lamborghini laptop connector / software.

Anybody got a used version of the latter they would like to sell?