[Trid]

Hello, I'm new to posting here but I have been around

So I was driving on the freeway yesterday with cruise mode on and I noticed a quick loud pop coming from the front passenger seat. I was like :yikes: and my heart started pounding. Not only that, I also saw a fast moving "air" (my nose felt that ) rushing out towards my driver's window but only for a quick second. Anyone know specifically what happened here? Could it be something with the seatbelts or airbag functions? :hmm:

 

[EvilGenius]

Hello, I'm new to posting here but I have been around

So I was driving on the freeway yesterday with cruise mode on and I noticed a quick loud pop coming from the front passenger seat. I was like :yikes: and my heart started pounding. Not only that, I also saw a fast moving "air" (my nose felt that ) rushing out towards my driver's window but only for a quick second. Anyone know specifically what happened here? Could it be something with the seatbelts or airbag functions? :hmm:

There is a pyro seat belt tensioner down there but the chances of that just "going off" would be really really slim I'd think! If it fired I would think your airbag light would be on right now too. To see if it did go off, my guess is that the seatbelt latch would be pulled down beside the seat instead of up where it normally would be.

Aside from that, I'd recommend you pull the seat to see what happened. Be sure to update us here on the thread on what you find!! :yikes:

 

[TxZHP04]

Maybe a spring snapped in/under the seat?

 

[jason122h]

i have this same problem except the pop sounds like its from under my driver side or the very center of the car.

 

[habbyguy]

So I was driving on the freeway yesterday with cruise mode on and I noticed a quick loud pop coming from the front passenger seat. I was like :yikes: and my heart started pounding. Not only that, I also saw a fast moving "air" (my nose felt that ) rushing out towards my driver's window but only for a quick second. Anyone know specifically what happened here? Could it be something with the seatbelts or airbag functions? :hmm:

I was once driving in snowy, slushy conditions in the northeast (fortunately in a company car). The road surface was pretty messy with lots of snow having fallen off cars and trucks. So here I am, driving along with my wife when *BLAM!* Stranger than the LOUD noise was the fact that the INSIDE of the windshield was now covered with a fine, oily residue (as were our faces).

I really couldn't imagine what had happened... only when the snow melted on that stretch of road a few days later did I see the actual cause of the incident, and put it all together. One of the "chunks of snow" actually contained what appeared to be a front hub and steering knuckle for a large truck. I had slammed into it, missing everything up front but hitting the passenger-side floorboard hard enough to flex it up violently enough to liberate a mist of the gunk that had gathered there from all the wet, sloppy feet.

Probably not what happened to the OP, but if he checks and has a dent in the floor under the passenger's side seat or footwell.... mystery solved. :craig:

 

[willsbma]

I'm not too sure of the electronics involved under the seat, but I know that capacitors can suddenly pop.

 

[Trid]

There is a pyro seat belt tensioner down there but the chances of that just "going off" would be really really slim I'd think! If it fired I would think your airbag light would be on right now too. To see if it did go off, my guess is that the seatbelt latch would be pulled down beside the seat instead of up where it normally would be.

Aside from that, I'd recommend you pull the seat to see what happened. Be sure to update us here on the thread on what you find!! :yikes:

Well, my airbag light has been on for about 3-4 weeks (prior to the purchase) and the seatbelt lights just came on about 2 days ago. I checked under the seats yesterday but I don't think there were any problems (or maybe i just didn't see it). On the side note, my driver's side window just jammed about an hour ago as well since it goes down only 2 inches. I'm assuming this is the common regulator failure that most e46 cars suffer from. I heard scraping noises before it jammed and about 10 minutes later, my "service engine soon" lit up. Problems after problems... this is so frustrating. I'm planning to get the peake tools so I can have the fault codes read. I just bought this car like 3-4 weeks ago and now its starting to fall apart already

 

[toddkageals]

i have this same problem except the pop sounds like its from under my driver side or the very center of the car.

Jason,

Did you see my thread on checking your door hinges for mystery "pops" and thumping noises? I recently found that my driver's door hinge had developed play and was making noise that I would have sworn was coming from the rear suspension. I replaced part of the hinge and all of my popping and thumping noises are gone. No help for the OP though.

Todd

 

[tommytoyz]

Load pop with smoke under passenger seat

I was parked without the key in the ignition and a loud pop with smoke came from under the passenger seat. Scared everybody in the car. I have no idea where this came from. My red airbag light has been on for months anyway, so I am sure not related.