Passenger Airbag Status

[rmyers]

Hello All,

I bought my wife's car last year in June. I have seen this problem before and reported to dealer, but tonight I had the opportunity to record video of my wife in the passenger seat while the passenger airbag status light displays "Off". I'll post the video here later as soon as I can get it off my iPhone. In the meantime when traveling with a passenger please check the status. In my case, it wasn't until we parked and restarted the car twice when the passenger airbag status displayed "On"!

I've edited the post to link to the video.
http://youtu.be/8-TDVQYtJ1k

Be safe!
Ron

[jeepguy_1980]

Maybe your wife needs to gain some weight.

[CamaroSoldier]

Dam.........happened to me once

[rmyers]

Originally Posted by jeepguy_1980

Maybe your wife needs to gain some weight.

Ha a new way to spell idiot.....j e e p g u y. Way to take a serious topic in the wrong direction.

[Ronn]

There should be a sensor under the seat that has a preset weight usually approx 20-40lbs, and the seatbelt might need to be buckled.

What did the dealer say? It should have thrown a code.

[rmyers]

When we reported it to the dealer last year they said everything checked out ok. Now I have a video to prove it. Thing is, after 1 year, the car only has 6k miles on it, and 1/3 was done on some long road trips right when we bought it. We seldom ride in it together so it has probably been happening all along and I never thought to look. That was the reason for my message is to encourage forum members to check the status.

[Number 3]

Your wife must be petite.

There is a range of weights were it may or may not be on. My wife is in that range and for example if she sits in a car with her legs crossed, the light will be off. Also there is a time delay built in, sorry I forget the details. So it doesn't just go on and off. Which is likely why it switched to on you when you restarted the car.

The supression matt in the seat cushion is what determines the weight of the object in order to have the airbag on or off.

So from what you describe, it seems to be opperating correctly......................assuming your wife is in that weight range...................which was around 100 lbs plus or minus a tolerance, but again, it's been a while since we went through this with some other cars.

[firefighter1]

I had this exact same problem with my car during the drive to camaro fest. My girlfriend is in the 125 to 130 range and it would happen very sporaticly during the drive.

When I got back to texas I called both the chevy dealerships and one told me to bring the car in, we would look at it, blah, blah blah. The other said bring it in, and we will put it on the computer and we have to download a file and reset the computer.

Long story short, went to dealer number 2. 30 minutes later they had my car pulled around and he told me my radio upgraded and they downloaded and reset everything. They said to just watch the light and let them know if I still have the problem. Been about 1200 miles since and we have not had any problems with it.

[Havok]

Isn't this reviewed in the manual.

[jeepguy_1980]

Originally Posted by rmyers

Ha a new way to spell idiot.....j e e p g u y. Way to take a serious topic in the wrong direction.

I guess I missed the rule forbidding members from using, or attempting to use, humor in threads. But I appreciate your efforts to enforce said rule, with a post that was even more off topic my original post.

[Jason@JacFab]

I've also noticed this problem. Was taking my friend and his wife for a ride, she was in the front seat. She probably weighs 120-130, and it never switched on. I thought the sensor was broken, so when I got home I sat in the passenger seat, and it switched on...

[strykeback]

Glad to know I'm not going crazy. My girlfriend is in the same category. She bought her camaro 6 months ago and on a trip I was driving the airbag light would go off. I pulled off the road, had her bounce around in it, get out and rebuckle, the only way I could get the airbag back on is to have her outside the car and turn the car on and then have her get in and rebuckle. Took it to dealership and they said quote "just don't sit that way." So she has to have the seat completely straight up and itl work 60 percent of the time. That's not good enough for me and I'm pissed GM is willing to have that be a lawsuit.

That was a couple months ago and stil unresolved. In the last 2 months since that its been in 3 times for 2 hvac replacements and the computer system completely replaced, and the defroster is blowing exhaust into the cabin after they repaired that before.

Its going in tiomorrow since now the v6 automatic wants to shift into neutral and high rev out of nowhere, and gettin on the freeway mutliple times with her driving, it will stay in one of the lower gears and not want to upshift or make a grinding awful sound. Sitting in a drive thru last night the engine sounded like someone had a baseball card in the spokes of their bicycle with a constant clicking sound. Its got 6k miles on it.

Anyone shared the issues?
My bestfriend already sued GM over his 2010 v6 manual that was a lemon and had 2 transmissions and they coulddnt fix the cluttch system and had it in the shop for 40 days so perhaps GM is just being GM?

[ambientweather]

I have had the same issue. My wife weighs 160 lbs. it is on half the time, off the other half. They can repeat at the dealership but have stopped trying to fix it. GM corporate got involved and said it is working within the parameters of the car.

When it was occurring, they connected via odbc to a computer and confirmed it was classifying her as level 4. They wont release the paramaters on what dictates this. When it is on, is classifies her a level 6. This with no change to seating position. Level 4 is a small child.

We then sat in several other camaros and it always worked, so it is specific to my car.

They than sat several employees in the car and could reproduce it.

It is bizarre that Gm corporate would not take this seriously. They have replaced two sensors and the controller as well as firmware updates.

[1BADLS3]

All sorts of cars have issues with passenger weight sensors and also seat-airbag connectors under the seats. I've seen the issue in a Mercury Mountaineer, a newer VW GTI, a Volvo V50 wagon, a Chevy Colorado, and now with the video above--a Camaro.

FYI, the airbag won't activate when the seatbelt is unbuckled. Why? Because when a person continues traveling forward after a car smashes into something, the last thing you want to do is punch them in the thorax with an airbag when they're not properly restrained. If you're not wearing a seatbelt, it's actually safer that the airbag be off.