BRZ seats installed into FRS... Airbag Light

[Wpomp]

Hey all.

So I just installed a used set of BRZ seats (leather/alcantara) into my FRS. After install, the airbag deployed light is lit on my dash. I checked all of the connectors for the seats, and everything is fine. The seats were from a car that was in an accident, but airbags did not deploy.

Two questions:
1. Will the airbag deployed light/fault prevent the airbags in my car (which are fine) from deploying in the event of an accident?
2. Any clue what could be causing the light to come on, or a possible fix? All of the components should be fine. I took the seat belt connectors from my original seats and plugged them in to see if the connectors from the new seats were the issue, and no bones. Only thing left that I can think of being at fault would be the airbag units in the seats themselves? But they did not deploy in the previous car, so I'm not sure.

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[MemphisR]

Was the battery disconnected when you did the swap?

[Wpomp]

Yes, battery was disconnected during initial install and subsequent troubleshooting attempts.

[White64Goat]

I know that in my 07 Pontiac G5 GT the airbag light would come on at random times and the dealer determined that the passenger side seat belt was causing the problem and it wasn't under warranty and they wanted $344 dollars to replace it and I declined and the car got into an accident and none of the airbags deployed, so if the light is on I'd think there is a better than average chance your airbags won't work. Did you try putting the FRS seats back in to see if the problem went away?

[CB390248]

I actually am having this very same problem looked into tomorrow although my used BRZ seats were allegedly from a BRZ that had aftermarket sweats swapped in and was not in an accident. I will let you know what we find but my guesses thus far are that either the wire is damaged or more likely the sensor was removed by the seller without telling me.

[Wpomp]

Originally Posted by White64Goat

I know that in my 07 Pontiac G5 GT the airbag light would come on at random times and the dealer determined that the passenger side seat belt was causing the problem and it wasn't under warranty and they wanted $344 dollars to replace it and I declined and the car got into an accident and none of the airbags deployed, so if the light is on I'd think there is a better than average chance your airbags won't work. Did you try putting the FRS seats back in to see if the problem went away?

Yeah, I'm thinking that they won't deploy, driving carefully until I figure this out haha. I plugged in the female part of the buckles, which has a sensor lead coming from it, into the harness (while the new seats were installed) and the light stayed on. It was dark by that point, so tonight I will try plugging in the yellow (airbag) plugs from the original seat into the harness and see if that makes it go away. If that doesn't work, guess I need to go to toyota to get some techstream magic happening.


Yes, please let me know what you find out, I'll do the same, if I figure my issue out first.

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciate it!

[Wpomp]

Update: Took the car to a buddy with a Scanner, and the light is on because of the passenger occupancy sensor.(B1650 Occupant Classification System Malfunction). So, it seems as though unplugging this sensor and swapping in a new one may have erased the calibration which tells the car whether its a child or adult in the passenger seat, and hence won't fire the airbags as it doesn't want to decapitate a kid or something.

I plugged the stock seat back in, and the light is still on. Since I know the stock seat works fine (not triggering the airbag light), this makes me think its a computer/calibration issue that was caused by unplugging the sensor. Has anyone had to deal with a similar experience, even when removing the stock seat then putting the same seat right back in? I'm not sure this is something that can be resolved without going to the dealership.

[CB390248]

BTW when I took my car into a Philly dealership they essentially told me they didn't want to deal with it because it was "an aftermarket seat" and "subaru and toyota's use different electrical systems" which clearly is a stupid response.

I took my car into another non-dealership shop and they reset the system (I don't know if they used tech stream or another program) and it turned off the red dash airbag sign light and enabled the "passenger airbag on" light to work correctly....but only for a few hours. When I drove my car later that day it didn't work again and both lights are on again... I'll let you know if I get anywhere moving forward. Womp womp womp.

Perhaps I should have the Pope bless it this weekend?

[Wpomp]

Do you know if they pulled a code before resetting the system? Curious if it was the same as mine. Did they re-calibrate the seat sensors at all, or just clear the code? At least in my case, I think that re-calibrating the passenger occupancy sensor may be a possible solution. Definitely sucks that your lights came back on... Hopefully we can find a solution which solves the problem indefinitely. While I'm not too worried about driving without airbags in the short term, its definitely not something that I'm willing to let remain unfixed.

Haha good luck even getting near the pope when he's in philly. Though perhaps if you offered for him to sit in the car, the holy bum on the seats would make every dandy =]

[CB390248]

SO I discovered something interesting. If I turn on my car with a heavy load of crap or a person in the passenger seat then everything works as it should and the "passenger airbag on" light comes on the red dash airbag light is off. If I start the car without a passenger or stuff on the seat and then someone sits in it - it doesn't work. I have no idea how to wrap my head around that but it seems to work consistently.

And if that doesn't work...race car weight savings and you still can take a passenger in your car! See attached! : )

[venturaII]

Rear passenger legroom no longer an issue. lol

[Wpomp]

I've slowly figured out the same actually! If I had a passenger, or even a heavy bag it would go away (bags tended to be intermitent, but whatever). Not sure what gives. Still trying to find someone with a scanner that can reset the zero for the seat sensor, but thats proving to be difficult.

[White64Goat]

Check this post. Not sure it will cure your problem or not. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...sistor+install

[Wpomp]

Definitely a useful post. Thanks for that. Still going to try and fix it so its working as standard (they are stock seats, so it should...) Tried the full monty last night, using 3 different scanners to try and reset the seat calibration. No luck. The scanners had the ability to do it for some toyota models, but not ours =[ Since I've used all my options, just biting the bullet and taking it to the dealer tonight. If they can't fix it, then I'll do the resistor and sensor removal trick. Hopefully it wont come to that though.