Overly-sensitive Passenger air-bag Sensor

[marebear]

Happy Saturday, everyone!


Had my new baby for a little over a week now. Runs like a dream (though the break-in period is a bit tough to adhere to ... 4000k revs seem so low ... I am managing tho ...)


Anyway, I noticed a funny thing about the passenger side airbag sensor:


If I leave my purse (which isn't heavy) or even just my phone on the seat, the air bag turns on, and the car's "fasten your belt, please" light comes on for that seat.


Is that normal?


Thanks and happy driving!

[Bullschmidt91]

Mine does this as well, even just my phone will trip it and make the annoying beep start.

[993Fan]

FWIW, my BRZ behaves correctly (ie, no seat belt warning for a lightweight item placed on the passenger seat).

The system is supposed to disable the airbag when the load is less than some threshold so this might be a safety hazard worthy of notifying NHTSA if the dealer can't fix it.

[raptor87]

This has been covered before but this car does not use a pressure sensitive airbag sensor. The unit in this car is capacitive and anything with a battery in it will trip the sensor.

That being said my phone will not trip the sensor in my BRZ but it did trip the sensor in an FRS I was sitting in I suspect it has something to do with the difference in seat materials.

[I_Shinji]

Take your phone out of your purse and put your purse on the passenger seat again, it won't triger the seat belt warning. Our car's seat belt system is not measureing the load. Electronics with batterys on the seat will triger the senter.

[993Fan]

Great. So a little kid with an electronic toy will enable the airbag! It's understood that little kids aren't supposed to sit in the passenger seat but that's what the sensor's all about...

[raptor87]

Originally Posted by 993Fan

Great. So a little kid with an electronic toy will enable the airbag! It's understood that little kids aren't supposed to sit in the passenger seat but that's what the sensor's all about...

a little kid without an electronic toy will trigger the sensor

[ZionsWrath]

lol, car is designed for drivers. No need to carry a purse when you

And phones fit nicely under the stereo or in the cup holder slot.

[86-tundra]

Don't buy into the stupid break in period philosophy!! Drive it!

[raptor87]

Also, if luggage or electronic devices are placed on the front passenger’s
seat, this may adversely affect the ability of the system to determine deployment.
This may prevent the front passenger’s frontal airbag ON and OFF
indicators from working properly. Check that the indicators work properly.
When the OFF indicator turns off and the ON indicator illuminates, the front
passenger’s frontal airbag may deploy during a collision. Remove luggage
and electronic devices from the front passenger’s seat.

page 98 in the manual

[marebear]

Thanks for your replies. Interesting that the BRZ doesn't do this.

Originally Posted by raptor87

page 98 in the manual

Oops ... I guess I need to read my manual in a bit more detail (rather than skipping to the interesting parts). Sorry! (And thank you.) Sorry about a repeated question too.


I am going to be gentle with it until the break-in is done. It's actually not as bad a wait as my R6 was. THAT was much harder (because it wasn't winter, mostly ... snow and ice makes it a bit easier to be gentle on the throttle, and keep speeds alternating).

[Enraged21]

my phone tipped the sensor but my laptop did not..

[Deadspool]

My phone and tablet wont trip the sensor, but my laptop will.

If some peoples phones are tripping it, maybe ask the dealership to recalibrate?

[Humpie]

The next time you are in for service, have your dealer disable the passenger side warning. This is an option that is available with TechStream software. I had my dealer to disable mine on the second oil change.