seat replacement hell

[ron]

Hi:

Long sad story...made a mistake thinking I could change out my stock fabric seats on a 2007 convertable for 2 PT Cruiser's 2001 leather heated seats.

So I finally decided to leave the driver's seat in...however the driver's airbag warning lite illuminated....the dealer shop said their computer shows wiring conflicts under the new seat however the dealer's shop mechanics cannot say whether the steering column airbag is deactivated.

Can anyone help with this one?

Thanks

[Candyman]

Hey Ron,

Welcome to the Forum. Though my gut feeling is you may have a conflict going on here somewhere, I would probably at least start by resetting the computer first to reset the tripped warning light. Please note if you ever trip a warning light, or check engine light, and so on this also should reset everything unless their is a serious problem just in case.

All you do to reset the system is pull the battery cable for a couple of minutes to clear out the memory. Then reinstall it and the light should be cleared.

Your Drivers side air bag should still be active, and operational as far as I know unless you have tapped into the wiring harness, or fuse box and tripped something up. Their are several Impact Sensors that run separately to the Air Bag itself as a fail safe in case one sensor should fail, another in theory will trigger and save the driver from harm in case of collision as required by the Federal DOT, so from a safety standpoint, your covered no matter what, so no worries their.

Like I say, try resetting the system first, and see if the light comes back on, or it was an anomaly, or "Ghost" in the system, and then go from their. At the very least it will give you a good starting point that a Mechanic may likely charge you an hours shop rate to try first.

Please post back if that doesnt work, and I am sure some of our more Tech involved Members would be more than happy to see if we can't maybe provide some more help.

Go easy, and good luck!

Candyman

[ron]

Thanks Candyman:

Much appreciated!

I did what you suggested (disconnect the battery) and the airbag icon on the dash still illuminates.

Incidently, I had the seat installed professionally at a car electronics shop recommended by the dealer. The installer said the required plug was already in place and it was a simple plug in.

However, the 2007 drivers seat had another plug set that tied into seat sensors...fortunately there was no weight sensor... a seat rail position sensor was installed on the 2007 seats.

On a side note, I removed the 2001 leather passenger seat and reinstalled my stock 2007 fabric seat. This was because I was told that the passenger seat weight sensor tells the passenger side airbag system to activate.

Since it is my wife's car....she WANTS the steering column to inflate...and she would also LIKE to have the 2001's heated,adjustable leather seat.

I find that the dealership does not want to get involved (other than doing the $$ diagnosis telling me one of the wires is not connected/or cut under the driver's seat ..which I already knew). The dealership said they did not know the airbag system enough to say if the driver's side was functional.

Like you, I understood the driver's airbag was triggered by impact sensors. I can't see the entire airbag safety system being deactivated because of a loose seat wire, unfastened seat belt, etc....but with lawyers involved (??)..

Candyman (and anyone else) can you shed some more light on the question: is the driver's side airbag still armed and functional now?

Thanks again Candyman...rgds...Ron