Has anyone had this happen? My side airbag light will come on and off intermittently and I was wondering if anyone would be able to explain why. I am going to try disconnecting the battery to see what happens. If it keeps doing it I'll go to the dealer eventually.

 

do u have anything in the seat ? the seats have sensors to turn them on and off depending on the weight on the seat... for example ... i left my windows down and my seats got wet ..both air bag lights came on.. when they dried back to normal

 

no nothing in the seats... i think it may have something to do with the way i've driven it. i ran the engine pretty hard and pulled some Gs so i'm thinking that may have upset that little black box in the center of the dash that controls all of the seat belts and airbags

 

usually have to do with weight.... for example when i drive to school i put books on my passenger seat and the light goes off but if i don't put them on the seat the light stays on.

 

haha well... maybe thats it, i don't know... my girlfriend was in the car both of the times it acted like that. but she is like 100lbs... i thought the threshold for those sensors was like 60lbs

 

that for me my lights always come on when i go out of town =/ but i dont think its nothing serious i hope... im as lost as you are =/

 

There's another sensor in the back of the seat. It detects if someone is leaning towards the window. When one of my kids is in the front passenger seat and leaning towards the window, the "Side Airbag Off" light comes on. The side airbag is disabled if the car thinks a small person has their head in the path of the side airbag.

The feature is activated by a combination of a lightweight object in the seat (seat sensor) and a body leaning to the right side of the front passenger seat (sensor in the back of the seat). IMHO an amazing amount of engineering for an econobox.

 

Exactly, it happend to me when my ex was in the passanger seat and leaning on the door. But I believe it will do it no matter what size person is in the seat, it just depends on how close they sit/lean to the door.

 

when i put my bag down on the seat, it's normal. but sometimes i prop myself up and lean with my hand on the seat at the same time and the weight of my bag and myself leaning on the seat will make the "passenger airbag off" light to come on.

 

That's because your bag alone it's heavy enough for the sensors to regester but some thing heavier for example a laptop or brief case will cause the air bag to shut off. A friend had his Cayenne into the dealer 3 times complaining about the light until they asked him if he keeps anything on the passanger seat (his brief case).

The light I believe he is talking about is inside the insturment cluster and it's an amber triangle with a '!' inside, it means the side impact air bag is disabled but I believe the front air bag will still function normally. As stated by a few people, this light will come on when there is someone in the passanger seat and they are leaning toward or sitting to close to the passanger door.

 

My light was set off when my friend who was riding with me was lookning for parking spots for me in a parking lot and leaned on my door. I was kinda freaking out, but i kinda figured it makes sense. I'm just curiuous if it wont go off for all of the car or just for that one side.

 

thats weird. my airbag light does that too sometimes. but when theres no one in the seat it's off, and when there IS someone in the seat it's off. ive only seen it blink on once for a second a couple times.

 

wow okay this forum has redeemed itself to me with useful information once again. i had no idea those sensors worked like that. being that is only happens when my girlfriend is in the car that has to be why. thanks

 

haha...
I tried to set it off with a friend today...didnt work. I dunno why.

 

All my girlfriends have been sub 120lbs, one of my gf's was 98lbs and the light kept going on and off, I ended up giving her my laptop to hold and that keeps the light off all the time... she's on the borderline of 100lbs... and depending on the G's in the car, her little body would cause the lights to turn on cause she would be all the way to one side of her seat or the other.

 

Sigh . . . My wife used to be that small, pre-kids and middle age. She's still beautiful though.

RG

 

haha i'm glad i'm only 20...

 

Just to make sure, it's the light underneath the radio that says "Passenger Airbag Off" that is lighting up? Or is it the one in the dash? If it's the one in the dash bring it into Honda ASAP as there was a recall on the GD3s for faulty wiring that would screw up the passenger airbag if it got wet. If it's the other one then just tell your GF to sit still when you're driving lol.

 

its the one in the instrument cluster that literally says "Side Airbag Off" that recall was on the 07 models and should have been taken care of for all of the 08s. it has not done it in a almost a week now.. i'm not too concerned.

 

maybe not for a 300 pounder...