Airbag light on with stuff on passenger seat

[mike7]

Hi all,

As the title states had my backpack on the front pax seat of my D4, about 3-4kg in weight, and this caused the airbag warning light to come on.

Remove backpack from seat restart the car and all is well but it doesn't like anything on the passenger seat, anyone else had this problem? Couldn't find anything on the forum.

Cheers
Mike

[WhiteD3]

There's a sensor in the seat. I'm surprised the seat belt gong wasn't going off.

Basically if there's no one sitting in the passenger seat the airbag is disabled.

[Malcolm]

I was going to suggest the computer may think a child was in the seat, for whom an airbag can be lethal - but as WhiteD3 notes, the airbag can be disabled.

[stig0000]

There's a sensor in the seat. I'm surprised the seat belt gong wasn't going off.

Basically if there's no one sitting in the passenger seat the airbag is disabled.

are you sure???? it will go off no matter what, been thru this all before, the side airbag no,, the front airbag yes,

i think your warrning light was a fluke and you need to get it looked at,

if you put somthing on the seat the seat belt light shold come on over 15ish kph

[stray dingo]

I understood the Australian models can not have the airbags deactivated either manually or via internal computer???

[sniegy]

I understood the Australian models can not have the airbags deactivated either manually or via internal computer???

Correct.

[CaverD3]

I can speak from experience, the passenger air bag still goes off with no one in the seat.

Are you sure it is the airbag not the seatbelt light?

[mike7]

Yup airbag amber light in the speedo. No seatbelt warning or alarm above 15kph either.

[CaverD3]

Wiring under seat?

[stray dingo]

The amber light in the speedo is a fault light. IF the airbag was switched off, the indicator for this is under the air-con controls (flashes up when starting the car).

As Malcolm suggested maybe the computer is thinking the weight is a kid being only 3-4kg, rather than a bag, and it's some sort of odd warning......
Have you tried adding more weight kg by kg to see if it switches off again at a certain point?