Printer Friendly Forum Posts - passenger weigh sensor

Wow this is a weird one Just got this info about the seat heater pad on top of the weigh sensor is causing the the air bag light to come on. Then I lift off the heating pad off the weigh sensor it goes off. Anyone heard of this?

I have no idea about your vehicle, but I can tell you that if a Toyota key is turned on and it senses a body in the seat, and for some reason the weight is lifted the light will blink on the entire time that the weight is off of the seat. Learned that with a laptop sitting on the seat. Hit a bump and when the laptop would lift off of the seat the lamp would blink. I know it is opposite of your problem.

Depending on the vehicle, use diagnostic system to clear/reset to cure the problem.
Had an S type Jag recently, when you turned on indicators to the right the rear right was dim and the brake light adjacent came on as well. First thought bad ground then I checked, found that all the lighting constants are pos and switch through the neg. All separate constants, must go through the multifunction module.
first problem, our diagnostic software could't read this (05) Jag and WTH is the m/module?
Ended up looping over from another constant and checked, no DTCs, job done.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Many "smart" air bag systems will disable themselves if they detect a child in the front seat. So, if the sensor "sees" that something is in the seat and it weighs less then a preset amount it turns the air bag off.

If someone is sitting in the seat does the light turn off?

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Kevin Pierson

Good point Kevin. If it does turn out to not light up with a person sitting, you may want to try a thin piece of really soft foam with a hole cut in it, the hole should be slightly larger than the sensors area. This should shield the sensor from the extra weight of the heater, yet should yield same as before operation with a child or grown up in the seat.

Thanks for all the respond here. There is no one sitting in the seat, it just the seat heater pad is right on top of it and the air bag light switch from off to on and no one is sitting on the seat, so i lifted the seat heater pad off the seat it goes back from on to off like it a magnet or something some kind of signal causing it to go from off to on. I notice when we did a lot of Nissan altima we install seat heater on them and the passenger seat on the altima has some kind of felt clothe on top of the weight sensor. we never had any problem with the altima. But this Customer Chevy Traverse did not had anything on top of it weight sensor we try vinyl material, plastic, Foam over the entire cushion, must be some kind of signal between it causing the the on light to stay on.

If you sit in the seat does it cause the light to turn off.

It is not magnetic, it is weight that the sensor is looking at. The sensor is detecting something is in the seat that isn't heavy enough to survive an air bag impact so it disables the air bag on the passenger side. Try i am an idiots idea.

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Kevin Pierson

No it does not cause the light to go off when you sit in the seat.

Is there anyone out there that might have a solution to this problem is there something that can be put in between the Seat heater pad and weight sensor to block the magnetic field flow between them? This Customer still want seat heater on the passenger side.

Why do you think that the "weight" sensor is being affected by a magnetic field instead of the weight of the heater pad?

Have you tried the idea above to cut out an area around the weight sensor so the pad doesn't sit directly on it?

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Kevin Pierson

It not a matter of weight of the pad, it causing the light to come on we lift the pad completely off the sensor it goes back to normal, lay the heat pad back down the light come on it seem like it a magnetic field or something to cause it to do that. I don't think you can cut around it.

I mentioned (in one of my earlier Semi-Invisible posts) a thin piece of foam, and cut it so that there is a void in the foam directly over the sensor. I really see no way that there is any kind of magnetic or electrical interference causing your problem.

I love being confrontational when you're all 3000+ miles away and only Mr. I can get at me, BUT I STILL think that if you run diagnostics you are going to find a faulty sensor.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Well Howe II they did ran a diagnostics they find nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with the seat heater pad either.

Sorry, you never said that before.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Howie, can you see me? I know Kevin can. I got a new keyboard, I am afraid it may have a cloaking feature. It randomly activates.

Are you using your WiFi, out by the pool, towering over your laptop. This Acer has almost died, can't even hit Alt=F10 to go into recovery, please DON'T tell me to stop looking at Russian porn sites, go to google mail and we can really talk to each other. I suppose I better wait for the outernet.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

It just one of those weird thing that happen, has to be something interfering between them i can unplug the heating pad the light goes back to normal plug it back in it come on. So like he said we will try a different foam and see what happen. We install seat heater in Nissan Altima, Rogue, Maxima we had no problem with them but i did notice there is a thick foam padding underneath the sensor it dark gray. O well we will try his suggestion and see what happen. Thanks

If the Acer still comes up, try plugging a USB keyboard, power it up and use it, then shut it down, it should allow you to hit Alt+F10 from that keyboard once the unit knows it is there.

The last couple times I swam the water was a bit on the cold side.

I am telling you Howie, the outernet is coming. Remember you heard it here first.

Well with that new information, it may be some kind of interference other than weight. I would try to laminate a piece of aluminum foil, and attach a small ground wire in one corner of the laminate. Ground the other end of the wire and see if that helps.

Just so we will know for future problems, did you ever release the make and model of the vehicle?

Tried that already Craig. Acers have an ongoing keyboard malfunction, i.e. random non-working buttons so I've used an external keyboard for the last year.
The next stage would be to go for a complete reformat and chuck in a new OS, although the company I do the tracking work for is owned by an IT company and I've got their lads looking out for me. Something about 2 years old etc.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I am an idiot I will try that and see what happen. It is a 2010 Chevy Traverse.

Howie you should be able to get a replacement keyboard for less than 40 USD. They are very easy to change. Usually less than 8 screws and a single ribbon cable connection.