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"Service passenger airbag"

6K views 29 replies 10 participants last post by  Robotech 
#1 ·
My dash light up with a red symbol and the words saying "Service Passenger Airbag" lit up. Moments after, while driving, the light turned off. Words also disappeared. Everything seemed normal. 10 min after when I got home, I parked, the light came back on. Read some forums and saw that it MAY be the sensor, which seems to be under the seat. A few questions:

- Found the part for like 350 on ebay, is this an easy DIY (I have 0 experience with this)

- If I leave this problem unfixed for a while, what could be the consequences?

Thank you! :)
 
#2 ·
It's pretty easy to replace. You have to remove the seat and the bottom seat cover, then replace the cushion (your $350 buys you the cushion with sensor attached).

Once you do it though, you may still need to take it to a dealer to get the relearn procedure performed on the new sensor. Some have said they didn't need to do this, it just worked. But most had to get it relearned/reset.

If you don't replace it, it's likely that (at least) your passenger airbag will be disabled. Possibly both side airbags will. No-one really knows for sure AFAICT.
 
#9 ·
HERE is a post which links to a European site that sells the PPD "Module" (Sensor) much cheaper. Just quickly checking, I could not get the link to Particus to work. YMMV.

Yogi
 
#13 ·
Alright well I got the part and I installed it today, going tomorrow to get it reprogrammed. Does anyone know what that is called by the way? Don't really want to go into the service department without that knowledge. Anywho, attached is a picture of the 2 seats side by side. Old on the left, new on the right. I took the sensor apart on the old one, and it was looking pretty rough.

https://imgur.com/mcmDITo

Main reason why I did change it myself instead of waiting for GM(if ever) to recall it is because my Wife is now the primary driver on it and I just can't risk not knowing if both airbags won't deploy because of this very common problem.
 
#17 · (Edited)


I think this is only the second picture I've seen of this failure. TS has posted the other. His failure was the exact same spot.

Now you see that other section that is like the one that broke? It is on the left hand side of your image kind of under the first knuckle of your thumb. See if that little U section has any cracking in it. I know Tomato Soup's did.

Do you mind if I reuse your image?

And please, hang onto that mat and all the pieces from it. I have a feeling if this letter I've put together gets traction having that evidence will help.
 
#20 · (Edited)
#26 ·
Took mine apart to find ckt path cracked same place. tried to jumper with wire, but these tracks are not like a hard ckt board, which are a a thin strip of copper you can solder to. the flex material is thick and tough, hard to scrape off without destroying the track , which looks like a copper track , but is a granular material with some metal content that is almost impossible to separate from the film, and would not take solder.
The "loop" where the fractures are occurring is at a location on the seat pad where, as pressure (weight) is applied, the sides of the cushion spread apart, away from the center, which pulls on both sides of the loop. The flexability of the sensor does no good, as it needs to stretch under these conditions, something this material cannot do. If the loop was in a verticle plane it might work.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Motorheadted, thanks for that update. If you can take pictures, that would be great. Maybe even hang on to the mat.

IEE and GM have not responded yet to the NHTSA but if they push back on this, having failed examples like yours to show the NHTSA would be a huge help.

This would make the third or fourth documented failure and each one is failing in the exact same way in the exact same place.
 
#28 ·
^ yep same as mine although mine was a stress and internal break rather than a clean snap like the one in this thread. Robo already linked the pics :) I never could get it to take the solder. I do still have the sensor sitting in my basement, though the failure point is obviously heat damaged and frayed from my attempts to repair.


Sent from an abacus
 
#30 ·
What gets me the most is that we're seeing this is a replicable failure and that we're not seeing any other kind of failure with the sensor mat, just this specific one. I mean, I'd almost expect a number of different failures with one specific failure being far more common than the rest but that isn't what we're seeing. Same section, same U shaped ribbon, same failure, every time.
 
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