My 04 does it at random intervals - just flashes on or off, even when there's nothing in the front passenger seat at all. And of course, as Murphey's Law of Car Repair goes, the service techs are never able to replicate the problem, and found nothing wrong in the computer system for the car. It just flashes a couple of times a week, and mostly goes back off. But still doesn't leave a real "warm and fuzzy" feeling that the air bags are disengaged.

 

Maybe the switch in the seat is faulty.

 

I took it in to dealer once already and they claimed they could not find anything wrong, even with their computer diagnostic test. I have heard this is addressed in the owners manual, but I bought my vehicle used and the owners manual was missing. I have ordered one so I am waiting to see what it says. Either way I have another appointment with Honda to address this same issue... It is definitely distracting having the "Side Aribag Off" light coming on and off while I am tring to monitor my real-time MPG gauge.

 

IIRC, the pass side airbags are supposed to disable when it detects something on the seat under 50 pounds, or something like that. I'm not sure what the minimum threshold is, but if a laptop or briefcase will trigger it, that would imply it's able to be triggered by as little as 3 or 4 pounds. If the sensor mechanism was somewhat out of calibration range, that could cause it to be overly sensitive, I suppose. I'm just not sure what type of seat sensor they use and how one would go about testing it.

 

That definitely makes sense...


I feel that my sensor is faulty though... I could my cell phone on the seat and the sensor goes on dispaying "Side Airbag Off" but often even if I remove my phone it still stays off. Often even with nothing on the seat it goes on and off.
Of course when I brought it in last time the dealer claims they can not duplicate it.

 

"Some electrical appliances that plug into the vehicle’s accessory power socket will interfere with the seat back sensors and cause an illuminated SRS lamp along with a code."

Saw that quote on google. I don't think it is specific to our cars, but you never know.

BTW I always thought the sensor was in the bottom part of the seat. Apparantly it is in the back of the seat. I wonder who else was under the same misconception as I was.

You don't rest anything on the seat at all when it comes on do you? With the new information I found I'm wondering if people draping stuff over the seat (like dry cleaning or what ever) could cause this sensor to go off.

 

Ditto ALL that!

Can I give you the phone number for the service manager at Crown Honda of Southpoint in NC, just so you can call him up and say "See! See!!!"

 

All better now...

I have not done a thing to change the problem with the "Side Airbag off" warning sensor light on the instrument panel. I have even tried to make it come back on. So far so good.

Erik

 

This light used to be on all the time since I bought the car (I never read the manual to try to turn the light off/side airbag on). The whenever I would go up this one steep hill, I would smell electrical burning smell; and this light would turn off and then back on, and now has been off for a few months since. I always have stuff in the front passenger seat. I was thinking maybe I had some sort of electrical problem; because of the electrical burning smell that I smell sometimes when going up steep hills or when the temperature is hotter than usual.

 

There are weight sensors in the outsides of the bottom cushion of the front seat to detect if an object is too close to the side of the car for the side A/B to deploy. When you went around the corner, one of you must of leaned on the side of the bottom cushion, causing the sensor to trip.