Intermittently (it seemed) I get the airbag alarm light on the dash display, and today I finally figured out what was causing it. It was having the passenger seat in a semi-reclining position!!

When I returned the seat to a more normal position, it cleared the alarm lamp, and when I put the seat back into the recline position the alarm lamp returned.

I don't know if this is a design "feature" or a wiring problem in the sensors/harness, etc. I checked all connections under both the seats but all were tight.

Anyone else seen this?

 

The seat has sensors in it to detect light weight passengers to disable air bag. It is designed to interpret this as a child seat to disable air bag as this is dangerous for a car seat. I've had it happen with small book bags or groceries. On another vehicle of mine, if someone were to lean up against the door for long enough, it would disable the airbag in the door for safety. When you recline it, it is probably just enough for it to trigger weight. Probably due to worn out sensor.

 

Interesting theory and I wondered about that initially, but it doesn't seem like there's any change in the pressure on the seat bottom itself when the seatback is reclined? That's why I wondered if it could be a design "feature" to disable the airbag when the passenger is in a reclining position? I'd read somewhere else that positioning the seat as far forward as possible will also trigger the same alarm as the passenger is then too close to the airbag to be safe?

At any rate, I just wanted to put this out there in case it could help someone else in the future.