diggerdave38

Has anyone experienced the airbag light coming on while nothing is on the seat and nobody is sitting in the seat? Mine has been intermittently coming on during driving; mostly on rough roads.

I scheduled an appointment to have it looked at, and the service rep said that it would need to be on when I got there. I took a video of it being on with no occupant/briefcase etc, so I have some evidence.

buxtons

never with someone not in the seat. I have had it come on when someone leans against the door or window though.

4x4 bandit

Was it freezing or near freezing temperature out? This has happened to me and others on here, but only when sitting out overnight in sub-freezing. I don't remember if there's a fix for it. I just live with it since it's temperature-based and infrequent.

Last year it would also force me to read a message on the nav screen everytime it did it (in addition to the warning light), but this year it's just been doing the light. The message on the nav screen is much more intrusive, there's no way I'd go through another winter with that message still popping up, and I have no idea why it's not been doing the message this winter. Maybe it either figured out not to, on its own, or maybe the dealer did some update to the system.

diggerdave38

I think you're right, I bet it is temperature related. The light hasn't been doing it the past few days and the only factor that changed is that the temp rose to the 40's and 50's. Earlier this week it was in the 10-20 degrees out and it was flashing on and off, but not yesterday or this morning. I take it in to the shop tomorrow AM and it's going to be warm out, so good thing I got the light captured on video on my cell phone.

Scottieb

I had the same issue. But then I was looking at the manual one day and found out that at a certain wieght placed on the seat, will cause the the air bag to deactivate. This is a saftey feature in case young children are seated there. So, then I realized that with my winter coat ( I hate driving with my coat on) , a bottle of soda, and other things I place on the seat while driving added up to enough wieght to deactivate it and the light comes on. I have no issue with nothing on the seat. So, if you place things on the passenger seat while driving that could be the issue.

diggerdave38

I did notice that the airbag light does come on when I have my 30lb dog riding in the passenger seat and that's OK since it's designed to do that, but it started coming on randomly when nothing was on the seat (no dog or person occupant, or briefcase etc). I tried pushing on the seat and seat back to turn off the sensor, but it continued to flash. It seems to flash more when I hit bumps.

I'm worried that in a crash situation the sensor is not reliable and the airbag might be shut off.

Scottieb

Yes best have it check out then!

diggerdave38

Well, I had it checked out and as it turns out the sensor was out of calibration by 20lbs. They kept it overnight and replaced it.

It doesn't flash now, but when they took the seat out the rear passenger side door, they scratched the inside door handle pretty bad. Now I have to find touch up for the silver trim.

atlacura

Forget the touch up paint. If they scratched it, they should fix/replace it! It was no fault of yours that the calibration was off and they had to remove the seat.

diggerdave38

You know, I mentioned it to a few people and they said the same as you.

I also noticed that my nice metal OEM air valve caps were replaced with nifty old plastic ones. Nice of them to replace them for me; I didn't even need to ask. The worst part of it is that I just bought the thing from them in August. I'm going to call and have them fix it when I bring it in for the next service, then I'll never go back again. From now on I'm going to bring it to my brother's independent mechanic for service. No more Acura dealer service for me.

buxtons

+1

I had something fixed in my Lexus and they scratched the plastic around the center console. I had them replace the whole thing.

diggerdave38

I'm going to push for replacement of the handle. The mechanic had to have known that he had done it and that the customer would notice. I also noticed some minor dings to the front passenger door by the storage compartment, but it's not glaringly obvious as the rear door handle. I'm going to have to go around with a flashlight to see what else the guy did.

neo1738

i dont understand why these service techs just cant get it right, i guess when your shop has the backing of a corporation customer satisfaction is far down on your list of priorities

diggerdave38

I guess that's part of the reason they don't care. I think the service manager is part of the problem as well; if they don't care then their employees won't care. I still am amazed that someone in their shop switched my dang air caps. That's pretty low and petty.

TSXrides

I just purchased a 2012 TSX and it's freezing here tonight. I noticed the passenger airbag light going on and off when I hit bumps in the road. It didn't do it yesterday (the first day I owned the car) and it was quite warm. I came to this website to troubleshoot. Looks like it's related to the colder temperatures outside. Hope that helps.

sandiego21

Call me stupid, i read this thread and also read the manual...i'm still confused, how should this light act? I just purchased a 2007 rdx and all the others I looked at, the only time the light would turn on is when you started the car...after about 5 seconds the light goes out. When I have a passenger the light is not on at all. What the heck is the purpose of this light when it is never on and the display says "off" ?

sandiego21

Would love some help here!

schen72

There are two separate "airbag" lights. The one you refer to is the passenger airbag. That light in the console will stay on if it detects a small enough weight, such a child where they would not fare well in an airbag deployment.

The OTHER airbag light is in the instrument panel, and is called the passenger SIDE airbag light. That light illuminates if the passenger seat detects someone sitting in a weird position where the side airbag deployment might cause more harm than good. For example, someone sleeping against the door. All of this is covered in detail in the manual.