Problem with front passenger air bag detector

[BillB15]

I was enjoying my new CX5 which was 4 hours old until my 110 pound son sits in the front seat and the air bag sensor says he is too light for the bags to be armed. Now the truck is basically useless for my family(pukey). I spoke to the dealer and they gave me the basic BS of bring it in and lets take a look at it. I am beyond pissed.

Here is the description of the issue from the manual (pg 2-56). "*2 : If a smaller adult sits on the front passenger seat, the sensors might detect the person as being a child depending on the person's physique."

 

[nizzy1115]

Stop being beyond pissed...and it doesn't make a car useless.

Let the dealer look at it, they might be able to reset it. If a heavy object sat on the seat for sometime it can throw off its calibration.

 

[robertmazda]

This exact thing happened to me too - 2nd day of owning the car. Took it to the dealer who claimed that they could not find a problem. Yet it never happened again, so they must have done something to fix it...even if they didn't mean to.

 

[BillB15]

Stop being beyond pissed...and it doesn't make a car useless.

Let the dealer look at it, they might be able to reset it. If a heavy object sat on the seat for sometime it can throw off its calibration.

If I wanted your assinine opinion I would have asked for an assinine opinion.

 

[BillB15]

This exact thing happened to me too - 2nd day of owning the car. Took it to the dealer who claimed that they could not find a problem. Yet it never happened again, so they must have done something to fix it...even if they didn't mean to.

Since I can replicate the issue over and over again, there will be no dispute about whether there is a problem; however, because the manual is worded to make them not responsible, I am expecting a battle.

 

[nizzy1115]

Stop being beyond pissed...and it doesn't make a car useless.

Let the dealer look at it, they might be able to reset it. If a heavy object sat on the seat for sometime it can throw off its calibration.

If I wanted your assinine opinion I would have asked for an assinine opinion.

What the f did you want people to say? To send u chocolates and tissues?

You have a problem, let the dealer fix it for free, and move on!

 

[CX-SV]

Safety is important and the safest place for children is in back seat, not front seat.

 

[Dimcorner]

Safety is important and the safest place for children is in back seat, not front seat.

110lbs person may not be a child. I was barely 115 when I was 17 in high school (5'6" and cross-country runner back then)

 

[CX-SV]

110lbs person may not be a child. I was barely 115 when I was 17 in high school (5'6" and cross-country runner back then)

Regardless a child is safer in backseat if your concerned with safety. Your son is a child at this point, not an adult.

 

[BillB15]

Regardless a child is safer in backseat if your concerned with safety. Your son is a child at this point, not an adult.

You obviously do not have any 17 year old young adults for children. When you do, you try putting them in the back seat when they have already been driving themselves for 6 months.

 

[BillB15]

What the f did you want people to say? To send u chocolates and tissues?

You have a problem, let the dealer fix it for free, and move on!

The dealer cannot fix it for free or for any amount of $. I was there this morning and the seats are and were confirmed to be calibrated to 88 pounds (programmed into CX5 computer guided chair sensor - I observed them doing this diagnostic) ass weight which I later reconfirmed by placing just the amount of sand it took to activate the air bag and then weighed it out to be 86.5 pounds. When a 115 pound person sits in a seat, there is weight held up by the feet on the floorboards that detracts from there actual ass weight and in my son's case this is about 30 pounds + or -. So now you all know exactly how much weight a CX5 front passenger must be to activate the airbag. Now you can take your chocolates and tissues and place them where you touch your seat.

 

[CX-SV]

You obviously do not have any 17 year old young adults for children. When you do, you try putting them in the back seat when they have already been driving themselves for 6 months.

You obviously are less concerned with safety than some parents.

Note: Glad to hear the 110 pounder was not a fast-food devouring obese 10 year old, because first post made no mention of age.

 

[Seminole]

If I wanted your assinine opinion I would have asked for an assinine opinion.

Now you can take your chocolates and tissues and place them where you touch your seat.

You're never going to get any helpful answers from anyone if you act like an ass to anyone who doesn't give you an answer you are looking for. Nizzy was just trying to say you should calm down and let the dealer take a look at it before getting yourself so worked up as airbag sensors are one of the items that tend to be most finicky in cars (I've had issues with them on my previous 2 vehicles).

Now, moving on, 110lbs is pretty skinny. It sucks, but the seat is functioning as designed due to safety standards put out by the government. As you said, your son might be over the weight, but because he's not applying the right amount of force, the seat won't register him. If you have other cars with airbag seat sensors, is this the only car that he has this issue in?

This TSB that Mazda put out doesn't seem to offer much help either: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-sY4-KaDJV-Sld4d3V0SzBRdnc/edit. Try having him sit all the way back in the seat without leaning on any armrests and see if that takes care of the problem. There's not much else Mazda can do since the seat is properly calibrated at 88lbs as required by the Feds.

 

[Dimcorner]

110 in not THAT skinny depending on your height. A fit 5'4" person would weigh in around that much and I know a few women shorter than that.
It would really suck if the airbag doesn't deploy for your spouse because they just happen to be short and not fat.

 

[Seminole]

110 in not THAT skinny depending on your height. A fit 5'4" person would weigh in around that much and I know a few women shorter than that.
It would really suck if the airbag doesn't deploy for your spouse because they just happen to be short and not fat.

For a male, 110 is skinny. It falls in the mid range of the ideal weight for someone who is 5'1" (http://www.rush.edu/rumc/page-1108048103230.html).

 

[babaoriley7]

I wonder if you could add 10# of something to the seat without affecting the comfort too much. Maybe hang something off the bottom of the seat to help offset the problem?

 

[MikeM.]

I wonder if you could add 10# of something to the seat without affecting the comfort too much. Maybe hang something off the bottom of the seat to help offset the problem?

It's probably not a good idea to defeat a properly calibrated device that only has one reason for existing - to protect small bodies from the explosive nature of the airbag.

 

[nXt]

In regards to the passenger seat airbag light, is it suppose to stay on when there is NO ONE in the passenger seat?
It's a bit annoying having that light on all the time when no one is there.

 

[nizzy1115]

In regards to the passenger seat airbag light, is it suppose to stay on when there is NO ONE in the passenger seat?
It's a bit annoying having that light on all the time when no one is there.

Yes it is on letting you know that it is disabled. It should be disabled for no persons or small persons as in the OP case.

 

[Isobar]

I wonder if you could add 10# of something to the seat without affecting the comfort too much. Maybe hang something off the bottom of the seat to help offset the problem?

You would have to be pretty creative to do this. There's not a lot of room under those seats for you to place a 10lb weight. Also, you would need to make sure it was securely fastened with some high quality stuff, because if you get in an accident with a 10lb weight just hanging under your seat, it's bound to create some more problems. Even then, if you don't get the weight in the correct position, it would be useless. The weight sensor isn't under the seat above the floor plan, it's built right into the seat. Underneath the cushion pan generally bolted on above the slide rails. If you attached it to something that was built directly into the frame structure and not the cushion structure, the weight wouldn't even show up on the sensor.

Every ODS/OCS is calibrated/tested on the assembly line to fit the seat it's being built onto. There is a station at the end of the line that plugs into the seats and will make sure it's all calibrated within the specs given by the OEM. But all it takes is someone bumping the wrong piece on a seat and it can throw that calibration off. So it is definitely possible your seat is mis-calibrated, however it's much more likely that the person is just too light. There is no federal requirement for weight, but it's actually classified as the 5th percentile for adult females. Which I believe with the dummies I have used, weighs in right around 108-110lbs. So your child is literally right at the limit for what the OCS will detect.

You don't have a defective seat, just a flawed detection system.

Signed,

A seat engineer.

PS, if your child is leaning on the console/armrest in the door, or is slouched in the seat at all, this will take even more weight off of the sensor. Hence why I said it's a flawed system, but not a flawed seat.