Passenger Side Air bag Seat Sensor Recall?

[Mntnbkr]

Not sure if this is the best forum, but it gets the most traffic, and I could not find anything with the search...

Does anyone know anything about problems and maybe a potential recall on the front passenger air bag seat sensor?

My dealer has had our 5 for more than a week because the weight sensor was malfunctioning and not staying properly "armed" for lighter passengers. (The seat airbag threshhold should be 60 or 65 lbs per the manual and it was not "arming" for an 85 lbs passenger.) They first replaced the sensor. No fix. They then tried to reload the onboard software/hardware portion dealing with the pass airbag - no fix. Then they took a seat out of a new 5 and out it in ours - no fix. After much communication with Mazda they feel they have nailed it down to the seat tracks, so they overnighted some in to arrive today - then they have to install, reload the software, test, etc, etc... No idea if it will fix the problem and I doubt if we will get our 5 back today.

Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[blacktalon13]

same problem with mine...

but keep in mind. with a 85 pounder sitting up front minus the leg. it's probably under 60 pound. i don't think it's malfunctioning.

 

[mazdadude]

When i read that part of the manual, it stated that if the airbag was deactivated from being below the weight threshold, it would remain inactive until over 95~lbs was achieved.

 

[Mntnbkr]

same problem with mine...

but keep in mind. with a 85 pounder sitting up front minus the leg. it's probably under 60 pound. i don't think it's malfunctioning.

It's my 10 year old son - on short jumps my wife lets him ride up front (no flames please - I make him sit in back -we know it is safer there) - wife said his legs barely reach the floor if at all -with his FULL weight in the seatbed it would go on/off/on/off. The dealership confirmed it with a weight test (I think they use bench press weights or similar).

Regardless, the dealership fixed it and it now works like this:
1. Nothing in the seat - no indicator light illuminated that the air bag is off.
2. Something lightweight in the seat like a briefcase - it senses the weight but indicates with the indicator light that the airbag is off. I believe it is engineered like this in the event someone was stupid enough to put a baby seat up front, so that the passenger airbag won't go off in an accident.
3. Person of weight in seat - light briefly goes on upon startup or person getting in, then goes off.

Cheers.