Passenger airbag ON/OFF!?

[Danjelo]

The little sign on my mirror (Tahoe 03) "PASSENGER AIRBAG ON/OFF" switches automatically between ON and OFF. If I were to install a child seat in the passenger seat I want the airbag turned off. Is there any way to manually turn the airbag off or is it a programming thing that the dealer has to do?
Why is it switching between on/off? Does it depend on if the front seat is occupied?

 

[thdrill]

There is a weight sensor in the base of the passenger seat that activates and deactivates the air bag as a safety feature. I believe it is set for 65 lbs (approx 30 kg), I do not believe there is a way to manually deactivate the passenger side airbag. So basically if you were to put a child in the front passenger seat (NOT recommended) it would not activate the air bag system unless they weighed more than 65 lbs (30 kg).

 

[Danjelo]

Interesting. Hmmm. Thanx.
Why would you not recomend putting a reversed child seat in the front passenger seat? Every car on the market offers this. This is so that you can attend the child while driving...

 

[bahollis]

Airbag- For the kiddo

This might be going out of the way... but what about unplugging the seat belt sensor under the passenger seat? Someone else took their driver seat out to do something, and it was said that he might have left it unplugged which was causing the AIRBAG malfunction light to come on. Or maybe there's a dedicated fuse for that side airbag?

Hey, how old is your kid? I have a 6 month old in an Eddie Bauer convertible seat that holds up to 80 pounds, and I got it to fit behind the passenger seat. The infant seats with bases fit easily but the bigger seats are tricky when they're rear facing. The seats that fit up to 100 lbs are so darn big that they won't fit when they're reclined to the proper angle. Really, the kid's safer somewhere in the back... but if you have to put them up front, I hope you can figure out the airbag situation.

Let me know if you'd like info & pics of the seat I have, if it might help.

http://www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm (down the list is info on airbag safety with children!)

BH

 

[thdrill]

Dan

The problem with placing a rear-facing car seat in the front passenger seat is two fold (at least). The first problem is that most front passenger seats do not have the necessary attachment points for the car seats to secure them 100%. The other problem is if god-forbid the airbag does activate (remember it's not only the weight of the child but the car seat as well on that sensor, or even if it just activates) in an accident it thrusts against the car seat and can cause rather traumatic injuries including head, neck, and potential death basically from bouncing the seat back against the passenger seat at over 100mph (speed of airbag deployment)...I don't know about you but I'm not willing to risk any of those with my daughters.

I have two car seats in my Tahoe a forward facing seat behind the driver and a rear-facing in the center of the second row. My eldest in the fwd seat is pretty much self-sufficient but I can still access my youngest (4 months) in the center. Yes I have to turn around, but regardless of where they are placed when they start to fuss and require attention the safest thing to do is to pull over and attend to them...so it really doesn't matter where they are.

Like I said before, I know that placing a child in the front passenger seat is tempting for its convience but to tend to a fussing child is a distraction from the road which would place you at a greater risk for an accident (and airbag deployment) and the risk of injury to that child in the rear facing seat it dramatically increased (espically with airbag deployment).

On an aside personally I wouldn't want to go and tamper with a safey feature of any vehicle just incase it deactivates more than just what I think it will.

 

[Danjelo]

th drill-
Ok thanks. I buy your arguments. I was just wondering how Chevy has solved this problem. I work for BMW Group here in Sweden and in ALL BMW cars, it is possible to turn off the passenger air bag for the child seat. I understand your point though.

 

[STREETutilityVEHICLE]

in all the past chevy's i've worked with, they have a key activated-deactivation of the air bags. i believe that in 03 chevy switched to the weight sensor. mainly because it's recommended that in ALL cases childs seats be placed in the rear seats ONLY. i think there is a warning about this on the passenger side sun visor. i'm not at my truck now, but i think it says that you should never place a child in the front seat. i have no kids yet but i do remember seeing something like that on there. i know it's probably a burden but i do think it's a great deal safer in the back seat during a collision opposed to the front. do you also have side air bags? if so that also would throw the childs seat toward the center/drivers side of the truck giving quite a violent reaction between the forward/backward and side/side movements during a wreck. not something i would want to risk. just my opinions.