Passenger airbag disabled

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leafme

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
108
Location
San Diego, CA
So, it was working when I drove to Randy's house SAT 4-16 to do the 6" Bazooka woofer upgrade on his and my leafs (which sounds very good by the way) but when I was done (10+ very long hours later) the airbag disabled light was on on the center console. In addition, the red airbag icon and the red triangle exclamation point icon were both flashing on the center display gauge cluster (and have ever since). I've prodded, kicked, tweaked the seat and everything else I could think of including pulling the battery (again) and reconnecting and... nothing... no change. The manual says it's time for Nissan to look at it. I did slide the passenger seat forward and backward all the way a few times when running the wires under the side molding and may have banged the seat stops a time or too but not really that hard (or so I think). Did I get the seat to think the car had been in a accident? Sheese. Man this stuff is sensitive. I've read some posts on other Nissan forums where the passenger seat airbag has also gone on the blink (ah... hence the name of my infamous EVSE?).

At least the car still runs fine otherwise (and we were actually successful finding the right wires to tap on to in spite of the service manual having errors in the wiring diagram). Ya shoulda seen us. Two electrical engineers scratching their heads 6 hrs into it. Man I tell you if we were being paid to do this work we'da been fired (it took so long). Randy insisted we forge ahead with what we could deduce from "a preponderance of evidence." We did and he was right. Worked perfectly.

Anyone know of any tricks I might try before biting the bullet and heading off to the dealer?

Malcolm :geek:
 
Ya gotta go with the "preponderance of evidence" when figuring out all the wiring(!)

I'll start a separate thread on our upgrade in a day or two when I finish everything and get the photos sorted out....In the meantime, here's one photo to whet your appetite of our upgrade in progress....Cracking open that dash is not for the faint of heart!!!

dash.jpg


Randy
 
In the Service Manual SRC (SRS Airbag Control System), there is some information on how to interpret the flashing on the dash, and how to troubleshoot it....Good info...
 
Did you turn the car on with the center dash piece out? Probably threw a code for the disconnected pass air bag monitor.
 
He did turn on the car with the dash out and the head unit out...The range number came up as "---"...Good suggestion about the error code, maybe we can just clear it and move on?
 
Stroked02F350 said:
Did you turn the car on with the center dash piece out? Probably threw a code for the disconnected pass air bag monitor.
Thanks Stroked. That might'a done it. Good point. I did turn mine on with the head unit out and Randy did not. I have the error and he does not. We were looking for 12v power for the woofer control-on command at stereo turn-on since we ended up being on the wrong connector and did not know it. We ended up using the purple wire in the connector for the climate control power-on enable (see the red crimp-on on the lower connector - the climate control connector - we used in Randy's photo above) instead of the purple wire in the connector for the stereo-on enable. Bummer. Now with the car aux power on, the woofer does not come on with the stereo as we were hoping. The car has to be "on" for the woofer to work with the wire we used (aux is not enough to put power on the purple wire we used in the - wrong - climate control connector). I may go back in to change this out of sheer principle. It's a lot easier now that I've been there once. But i will add this... Nissan DID NOT use machine screws for the 4 screws that hold the nav/stereo head unit in place (thanks Nissan). Soooooooooooo, when you are screwing in the 4 screws to remount the head unit, ya godda fiddle with the screws for waaaaaay longer than you want in order to get them to find the previous threads to screw in to. Muscling them in will not work as they just lock up after about 1/2 a turn if you are cross threaded. Man that was difficult (politically correct word used here). AND it's not so much that it was difficult but rather I was cursing Nissan for cheapin' out and not using machine screws the whole time I was struggling to get them back in. To be fair, one was a piece-o-cake but the other three... yikes !

Hmmm... I think all I need to do it reset the air bag but am still trying to figure that one out. Thanks again for the thought.

Malcolm :geek:
 
LakeLeaf said:
If you pulled connectors apart - any chance you bent a pin when putting them back together?
Thanks lakeleaf. I 'spose there is always a chance. The connectors all slipped in easily and snapped cleanly so I'm hoping not. It may be something to revisit but I'm gonna try everything else first before I have to mess with pulling the console open again.

Malcolm :geek:
 
It's a particularly sensitive issue for me right now. I'm used to computer connectors which are designed for hundreds of plugs/unplugs. I've had to have all of the connector pins on both ends of a secondary wiring harness replaced recently because a tech unplugged the harness once diagnosing an issue - and it turns out that my good friends at Chevy designed the connectors for only 3 plug/unplug cycles - and apparently messed up at that. I don't really understand how you can design anything plugable to only be able to be plugged and unplugged a few times - but apparently that is standard in the car business. (I mean really - doesn't it take a lot of work to figure out how to make a plug fail after only a few cycles???)
 
SUGGESTION:
Procedure for re-installing screws or bolts:

I always (gently and slowly) back out the screw until I hear it click
and feel it drop inwards one thread length.

Then, I know that I have the threads of the screw lined up
with the previously used/made threads that the screw should go into.
 
Stroked02F350 said:
Did you turn the car on with the center dash piece out? Probably threw a code for the disconnected pass air bag monitor.
I'll be a monkey's uncle Stroked. I fixed it (or better stated, a thread from the Nissan 350z forum told me what to do). Man, I tell you... is this community forum stuff great or what? You got me started and econ solved it.

Ok, lookie here, here's the deal (modify with foot on brake pedal as needed to turn on the LEAF of course), word for word from the forum, 3-15-07:

Flashing Blinking Airbag Warning Light Reset Procedure
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Turn the key from off to on.
2. Watch the airbag light closely. It will stay on for a few secs. and then as soon as it blinks off (the start of the flashing), turn the key off instantly.
3. Count to 5 (1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi . . . .)
4. Repeat steps 1-3 two more times until you have done the cycle three times.
5. Now turn the key on and watch the light. It will start blinking in a different, slower manner. This is diagnostic mode. You can watch this for a little while, no hurry.
6. Now turn the key off again, Count to 5 like in step 3 again, and turn back on. If the procedure worked, the airbag light will not be flashing.

Slick as butter I tell you (like putting the Clipper Creek J1772 into the Leaf!). Fixed it first try. Credit to econ0003, San Diego, from the 350z forum. Thank you soooooooooooo much. It must have been due to the power up I did with all the connectors open while hunting down the power ready wire for the woofers I added (Randy did not power his up with the connectors open and he did not have the problem). Ahhh, life is good.

Malcolm :geek:
 
leafme said:
Flashing Blinking Airbag Warning Light Reset Procedure
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Turn the key from off to on.
Malcolm :geek:

Huh? What key? Doesn't sound like a LEAF. :eek:
 
Yes, the description was from another car, but apparently a similar procedure works in the LEAF.

Thus, "Turn the key ON", is probably (while stepping on the brake with the FOB nearby) "Press the ON Button", or some such.
 
leafme said:
I fixed it (or better stated, a thread from the Nissan 350z forum told me what to do).

here's the deal (modify with foot on brake pedal as needed to turn on the LEAF of course), word for word from the forum, 3-15-07:

Of course the instructions were for another car (as described by Malcolm in his post)....
 
garygid said:
Yes, the description was from another car, but apparently a similar procedure works in the LEAF.

Thus, "Turn the key ON", is probably (while stepping on the brake with the FOB nearby) "Press the ON Button", or some such.
Yes, exactly as you have stated Gary. I tweaked the indicated "dance" instructions for the 350z in my brain to suit the LEAF and it worked on first try... much to my elation. After dealing with it for several weeks (and knowing I HAVE to try something before capitulating to my failure) I searched the web again and after reading a few other methods, decided on this one. Lucky me.

Malcolm :geek:
 
Now that Malcolm has that issue fixed, we're clear to do more mods to our Leafs without the potential guilt of damaging something..... :)
 
Just want to say thanks for saving me a trip to the dealer. Must of tripped a code while installing the seat heater switches. Did a site search and found your remedy, worked great. :D
 
+1.

I took my seats out to install seat heaters and drove it after I only installed the drivers seat again.
Long story short, after I put my passenger seat back in, the passenger airbag shut itself off. No good. I thought I would have to go to the dealer to get the passenger airbag back on. I almost called the dealer this morning but I thought I would check the forum first.

Thank you thank you forum friends for making the same mistake before me and for finding and posting a cure. This fix worked like a charm and saved me cold hard cash plus a drive of shame to the dealer.

If you take your seats out, don't turn the car on with the airbags disconnected or you will have this issue.

MrFish said:
Just want to say thanks for saving me a trip to the dealer. Must of tripped a code while installing the seat heater switches. Did a site search and found your remedy, worked great. :D
 
This trick isn't working for me on a 2013 - is there some subtle step I'm missing? Are you pushing the brake pedal or just hitting the start button twice? I've tried lots of variations but so far the red triangle and airbag always come back. Maybe something else is messed up? All my buttons and radio/nav functions appear normal though so I don't what else to change except maybe remove my back up camera hack.
 
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