Does anyone here have experience with a front seat occupancy sensor emulator?

[rzemanfl]

My 14-year-old Hyundai started displaying an "Air Bag" warning light. The diagnosis at the repair shop was a bad sensor in the front passenger seat. The estimated cost of repair was between a thousand and eighteen hundred dollars, depending on whether the whole seat needed to be replaced or just the bottom part under the upholstery. I found a front seat "occupancy sensor emulator" on the Internet for under ninety dollars delivered. It appears to bypass the sensor in the seat and send a signal that there is always someone sitting in the front passenger seat. The only drawback I can see, assuming it works as promised, is that in an accident, the passenger side bag would inflate even if there was no one sitting there. I figure in a car that old, any accident that would trigger the airbags would probably result in the car being written off as a total wreck. I never drive with anyone other than an adult in that seat, so there is no danger of the bag hitting a child.

If anyone has any experience with something like this, I would appreciate hearing from you. I was ready to spend the thousand-dollar final estimated cost of repairs until I came across this alternative that may save me around nine hundred bucks. When I get the part in the mail in a week or two and it's installed, I will update this post. In the meantime, I will stay off highways.

[pwb]

1. I have good luck using You Tube

for things like this.

[rzemanfl]

10. Thank you!

This video is a different vehicle, but the emulator is from the same company.

[CincyDem]

2. I'll save ya $985.

Go to o a pet store and get a car leash. About 12 bucks. Got a clip on one end and the other clips into the seat belt slot. Cut the leash off and stick the seatbelt end into your passenger seatbelt slot. Your sensor will read it as seatbelt in use.

When you have a passenger, they can just pop it out.

[perfessor]

3. Ummm can't you just

… fasten the seat belt?

[rzemanfl]

6. Please see my response below. n/t

[rzemanfl]

5. This is not the seatbelt sensor.

It is the sensor that "arms" (for lack of a better word) the front seat passenger airbag. Right now, anyone in the front passenger seat does not the protection of an air bag.

[CincyDem]

9. Got it. Thanks. Wasn't thinking about it the right way.

[rzemanfl]

11. The video above shows that the seat belt sensor is involved too.

The failed part is called the "passenger sensor mat."

[intrepidity]

13. You could use the seat belt hack described above

(the pet leash one) plus the emulator as described in the video, if you don't want to mess with the wiring. The emulator will have a connector that just clicks in.

I wonder what is wrong with the sensor, though? Maybe it just needs to be repositioned? I'd take it apart and examine it, but that's how I do everything, lol.

Good luck, seems you have your answer.

[rzemanfl]

15. I was never very mechanical and will be 77 soon.

I will let someone younger at the garage do this.

As I understand it, there are a series of sensors on the sensor mat which has some sort of software. It is an expensive part. The one for the Subaru in the video was over twelve hundred dollars.

[intrepidity]

16. And that's why I drive a 2001 lol

Less of that fancy new fangled stuff.

[rzemanfl]

17. Plus, you can get collector plates soon.

[usonian]

4. I put black tape over certain warning lights, and foam rubber squres over banks of them.

Anything critical will show up at startup. (I'm no fool)

I did this when the windshield washer bottle sensor decided to go on whenever it felt like going on.

[rzemanfl]

7. The air bag is a big deal. n/t

[usonian]

8. Agree.

Nuisance ain't the same as critical.
Good luck with your efforts!

[gibraltar72]

12. Piece of tape over warning light.

[intrepidity]

14. Works for many things, but

certain safety features---especially where air bags are involved!---should be approached differently.