Airbag warning oddity

I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag warning
monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and on
every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.

The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a passenger -- say
a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never push
the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and cause the
warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even suggested
that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD I was
listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger seat!

Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms? Does
this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be placed on
the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed how
bloody inconvenient this is?

Jim Beaver

"Jim Beaver" > wrote in message
. com...
> I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag
warning
> monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and on
> every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.
>
> The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
> discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a passenger --
say
> a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never push
> the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and cause
the
> warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even suggested
> that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
> sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
> problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD I
was
> listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger
seat!
>
> Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms? Does
> this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be placed on
> the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed how
> bloody inconvenient this is?
>
> Jim Beaver
>
>

The technician was just letting you know that the manufacturer's software
and seat sensing technology is a bit buggy and they haven't worked out all
the kinks yet. Kinda like a beta version. As time goes on the system will
improve to meet customer demands. If it turns out that there are not a lot
of complaints, then no money or effort will be spent to address the problem.
For now, you will just have to live with it and hope the manufacturer comes
out with a TSB on how to alleviate the annoyance, but for something so
trivial compared to all the other major problems they are dealing with, it
will probably be several model years before annoying seat sensor systems are
debugged. Until then your choices are pretty much limited to keeping the
seat clear or trading your vehicle in for a different model with out that
sort of problem. Of course, no matter what you wind up getting, there is
very little chance that absolutely nothing about it will annoy you.
After all, nothing is perfect.
--
Kevin Mouton
Automotive Technology Instructor
"If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"
Red Green

"Jim Beaver" > wrote in message
. com...
> I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag
warning
> monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and on
> every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.
>
> The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
> discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a passenger --
say
> a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never push
> the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and cause
the
> warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even suggested
> that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
> sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
> problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD I
was
> listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger
seat!
>
> Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms? Does
> this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be placed on
> the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed how
> bloody inconvenient this is?
>

I think the tech was wrong, the automakers cannot set these to be that
sensitive
because variations in the seat stuffing and manufacture are present and if
they
were that sensitive they would be going off every time the production line
changed
anything. It's a rediculous proposition. I think for whatever reason,
yours
has a problem. Since it's under warranty you should not take a blow-off
response like that, if it keeps happening keep going back there and bitching
about it, or find another dealership.

Of course, if you put something heavy like grocery bags of milk on the seat,
the car should think there is something there. Why don't you simply buckle
the seat belt over whatever is there to shut up the chime?

Ted

they also have a issue with the seat wiring and that can set the lite on but
the sterlership won't amit they suc!

Jim Beaver wrote:

> I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag warning
> monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and on
> every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.
>
> The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
> discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a passenger -- say
> a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never push
> the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and cause the
> warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even suggested
> that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
> sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
> problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD I was
> listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger seat!
>
> Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms? Does
> this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be placed on
> the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed how
> bloody inconvenient this is?
>
> Jim Beaver

kevin it scare me to think with that response that you are teaching auto repair
that is the 3gen airbag system dn it works so good it can tell ya how much your
fat ass, head weighs just be sitting in the seat and dc spent billions to make
the system is sound and it is but the techs at dealers are the failing
components here probably the same ones you taught

Kevin wrote:

> "Jim Beaver" > wrote in message
> . com...
> > I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag
> warning
> > monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and on
> > every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.
> >
> > The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
> > discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a passenger --
> say
> > a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never push
> > the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and cause
> the
> > warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even suggested
> > that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
> > sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
> > problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD I
> was
> > listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger
> seat!
> >
> > Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms? Does
> > this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be placed on
> > the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed how
> > bloody inconvenient this is?
> >
> > Jim Beaver
> >
> >
>
> The technician was just letting you know that the manufacturer's software
> and seat sensing technology is a bit buggy and they haven't worked out all
> the kinks yet. Kinda like a beta version. As time goes on the system will
> improve to meet customer demands. If it turns out that there are not a lot
> of complaints, then no money or effort will be spent to address the problem.
> For now, you will just have to live with it and hope the manufacturer comes
> out with a TSB on how to alleviate the annoyance, but for something so
> trivial compared to all the other major problems they are dealing with, it
> will probably be several model years before annoying seat sensor systems are
> debugged. Until then your choices are pretty much limited to keeping the
> seat clear or trading your vehicle in for a different model with out that
> sort of problem. Of course, no matter what you wind up getting, there is
> very little chance that absolutely nothing about it will annoy you.
> After all, nothing is perfect.
> --
> Kevin Mouton
> Automotive Technology Instructor
> "If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"
> Red Green

ted just so you know the new system has to be calibrated for the seat to
function properly. meaning a tool called assmeter by techs is a weight that has
to placed into the pass. seat and with a scanner the seat has to accept the
weight and record the weight seen by the strain gauges in the seat track ( a
bent seat frame can also cause the lite to come on) anyway
the seat and it's system is based on airbag deployment not to go off with a
person under 100 lbs
sitting in it such as a kid or a female and the airbag will also deploy with
less power in a lighter impact if the is such a thing

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> "Jim Beaver" > wrote in message
> . com...
> > I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag
> warning
> > monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and on
> > every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.
> >
> > The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
> > discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a passenger --
> say
> > a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never push
> > the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and cause
> the
> > warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even suggested
> > that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
> > sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
> > problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD I
> was
> > listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger
> seat!
> >
> > Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms? Does
> > this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be placed on
> > the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed how
> > bloody inconvenient this is?
> >
>
> I think the tech was wrong, the automakers cannot set these to be that
> sensitive
> because variations in the seat stuffing and manufacture are present and if
> they
> were that sensitive they would be going off every time the production line
> changed
> anything. It's a rediculous proposition. I think for whatever reason,
> yours
> has a problem. Since it's under warranty you should not take a blow-off
> response like that, if it keeps happening keep going back there and bitching
> about it, or find another dealership.
>
> Of course, if you put something heavy like grocery bags of milk on the seat,
> the car should think there is something there. Why don't you simply buckle
> the seat belt over whatever is there to shut up the chime?
>
> Ted

"philthy" > wrote in message
...
> kevin it scare me to think with that response that you are teaching auto
repair
> that is the 3gen airbag system dn it works so good it can tell ya how much
your
> fat ass, head weighs just be sitting in the seat and dc spent billions to
make
> the system is sound and it is but the techs at dealers are the failing
> components here probably the same ones you taught


No, you've got it wrong. I taught the ones that can fix them. I did not
teach the engineers that designed them, and we all know how they screw up
all the time. Can you say TSB? From your sentence structure it seems you
probably don't even have a clue anyway. Don't know why I bothered responding



Kevin

>
> Kevin wrote:
>
> > "Jim Beaver" > wrote in message
> > . com...
> > > I've got a 2005 Dodge Magnum. I just had the passenger-seat airbag
> > warning
> > > monitor recalibrated because the warning light/chime was going off and
on
> > > every minute or two whenever the passenger seat was empty.
> > >
> > > The technician told me something about the monitor getting all
> > > discombobulated if I put something in the seat other than a
passenger --
> > say
> > > a book or a pizza or a bag of groceries. He even said I should never
push
> > > the seat all the way back, as that, too, can fool the sensors and
cause
> > the
> > > warning light/chime to start flipping out. The technician even
suggested
> > > that having a trash bag hanging from the backrest might throw off the
> > > sensors. When I drove up to the service department and described my
> > > problem, the technician looked askance at the printed insert from a CD
I
> > was
> > > listening to. The piece of paper was the only thing on the passenger
> > seat!
> > >
> > > Can someone explain to me what the problem is in fairly clear terms?
Does
> > > this mean that nothing WHATSOEVER but a passenger should ever be
placed on
> > > the passenger seat? And if so, have car manufacturers ever addressed
how
> > > bloody inconvenient this is?
> > >
> > > Jim Beaver
> > >
> > >
> >
> > The technician was just letting you know that the manufacturer's
software
> > and seat sensing technology is a bit buggy and they haven't worked out
all
> > the kinks yet. Kinda like a beta version. As time goes on the system
will
> > improve to meet customer demands. If it turns out that there are not a
lot
> > of complaints, then no money or effort will be spent to address the
problem.
> > For now, you will just have to live with it and hope the manufacturer
comes
> > out with a TSB on how to alleviate the annoyance, but for something so
> > trivial compared to all the other major problems they are dealing with,
it
> > will probably be several model years before annoying seat sensor systems
are
> > debugged. Until then your choices are pretty much limited to keeping the
> > seat clear or trading your vehicle in for a different model with out
that
> > sort of problem. Of course, no matter what you wind up getting, there
is
> > very little chance that absolutely nothing about it will annoy you.
> > After all, nothing is perfect.
> > --
> > Kevin Mouton
> > Automotive Technology Instructor
> > "If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"
> > Red Green
>