My airbag warning light started flashing for my 2011 Nissan Leaf.

I used Leafspy and it confirmed that the OCS sensor was bad. As you may know, the OCS is embeded in the front passenger seat.

Our local dealer wants $3750 to replace the sensor because the entire seat must be replaced. We called Corporate Nissan and it refused to do anything to help us becasue of the age of the car.

I was not surprised by the cost because there are numerous threads on other forums which confirm that the dealers are chargeing ourrageous amounts to replace the OCS sensor. At most, the car is maybe worth $5000 so it is not prudent to spend $3750 for a 12 year old $5000 car.

However, I do have some questions that I would welcome input for.

1. My udnerstanding is that when the OCS is defective, BOTH airbags are disabled. Is this correct?

2. Besdies that fact that the airbags system is now disabled, is there any chance that the airbag system could deploy on its own for some reason (as a result of the faulty OCS sensor)?

Thank you!

NorcalQX4 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:04 pm

1. My udnerstanding is that when the OCS is defective, BOTH airbags are disabled. Is this correct?

Positively incorrect (although it's a common misconception). Imagine for a moment the stink and lawsuits if a driver with no passenger on board went unprotected in a crash simply because the passenger bag was diagnosed with an open circuit. When an SRS system has problems, the Bag Brain will always do the best it can with the resources available.

NorcalQX4 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 13, 2023 5:04 pm

2. Besdies that fact that the airbags system is now disabled, is there any chance that the airbag system could deploy on its own for some reason (as a result of the faulty OCS sensor)?

The incidence of false deployments has been vanishingly small since the mid 1980's when microprocessor Bag Brains became widespread. Non-deployments are also much rarer than they used to be. The Bag Brain in your Leaf has three x-y-z MEMS sensors to analyze crash vectors and force, and it's very smart. So while airbags are controlled explosives and there's always a tiny chance of any explosive finding an unexpected fuse, the incidence is so tiny that even the worst ambulance chasers can't make bank off advertising it. Add to that the fact that the OCS has nothing to do with deployment, only with how the passenger bags deploy, I'd say the chances of an OCS problem affecting anyone but the front seat passenger are probably in the billions or trillions. Quit worrying.