Passenger air bag light

Forum for the unique Murano, and official home of Nissan Murano Club!
echo82b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:54 am
Car: 2011 Murano

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I have a 2011 Murano SL and passenger air bag light stays on constantly. Dealer says the passenger seat sensor is defective and is not under warranty. To fix requires new seat costing $4800. I would like to bypass the OCS by replacing the sensor by ending a signal to the control unit that the sensor is connected to. Does anyone know how to do this or does anyone know someone who could give me info on how to do it? I know its been done on BMC's. Any help would be appreciated.


macgiver
Posts: 1612
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:21 am

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mac , seriously now I'm sure everybody realizes the gravity of explosives in SRS (airbag sys. ) , bare minimumNEVER EVEN TOUCH a "Yellow" connector with battery connected , more importantly never PLACE yourself IN FRONT of airbag whilst "monkying" ! ,battery BEST disconnected AND Positive temporarily jumpered "short to ground" whilst doing anythin airbag related . A possible remedy - IF 'n you are the recipient of like a KATAKA or something RECALL and you go and ,at Dealer apmt. scqhedule & FIX - COMPLAIN the LIGHT ISSUE ,INSIST THAT service dept. to RECTIFY ( and maybe because they could'nt SEE it due to the tape you put over it :rotflmao ) NOW that's killing two birds with one stone. :yesnod

amc49
Posts: 1183
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:24 pm
Car: '11 Nissan Versa
'17 Nissan Altima

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TAKATA airbag is what he meant to say there. Likely a recall on the bag itself but that will not cover the seat.

The problem is that likely the seat itself has a minicomputer under it as part of the seat weight sensor that precalculates the weight in the seat to determine the amount of charge to detonate in the bag. The airbag on that side has more than one possible explosive force depending on child or adult in the seat. Meaning the seat output is not any one number or value, it is a variable and must be in the range the main airbag computer is looking for or an error code pops up. Nissan Consult software only calculates and tests that as good/bad, there are no test values given in the service manuals at least that I could find while looking for them. Probably one of those little secrets the company keeps to guarantee more dealer work.............

'Ending' a signal is not viable, that is the same as the seat unplugged and an instant error code.

echo82b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:54 am
Car: 2011 Murano

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OK. I have talked to Nissan America and opened a case. They told me that my car was not manufactured at the plant with defective parts and they will not honor any claims on my SRS system and is not covered under any recalls. The seat does have a control unit that receives a signal from the mat sensor in the seat. The control unit then sends a signal to the Main Air Bag system. The mat sensor in the seat sends a signal based on weight of occupant so I would assume that it would be a resistance value. However it works I know there is a way to send it a signal that is equivalent to can adult passenger. I don't think the air bag discharges at different forces but just does not detonate if weight is below that of an adult whatever they have determined that weight to be. My goal is to disable the OCS (Occupant Classification System) and have the passenger airbag deploy in an accident whether the passenger seat is occupied or not.

macgiver
Posts: 1612
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:21 am

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mac , one problem with that is the little people - children - and if you were to be able "to send it a signal that's equivelent to adult passengers" , having the ability to SWITCH that ON/OFF would be WISE .But really I'm not endorsing any of these mods - just that you mention , and may in fact do, and it better be able to be disabled.
I mean BIGGEST flaw with a mod like that is -FORGETTING to DISABLE WITH CHILD in SEAT !

echo82b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:54 am
Car: 2011 Murano

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We don't allow children to ride n front passenger seat. I'm the only one that occupies it.

amc49
Posts: 1183
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:24 pm
Car: '11 Nissan Versa
'17 Nissan Altima

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The car was not built for you alone.

If the result of the weight computation is simple resistance then a fix on the seat may be easy. However, they may be communicating from the seat computer to the main bag module in canbus like so much of the rest of the car parts do. The seat output clearly changes when a person even moves around on the seat, that seems more complicated than simple resistance. Talking in canbus makes finding a fix more difficult and one reason Nissan uses it, to force more dealer work.

The service manual says the bags are dual stage, or ones with a half power ability and full power as well.

There are double trigger impulse inputs in each bag, not two wires.......four for two separate triggers, the schematic clearly shows them.

I have issues with the pass seat design as well, just haven't worked out how I will get around it yet.

echo82b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:54 am
Car: 2011 Murano

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Yeah it makes me really angry that Nissan does not even sell a seat sensor. They require you to buy the whole seat and in my case would cost $4800 from dealer. I'm sure the leather would not match. And also they only warranty this for 3 yrs. The seats belts are warranted for 10 yrs. I doubt I will be able to pass my next inspection. Its true dealers don't make money selling cars but on maintenance and repairs.

I once saw european sold devices on eBay that would fix this problem by bypassing the OCS for BMW's. Think I will see if I can find something for Murano.

amc49
Posts: 1183
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:24 pm
Car: '11 Nissan Versa
'17 Nissan Altima

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It's one of the OEMs later developments................to mass great bodies of parts together into bigger single assemblies to bump up individual parts sales. I was told back in the '90s by a Ford counter guy that they wanted every single part purchase to be at least $50 even back then, at that time the parts books were being modded for it, older single available parts marked in red to show the guy that they were part of a larger assembly. Specialty one off bolts were very bad, you often had to buy a $30 part to get a $1 bolt that you could not find anywhere.

I myself refer to that practice as 'unitized assembly', it makes them whopping amounts of cash now, and I avoid buying them by often creating my own specialty part out of thin air when needed. We'll see if I can do the Nissans like I did the Fords, 4 of them running for the last 40 years and I bought OEM parts way less than 10 times in all those years.

If the seat cushion is bad it can't hurt to pull it to see if something stupid simple has happened there like a broken wire from the bladder moving around to possibly shear a wire............

echo82b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:54 am
Car: 2011 Murano

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I'm suspecting it might have to do more with the heater in the seat. Fault code says sensor is bad. Dealer said sensor was deteriorated. How could they determine that? Anyway I just found the bypass device I saw before. Its called AirBag360 and they make one for Murano. Think I will try it. Cost is $89 and maybe VAT and shipping from Dublin Ireland.

fixeditrite
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:08 am
Car: 2009 G37 Convertible Base

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I purchased an "Airbag 360" emulator and it solved my flashing air bag light issue. After installation, I cycled my ignition the proper way to reset and done. Now - No flashing light - air bag off light is no longer on.
http://airbag360.com/


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