Airbag light on, no occupant on passenger side?
 

Hey all, new owner of a 2005 Pacifica Limited. First off I'll say I love this vehicle! It has options that I never expected, such as built-in navigation in the instrument panel, heated seats for rear passengers, reverse sensors! When I purchased this vehicle the check engine light was on for egr valve, I installed a new one and dropped a bolt. Those things are ridiculously difficult to get at! I did some internet searching and found the handy method of putting tape on the bolt head before putting in into the socket to prevent it from falling into the abyss of the motor and never seen again. That would have saved me a lot of time and work disassembling things to make more room. ABS light is on, and with it the functionality of the all wheel drive system is gone. I have a new wheel hub, just waiting on the impact wrench and sockets that I ordered from Harbor Freight. What I don't know how to fix is the airbag issue. I had it scanned by a local mechanic and he has on the paper "No occupant on passenger side". He recommends not fixing it because it could cost more than $2000. Does this seem likely? There is also a leak in the black fan box on the passenger side and water leaks onto the floor. Could this have damaged srs components? Could it be as simple as unbolting the passenger seat and cleaning up connections?

OK I visited a local Chrysler dealer, I was told the seat needs to be taken apart and reassembled for repair and it would cost more than $2000! There has to be an easier/cheaper way to fix it. I'm definitely not spending the money to do that. Is there a way to silence the alarm? I wouldn't mind if the light just stayed on, but it starts when I'm about 20 minutes into driving. The srs light and warning chime repeat 9 times after that over the course of about 10 minutes before the light just stays on and the chime shuts up. Is there a fuse or something that enables the chime?

Read thru the factory Mopar Pac manual. Yours is not a real enviable position regarding Seat Chime. That chime is electronically activated by 7 or 8 different issues, not fused separate, not physically located separately (possibly located on-board the Integrated Power Module), would not appear easy to isolate.

Nevertheless please find the relevant section dealing with Weight Sensor and associate wiring. May be as simple as disconnecting the connector under the seat. Failing that you may have to work a little harder at fooling the system. Good luck.

(PS - you mentioned that you had an ABS light issue due to failed sensor. I have replaced a ton of those ABS sensors, never have had to replace a hub and its associated toothed gear, to get a ABS sensor to function..)

The ABS light will self-extinguish after the Pac drives 30 feet. The computer is continuously verifying all four ABS sensors, once it finds 4 good sensors the ABS light goes right out on its own. Getting a Code Scanner to identify a failed ABS sensor on a Pac is tricky, being built by Daimler Chrysler most scanners will not identify the bad corner. I have only had luck identifying the failed ABS sensor location w/ a $4000 Snap-On scanner, if you find a cheap one that works please let us all know.

In regard to the SRS issue, I am not real clear what the observed issue is. If the SRS chime is dinging because it senses a passenger is present but not buckled in, I would short conductor G10 to Z247, effectively telling the computer that passenger is bucked in. Alternately, you could try disconnecting the passenger Weight Sensor from the Occupant Classification Module. Strangely enough the factory manual does not show a connector for Weight Sensor, so it would be a matter of looking under the passenger seat, identifying the color coded wire and possibly having to snip them w/ wire cutters.

Oh OK I have driven to work since then, the ABS light stayed on. Hopefully replacing the sensor on the other side will fix it. On these cars the resonator has to be removed to get to the bolts that hold the front passenger seat, which is absolutely ridiculous. Maybe I’ll just disconnect one of the impact sensors if they are easy to get to.