bigboy292000 Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 I am having difficult time trying to figure out what is going on with our car: it has started to intermittently change from Passenger Airbag ON to OFF while driving. The passenger is in the front seat, sitting, no strange sitting position (in other words, the seat bottom with the sensor is not unloaded of the weight). I have seen it happen with both my wife and my daughter. What I did so far: Checked that all of the wires under the seat are tight and fully plugged in; they are. Wiggled all the stuff while the airbag was showing ON and it had no effect.Learned that the ODS (Occupant Detection System) control module is at the bottom of the passenger seat and is not serviceable; there seem to be some vendors on eBay that provide a 'repair' service but it is still unclear to me if I need that.Went to the dealer to read SRS codes; there was no code history at all, and while at the shop, the problem could not be reproduced (I was there in the garage with the guy, he was correct, it all behaved as expected).I have instructed my wife to pay attention to this a bit more now and try experimenting with moving the seat more forward vs. back and seeing if it changes anything. Things that I do not understand: Let's say that there is an SRS code (I am guessing that this would be under SRS?) Would there be history of this like with engine codes, or would this read only when the problem is present and then be gone, if there was some sort of a problem? I do not have a reader at this point that reads SRS codes, but am considering getting one, to hopefully be able to record a change in the state while the car is driving; but I might not need to do that if past SRS codes are remembered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLlegacy Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 Most likely the seat sensor is bad or getting there, unfortunately it also means the seat bottom would need to be replaced since the sensor is built into the foam. First I would check the connections under the seat for any corrosion on the terminals, maybe even just put some contact cleaner on them either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted January 8, 2020 Author Share Posted January 8, 2020 Most likely the seat sensor is bad or getting there, unfortunately it also means the seat bottom would need to be replaced since the sensor is built into the foam. First I would check the connections under the seat for any corrosion on the terminals, maybe even just put some contact cleaner on them either way. Yeah, good idea; I have some CRC MAF cleaner spray, it should be safe for a thing like this. I'll see if I can unplug all of them things under the seat and clean them out as a first step. I think all of the plugs are near the front edge of the seat so it should be possible to unplug them without unbolting the seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cww516 Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 I don't remember who it was, but I seem to remember someone on here mentioning something about a service that will repair or replace just the sensor, rather than having to buy a full replacement upholstered seat cushion. Might have been long enough ago that you'd have to include the 5th-gen archive in your search, but it's out there somewhere... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 (edited) I don't remember who it was, but I seem to remember someone on here mentioning something about a service that will repair or replace just the sensor, rather than having to buy a full replacement upholstered seat cushion. Might have been long enough ago that you'd have to include the 5th-gen archive in your search, but it's out there somewhere... Yeah... I found an old thread about an eBay seller who was advertising such service. It was a different seller, but I did find another one that advertises the following: 2008- 2016 SUBARU REPAIR ODS MODULE CODE 29 or B1650 98321AJ01B 98321AJ00B The thing that is interesting is that they mention two codes (29 or B1650) and I am not sure that there IS a code that is being thrown. Based on more in-car testing that we did here and there over the week, it seems like the problem is that either the circuit of the weight sensor gets broken or the connection under the seat has issues (which I will attempt to clean tomorrow). But the dealer was clear that there is no SRS code present. What seems to be happening is that the seat simply periodically thinks that nobody is sitting in it. I would prefer that the failure mode be "airbag is ON" vs. "airbag is OFF" which seems to be the case. Edited January 10, 2020 by bigboy292000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 (edited) I have now unbolted the seat and flipped it on its back. Then undid all the connectors under the front and cleaned them. Put it back together and... no change whatsoever. Sigh. I was able to see that by riveting the sensor to the seat, Subaru probably saved about 5 cents per car. That is why they don’t sell this part separately but only sell the seat bottom with the sensor attached. About $2000, if I understand it right. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Edited January 11, 2020 by bigboy292000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLlegacy Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I have now unbolted the seat and flipped it on its back. Then undid all the connectors under the front and cleaned them. Put it back together and... no change whatsoever. Sigh. I was able to see that by riveting the sensor to the seat, Subaru probably saved about 5 cents per car. That is why they don’t sell this part separately but only sell the seat bottom with the sensor attached. About $2000, if I understand it right. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ProNot nearly that much and you can find them used as well. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loya1ty Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 I recently received a recall mailer for this sensor in my '17 Forester XT. Never saw one for the Legacys, but maybe there needs to be unless its a pretty isolated issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 I recently received a recall mailer for this sensor in my '17 Forester XT. Never saw one for the Legacys, but maybe there needs to be unless its a pretty isolated issue. I think this is different... in 2012 MY, Subaru has started using a different type of Occupant Detection System (ODS). They went from weight-based sensor to what's know as Electrostatic Capacitance Sensor ODS. It uses different voodoo to detect if seat is occupied, but has a bunch of issues too, like something spilling on the seat, a person in the damp bathing suit on the seat or a cell phone in your pocket can result in passenger airbag turning off. I thought I read it somewhere that they stopped using those in 2014 MY but I am not sure on that. Either way, the issue is likely different. I looked through Subaru TSBs and recalls and there is nothing for 2011 MY ODS that I could find... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted January 15, 2020 Author Share Posted January 15, 2020 OK, well - the Subaru was again at the deal for intermittent light. Long story short, they 'recalibrated the sensor' and there is absolutely no difference. The airbag will turn off for my wife and daughter, very easily. To help explain: My wife is about 115 lbs. If she sits in the passenger seat with her legs all the way straight (so her legs touch the front part of the seat) - then the passenger airbag shows ON. If then she brings her feet a bit closer, so the front of the seat is unloaded (but her butt is clearly still on the seat) - well, then the passenger airbag goes to OFF pretty much no fail. Lower the legs down - ON again. Now - while she showed this to them, they took her to an Outback they had available... and the same thing happened in that Outback (putting her feet closer to the seat caused the airbag OFF, but then stretching them again made the light be ON and it would not go OFF again). We have been told that the sensor requires 70 lbs of weight in the seat. So we are to believe now that everything is working properly. I am baffled. Both my wife and I are wondering if it is possible we were blind for years and this was happening often? Note, she mostly drives this car. And oh yeah - at my insistence, they gave me a quote for replacement of the seat bottom: $1520 with labor. I'm wondering now if there is a way to hardwire that sensor into the state where the airbag is ON all the time no matter what. We will not have more small kids, and if airbags come on, the car will be totaled anyway. Confused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 Just for others who might run into this in the future: We took the car to a different dealer who took more time to try diagnose the problem. In the end, they too said to replace the seat bottom. Ended up having them do it; if one does a DIY replacement of this, you still need to take it to the dealer to do what’s called ODS rezeroing- essentially factory calibration after the new part is installed. $1350 all said and done. Could be worse, I guess. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrD123 Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 did that fix it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboy292000 Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 did that fix it? Yes! All fixed. Wife and daughter (both around 110-120 lb) confirmed that since the repair, the airbag behaves as it should, no intermittent turning off. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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