Passenger Airbag Off light

Some googling tells me the Passenger Airbag OFF light mounted in the center of the dash on our US, 2015 GSW will be on all the time unless there is a certain amount of weight in the passenger's seat. Is this really true? I would think the weight sensor could be smart enough to say 0 lbs means leave the airbag on and the warning light off while 1-50 lbs could mean airbag OFF (for children) and light on and > 50 same as 0 lbs.

Am I missing something here? Could a reasonably handy guy just put a manual switch in the passenger seat sensor circuit to leave the thing in "adult" mode all the time unless manually switched to "child" mode?

They probably want to reduce costs and not have the airbag explode if no one is sitting in the seat. They aren't cheap.

Trusting the public to do the safest thing is sure way to fail. Chevy, had key switch in the dash for the longest time to defeat the passenger side.

Remember the auto companies are the ones that came up with the cool idea of automatic seat belts in the mid '80s, those were the good days.

I get all that. Now tell me the logic of leaving the stupid light on all the time. With nothing in the passenger's seat, why is the OFF light ON?

Quite honestly, I can't tell you one way or the other if the car has been like this for its entire 5,000 miles. I'm not the primary driver.

positive confirmation, better than guessing the indication is burnt out.

740GLE said:

positive confirmation, better than guessing the indication is burnt out.

Click to expand...

Sure, but typically cars display the light at startup so you know it works then shut it off. (like MIL, Oil warning, etc). The good news is that she finally took me for a ride in the car and I did confirm that the light does go out with a full size human in the passenger's seat.

So I think it is functioning as designed, its just a mild annoyance...