[SlyCoopers]

So I went for a drive by myself yesterday and about 15 minutes into the drive I started noticing a beeping sound. The passenger seat belt light was flashing like the sensors had detected a passenger in the car that was not buckled up. This went on occasionally for about 30 minutes until the light reset back to passenger airbag off.

Has this happened to anyone else by any chance or are my sensors just wacky?
Ironically when I went to the dealer about it, everything was normal so naturally they couldnt do anything.

 

[DJ9999]

Does your issue sound like this members issue?

http://www.cx3forum.com/forum/general-discussion/5010-iactivsense-camera-upgrade-passenger-airbag-warnings.html

 

[anchorman]

Was there anything on the passenger seat?

 

[squatt3r]

even a small laptop would trigger the passenger seat belt light

 

[Vipre77]

even a small laptop would trigger the passenger seat belt light

Yes, the passenger seat sensor seems especially sensitive in this car compared to all my other cars I've had. It's a bit annoying, honestly. It should take more than 2-3 pounds to trigger this sensor. Any real person sitting there is going to weigh at minimum around 30-40 lbs and that's if you ignore the child seat laws and have a kid sitting in the front seat. If I get in a fender-bender that's bad enough to set off the airbags, I don't need the passenger side airbag going off, too, because the car thinks there's a passenger there simply because I had a grocery bag sitting on the seat with only a couple apples or a can of soup in it, or maybe a copy of the Sunday newspaper or something like that.

 

[SlyCoopers]

Sorry for the delayed response, birthday weekend and such. At the time I had a small plastic bottle of water with maybe 8oz fluid in it on the passenger seat. It was strange since it has not happened since. The dealer "reset" the sensor as they put it which involved merely disconnecting the battery and putting it back. I will be keeping an eye on it moving forward. I would be surprised if they were so sensitive now since I have had a backpack full of books and a laptop on it and nothing was sensed which leads me to believe that some of the sensor bands might be "sticking" to give a false positive when a few more are engaged by something light at the right position.

 

[anchorman]

If you lean across and press down on the seat, it doesn't take a lot of force to trigger the alarm.

 

[Vipre77]

Mine went off on me tonight when I grabbed some Taco Bell on my way home from work. Two $1 menu burritos and two quesadillas were enough to set it off. WTF.

 

[Zweetz31]

My phone was on the seat and it was going off also. There seems to be a problem with the sensor being too sensitive. Hopefully there will be a TSB for this out.

 

[SlyCoopers]

Coming close into the 3rd year of the car's life (and also near end of warranty ) the passenger seat occupancy sensor decided to go on overdrive with its false readings. Took it in again this morning and the new guy at the dealer gave me this whole story about how the seat sensors work (not sure if hes bsing or just trying to sound smart while treating the customer like they dont know anything).

The story I got is that the seat sensor does not have a weight setting in identifying if a passenger is on or not but a "no weight, small, medium, or heavy weight" reading.. even though it would need some form of measure of effectively make this decision..? Regardless he claims the seat after being scanned read the sensors were constantly reading a small weight when nothing was on and as a result was going to reorder the "cushion" part which I hope involves the sensors as well.

I will update what happens with this issue as usual(unfortunately with my luck) in hopes of aiding others with similar problems. I would suggest that if anyone has a similar issue to get it checked out especially considering 2016s are getting close to end of warranty depending on when you purchased it in the US.



The real irony here is that my other car 2008 saturn sky has a passenger occupancy sensor nationwide recall which was a really significant problem for many others yet my sky has had no issue with it so far.

 

[SlyCoopers]

Dropped it off today as a new problem was starting to come up. The upper front part of the passenger seat (the 'leather' portion where your thigh would be not the suede part where the butt lands) was getting really hot for no reason as if heated seats were on even though they were not. Car was also not in sunlight or anything on that area. All surrounding areas were cool/room temp to the touch except there. Not sure if its related to this but will know more when I pick it up and talk the tech afterwards.

On the otherhand the loaner 2018 cx-5 almost killed me with lane departure intervention so I cant wait for this to be over so I can be back in the cx3

 

[kaforan]

Mine was doing the same thing. I just keep the seatbelt buckled.

 

[SlyCoopers]

Happy to report that replacing the cushion replacement with the sensors has fixed the issue. It needs quite a bit more pressure than previous to set off. Tested different positioning and guarenteed items that set it off such as backpack with laptop vertical, flat 15" laptop, 2 phones, and leaning over applying pressure with my arm. Individually all of these would set it off guarenteed and now only concentrated weight (vertical laptop and forced applied hand pressure) sets it off.

I think its safe to say that the original set had a defect somewhere along the line which made it extremely sensitive. If you have any concern about it definitly bring it up while its still under warranty. Honestly if this happens again Im probably going to swap in a new set of seats like Ive been planning in case of further issues haha.

 

[PandaG]

Mine went off on me tonight when I grabbed some Taco Bell on my way home from work. Two $1 menu burritos and two quesadillas were enough to set it off. WTF.

This is a security feature indicating that both Taco Bell is bad for you, and there is general concern that toilets may be abused the following morning

 

[Vipre77]

Mine was doing the same thing. I just keep the seatbelt buckled.

There's a downside to doing that. If you get in an accident that triggers the front airbags, both will go off. Buckling the seatbelt with a sensor telling the computer to arm the airbag will allow it to deploy in a crash even if no one is sitting there. Now, the car may very well be totaled in this case anyway, but a double airbag deployment will only help to ensure it's a total loss. Maybe a good thing, maybe not, depending on your situation.