Having issues with my passenger side occupancy sensor or whatever it's called.

corneileous · May 21, 2023

I guess thats the right term for it, it's the sensor that detects someone sitting in the seat. Well, mine fr quite some time now can't make up its mind if someone is sitting in the seat or not causing my dash to tell me all the time when the seatbelt on that side isnt buckled. Anybody else had this problem and what you did to fix it? Where the heck is it even at? Thanks.

RamDiver · May 21, 2023

If you're experiencing the seatbelt nanny chime, that's easy to fix. Your EVIC will still be monopolized briefly by the big red seatbelt warning.

Sorry, I don't have any experience chasing down a seat sensor but I would start by looking for a disconnected or damaged connector under the seat.

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corneileous · May 21, 2023

I’m just curious where it’s at if it’s just under the seat like you said or if the damned thing is actually between the foam and the seat cover.

RamDiver · May 21, 2023

corneileous said:
I’m just curious where it’s at if it’s just under the seat like you said or if the damned thing is actually between the foam and the seat cover.

Although that would be very interesting to know, the connector is still the most likely point of failure.

When any device fails, the first place I'd look is power and then wiring/connectors.

Connectors magically get disconnected, damaged or corroded. This is very usual for many systems.

You can choose to ignore a statically likely point of failure and disassemble the seat, if you prefer but it would be much easier to visually inspect a connector.

I understand if you're just pondering the thought. I like to not think too hard and find easy solutions.

YMMV

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GTyankee · May 21, 2023

Put that darn Water Mellon on the floor, it does not need to be in the seat tripping the sensor.
Or maybe just buckle that seat belt & leave that way, except when someone is actually riding in it.

I recall when vehicles had a switch on the dash board, it shut OFF the Air Bags on the passenger side of the vehicle, for those times that no passenger was in the vehicle.
When you did have a passenger in that seat, you would turn that switch ON & the Air Bags on that side would be activated.

Maybe there is a Trigger Mechanism that is built into the passenger seat, that detects the weight in the seat & triggers the seat belt light or message

Have you messed around with the under seat JACK lately ?

RamDiver · May 21, 2023

GTyankee said:
I recall when vehicles had a switch on the dash board, it shut OFF the Air Bags on the passenger side of the vehicle, for those times that no passenger was in the vehicle.
When you did have a passenger in that seat, you would turn that switch ON & the Air Bags on that side would be activated.

AFAIR, those switches were originally to prevent injuries to children and infants from the explosive forces caused by the original air bag systems.

I also recall disabling the air bag when you didn't have a passenger, I think they had a bit too much explosive force and were a bit unpredictable. LOL

I carry a large soft cooler on my passenger seat when scuba diving locally.

On my previous truck, I used one of the bottle opener style clips in the passenger seatbelt receptacle to keep the nanny quiet.

Although I've defeated the seatbelt nanny chime on my RAM, the EVIC will still pester me when I use the cooler without installing that clip into the seatbelt receptacle again.

The clip is waiting in the console junk bin in my RAM, ready for whenever the water warms up a bit more.

The last check of the NOAA buoy water temp at Alexandria Bay was 50F.

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CanRebel · May 22, 2023

It should be a "Mat" or "Pad" under the seat. As @RamDiver mentioned above. Check the cable. It could loose or damaged.

It's usually white plastic with cable coming out of it. If I recall correctly, it cost around $100-$150 or something like that. You can check with sponsor here on the site for price or a local dealer.

Ask for FRONT RIGHT PASSENGER SEAT OCCUPANT DETECTION SENSOR PAD (for your gen/year)

If you have ODB Reader and alfaobd, you could check if there is code triggering as well.

1999 White C5 Coupe · May 22, 2023

CanRebel said:
It should be a "Mat" or "Pad" under the seat. As @RamDiver mentioned above. Check the cable. It could loose or damaged.

It's usually white plastic with cable coming out of it. If I recall correctly, it cost around $100-$150 or something like that. You can check with sponsor here on the site for price or a local dealer.

Ask for FRONT RIGHT PASSENGER SEAT OCCUPANT DETECTION SENSOR PAD (for your gen/year)

If you have ODB Reader and alfaobd, you could check if there is code triggering as well.

The new passenger presence system pad must be calibrated to the vehicle’s system.

mullet6577 · May 22, 2023

Do you have anything on the seat when this is happening? I don't know how the Rams decide if there is a passenger but on my Jetta having a phone charging in the seat makes it think there is. I purposely don't leave anything charging on passenger seats now because of how annoying that was. Sometimes, a heavy backpack tricks it into thinking there is a passenger too

corneileous · May 22, 2023

mullet6577 said:
Do you have anything on the seat when this is happening? I don't know how the Rams decide if there is a passenger but on my Jetta having a phone charging in the seat makes it think there is. I purposely don't leave anything charging on passenger seats now because of how annoying that was. Sometimes, a heavy backup tricks it into thinking there is a passenger too

The only time it does it is when somebody is sitting on my front passenger seat. It’s like the sensor can’t make up its mind whether or not there’s enough weight in the right front passenger seat for it to either not do anything or make the dash light up saying the front passenger is not buckled in.

corneileous · Nov 16, 2023

Well, I figured out what my problem was. Being that I had to take the truck into the dealership to start the process on getting my sideview mirror glasses replaced under warranty, I had them check out that occupancy sensor or whatever it’s called that’s underneath my passenger seat, and for some reason, they said there was a short or a bad connection in the passenger side seatbelt buckle but after I told them that didn’t make sense being that the problem only does this when somebody is sitting in the passenger seat and the seatbelt’s aren’t buckled so to actually recreate the symptom, I had one of the service writers drive the truck around the building while I sat in the passenger seat so I could show him exactly what was going on so after they could see what was actually going on, the tech found that one of the seat cushion springs that holds the cushion up, had come out of it’s slot on one side, it wasn’t letting the passenger put enough weight on that sensor for the computer to know that somebody was actually sitting in the seat. They also said that it looked like the seat springs were worn out which I thought was odd so when they go to order my new Sideview mirror glasses, they’re going to order me a whole new seat frame.

Hopefully now that passenger seat will be a lot more comfortable because me and my wife both have said that seat is not near as comfortable as the driver side so maybe this fixed that.

Having issues with my passenger side occupancy sensor or whatever it's called.

corneileous

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RamDiver

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corneileous

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RamDiver

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GTyankee

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RamDiver

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CanRebel

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1999 White C5 Coupe

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mullet6577

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corneileous

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corneileous

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