My admittedly very thin 23 year old daughter is 5'5" and weighs 102 lbs, but the dash light says airbag off when she sits in the front passenger seat. It says airbag on for my 123 lb wife. I asked the dealer if the weight sensor in the seat could be adjusted or recalibrated, but was told that this is the way that Toyota builds them, and there is nothing that can be done about it. I was thinking of having my daughter carry a couple jugs of water in her lap when she rides. Is the dealer correct, or maybe there is something I can do about the seat sensor?
I believe the trigger point is 75 or 80 pounds to turn the airbag on. My wasn't working properly recently, too, and had it checked at the 15,000 mile service. They told me its zero-point calibration had shifted and was due to objects sitting in the seat and bouncing when it did its own internal calibration. I don't know if I buy the whole story, but they seemed to reset it so that it works properly now.
Does anyone know of any info about the front airbags and at what weight a person is considered safe sitting there and not worrying about getting killed by the airbag??? My almost 11yr old wants desperately to sit in the front seat with me when we go out, but Illinois law says any child under 12 must sit in the backseat. I have also heard that this law is in place because children can be killed by the impact of the airbag. So, when a child gets bigger, at what point does the weight of the person come into play. My almost 11yr old is already 5'1 and weighs about 87 some pounds. She is very thin, and I hardly believe that by 12yrs old she will weigh much more than 100pounds. Is there some height and weight data out there that the car industry does stats on in regards to safety of the airbags??
Is it possible that the way she sits is having an effect, like maybe she's slouching or something and therefore not enough of her weight is on the sensor? Also you might want to talk to a different dealer. Maybe there really is a solution but the person you spoke to either doesn't know it or can't be bothered.
I knew about the positional thing from the owner's manual. I had my daughter sit in all sorts of positions but nothing worked.
I have a question about the front airbag. I have just bought a 2007 Prius T4 in the UK and want to be able to turn off the front passenger airbag, so it is safe for my eight year old to sit there. But I have seen this discussion about the airbag function being automated and only switching on if a passenger is heavy enough. is this true of all Prius cars, both in the US and UK?
Well, I think the posted weight trigger point is totally wrong. A 20 lb bag of groceries will turn on the airbag sensor lamp in Pearl. Perhaps a little more experimentation is in order re seating position. BTW, this was a "good thing". It forced me to properly store cargo rather than take the easy/lazy way. If you don't see a push-button "airbag off" switch on the dash your car doesn't have that option. In Canada there is no such thing for a Prius.
