[seadragon]

My wife was driving our week old RAV4 today on the highway going to work. She had to brake "harder than normal" according to her. It wasn't an emergency stop, but still harder than normal.

The Airbag dash light came on and stayed on for the rest of her trip. Upon arriving at work, she shut off the engine, then started it again and the light went out like usual.

Driving home tonight, it didn't come on. I'm taking it to the dealer tomorrow and they are going to scan it for error codes. Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[flyingn]

no but it surely sounds like an issue and it should not happen

 

[puttputt]

Check your manual (I'm too tired to go downstairs and pull it out of the car) but I recall reading that was normal if the lights went off after a while. It's suppose to only be a problem if the lights stayed on.

 

[kendfw]

Had the same experience this morning. Passenger airbag was engaged and the seat belt alarm kept beeping. Later, I noticed by moving my laptop from the seat solved the beeping. Could you be a heavy object being place on the passenger seat?

 

[so4reelz]

Had the same experience this morning. Passenger airbag was engaged and the seat belt alarm kept beeping. Later, I noticed by moving my laptop from the seat solved the beeping. Could you be a heavy object being place on the passenger seat?

the toyota guy who demo the rav4 for me told me that anything over 40lbs will activate the seat belt light and airbags will turn on for the passenger. it's so if you get into an accident w/ no passenger, there's no point in the passenger airbags to deflate. but your laptop isn't 40lbs is it?!

 

[seadragon]

Just to clarify...

The problem my wife experienced was not with the passenger air bag system. It was the light in the instrument cluster that came on and stayed on. Upon checking the manual, it just states "take to the dealer immediately". Kinda scary...

I've always had a fear in the back of my mind about airbags deploying for no reason. Can you imagine driving along and suddenly the airbags deploys? I've heard they can break your arms and not to mention it would scare the [email protected] out of you and most likely cause an accident. So when she told me the light came on for no reason and stayed on, I called the dealer and its going in this morning to get checked. They said they can pull a report off of the on-board computer to see if there are any stored error codes.

One thing that comes to mind is that the build date of my RAV is November 05. So it may be one of the first production models. I always said that I would never buy a first production run vehicle, but hey this is a Toyota we're talking about!

Will let you know later how it turns out.

 

[flyingn]

This was because it *thought* there was someone in the passengers seat and was warning ya to put on the belt.

I think the ABS lite problem that seadragon is having is unrelated.

Had the same experience this morning. Passenger airbag was engaged and the seat belt alarm kept beeping. Later, I noticed by moving my laptop from the seat solved the beeping. Could you be a heavy object being place on the passenger seat?

 

[flyingn]

actually its 60 lbs. Our Son who is just under 60 lbs does not activate the air bag when he sits there..
Any weight in the front seats will activate the seat belt warning tho..

Had the same experience this morning. Passenger airbag was engaged and the seat belt alarm kept beeping. Later, I noticed by moving my laptop from the seat solved the beeping. Could you be a heavy object being place on the passenger seat?

the toyota guy who demo the RAV4 for me told me that anything over 40lbs will activate the seat belt light and airbags will turn on for the passenger. it's so if you get into an accident w/ no passenger, there's no point in the passenger airbags to deflate. but your laptop isn't 40lbs is it?!

 

[The G Man]

I think hes talking about the air bag system malfunction warning light on the instrument panel.

 

[seadragon]

I think hes talking about the air bag system malfunction warning light on the instrument panel.

Correct G man, that is exactly what I am refering to. Its at the dealer right now and they are going to call me sometime this morning.

 

[puttputt]

Just to clarify...

The problem my wife experienced was not with the passenger air bag system. It was the light in the instrument cluster that came on and stayed on. Upon checking the manual, it just states "take to the dealer immediately". Kinda scary...

Sorry, seadragon, your first post stated that the light went off as normal the next time she started the car. Which gave me the impression that everything was normal again. It certainly won't hurt to have the dealer ensure that everything is okay. Safety first!

 

[kendfw]

the toyota guy who demo the RAV4 for me told me that anything over 40lbs will activate the seat belt light and airbags will turn on for the passenger. it's so if you get into an accident w/ no passenger, there's no point in the passenger airbags to deflate. but your laptop isn't 40lbs is it?!

My laptop probably would not weight 40Ibs. I'm going to recreate the scenario and later determine if I need to send this baby back to the dealership. Whatever the outcome is, I will still have them check it since it is going back to the dealership for the "We Owe" accessories installation.

 

[seadragon]

The dealer just called me at work. They said that an error was registered in the computer. It was a "front airbag sensor malfunction". They took it out for a test drive and hit the brakes several times to see if they could trigger the light to come on, but it didn't. They don't want to replace anything yet until we see if it happens again.

They explained that the front bumper has 2 "pendulum" type switches that monitor the deceleration of the vehicle. If one moves out of sync with the other, the warning light can come on.

Anyway, it may be a flukey thing that happened. But if it does it again, they WILL be replacing those sensors.

 

[flyingn]

read my post. The airbag does NOT activate with your laptop but the seatbels warning will.

the toyota guy who demo the RAV4 for me told me that anything over 40lbs will activate the seat belt light and airbags will turn on for the passenger. it's so if you get into an accident w/ no passenger, there's no point in the passenger airbags to deflate. but your laptop isn't 40lbs is it?!

My laptop probably would not weight 40Ibs. I'm going to recreate the scenario and later determine if I need to send this baby back to the dealership. Whatever the outcome is, I will still have them check it since it is going back to the dealership for the "We Owe" accessories installation.

 

[kendfw]

flyingn... You're right, the seat belt got activated this evening after I put the laptop on the passenger seat. The airbag was off because the weight of the laptop is less than the predefined threshold. If I took away the laptop, the passenger airbag got disengaged. Hope this clarify my observation.

I'm sure Seadragon's observation is totally a different one. My Ody 05 front crash sensor was replaced in a recall. I think there was a number of Ody having the same issue like yours. After they changed out the sensors, the malfunction warning went away. According to Honda, if you saw the malfunction warning before, they recommended us to perform the recall asap.

 

[seadragon]

Just another update. The warning light went on again yesterday. This time the vehicle was just cruising on the highway.

I am going to insist that Toyota replace the sensor(s). I don't want to screw around with this.

Hopefully, it is the same sensor (front left) that caused the light to come one. At least then it will be easier to know which one to replace. I hope they can get the parts quickly.

 

[seadragon]

Yet another update...

Took the RAV into the dealer today. Sure enough, the same error code was logged into the computer.

They ordered a replacement airbag sensor. Its coming from Ontario, California so its going to be a few days to get. In the meantime, I have elected to park the vehicle until they get the part. I just don't feel safe driving around with a faulty sensor (although the dealer says its okay to drive).

The service manager said that this is a very unusual problem (and this in itself makes me nervous since I don't think replacing airbag sensors is something they have done before). He seemed to think this was going to be a big job to replace the sensor. RAV will be there for at least a day. I just hope the RAV we got doesn't have a wiring issue or something. I just have bad luck when it comes to this stuff.

Grrr..in the shop twice in as many weeks that we've had it.

 

[The G Man]

My bet is that it will be the dealer's first airbag sensor replacement on the 2006 RAV4.

 

[seadragon]

Well, I just got the RAV home after having the sensor replaced. It was a straight forward job (0.6 labour).

The sensor itself is very small, about 4 inches long. They just unbolt the old, bolt on the new and connect the harness.

We'll see if that fixed the problem, but I'm pretty confident that it is okay now.

 

[flyingn]

thats good news. Im sure all is well now See sometimes it does turn out well