Passenger Side Bottom Seat Cushion (Dinging/Airbag Light on)

For the past 2 months I have been driving around with the car dinging as if there is a passenger in the passenger seat. One day I went to lunch, and went back in my car and the dinging started. Figured it was a matter of either replacing a sensor or resetting the SRS system. I finally took it to Subaru they hit me with the "you need a new bottom seat cushion. That will be 1683.99 plus tax", to which I promptly said f that and left. 99.8% of the time I am riding solo. I will be calling Subaru of America and see what they can do. BUT if they are not willing to help, I was wondering what my options are.

 

1) Shouldn't just the sensor or unit in the seat just need replacing instead of a whole new seat cushion?

2) Can I try to find a cushion from another Legacy with black leather (must it be a GT?)? And would it just plug and play or would I then need to go back to Subaru and have them program it?

3) Find the location of the speaker for the chime and either muffle it somehow or just straight up blow the speaker out.

 

I refuse to pay that amount of money for something I just flat out don't use.

Jorge - does disabling the seat-belt chime help? Maybe the dinging would stop if you disabled the seat-belt chime?

 

1. Yes, I believe so (I think someone on here had this issue years ago)

2. Hard to tell, may or may not work and might be hard to find

3. Good idea

I will try disabling the seat chime today but I thought I read somewhere that it will still go off with the srs malfunction. On my invoice it reads"

 

Air bag Light is on Found Codes 29 41

Recommend ODS Module

After some more research it seems like the ODS module is riveted onto the bottom seat cushion, hence why it has to be completely replaced. I have found a few places online that offer reset services where you can send in the unit and they fix it. Has anyone used this service in the past or know of someone that has?

 

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Does it stop if you leave the seatbelt latched? Although if the airbag light is on I suspect that won't stop it. I'd look for a used seat but watch out for ones from flood cars as the module will probably be toast.

Yeah. With the seat belt clicked in, it still does it.

 

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That was the video that I saw that pointed me in the direction of the service. I will be emailing them after I get a chance to call SOA and see what they offer.

The speaker is within the instrument cluster, so I recommend pursuing your other options^^

Only thing I could think of is maybe a grounding issue somewhere near the ODS module. Can't tell much about the passenger's side from the vacation pics, but most everything else I can see suggests that everything runs on ground-switched inputs back to the BIU or airbag module, so if one of those computers is expecting to see ground on a particular pin and isn't, that could cause an issue.

Ending up sending my ODS unit to get reset to a seller on ebay, tarasanastudio's.

 

Received my ODS module back and everything is back to normal.

 

https://www.ebay.com/usr/tarasanastudio?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

 

Quick communication and quick turnaround.