- My model of MX-5 is: NC1
- I’m based near: __
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __
I have a 2007 NC - does the passenger seat occupation sensor need to be working for the passenger airbag to work in an accident?
Yes, how else does it know to fire it?
If the sensor is broken and thinks there is a passenger but there is no one there then the airbag would go off unnecessarily.
So do people with aftermarket seats just go without air bags?
I’ve been told that some cars just set off all airbags in an accident unless you switch them off manually - hence not knowing if the sensor was for the airbag, or just to annoy me about the seatbelt when I put a bag of shopping there…
Make sure you get sensor covering your year of manufacture, I’ve just downloaded this pic as a general pointer
Not necessarily. Insurance company wrote off my Niseko in October 2023 for top-book valuation because of a 10mph frontal.
Both seatbelt tensioners, passenger’s dash bag and my steering wheel bag went off, even though the passenger seat was empty.
Both seat bags remained intact because of no side impact.
If I had locked off the passenger’s dash bag then it and that seatbelt tensioner would not have gone off either.
Collision damage to the car was a small dent and cut in the bumper.
However, expensive replacements required were; windscreen broken by the dash bag, both frontal bags, both seatbelt tensioners, bumper sensor, SRS central control unit, and maybe a new bumper. A couple of the specialist repairers I asked told me that all those new SRS components must be supplied and initiated in the car by Mazda!
The repair hassle was too much for me, so I took the insurance payout.
I notice that SN08RFX was then repaired and back on the road six months after the Insurance bought it off me. First post-bang MOT was five miles after the bang. It has recently been MOT’d again.
I wonder if the new owner of this superb little car knows it was an Insurance write off?