B00DF: Passenger Restraints Disable Switch
What to do
If you use this switch for a child seat, stop relying on it until it is fixed. The car may not be doing what the switch says, in either direction. A rear-facing child seat should go in the back, which is safer in any case. An adult in that seat may also be travelling without an airbag.
What this code means
The passenger restraints disable switch circuit is faulty.
This switch exists for one reason: a rear-facing child seat must never sit in front of a live airbag.
A rear-facing seat puts the child's head exactly where the airbag emerges, and a deployment there is not survivable. On vehicles without occupant classification — or with a front passenger seat that must sometimes carry a child seat — the answer is a key-operated switch that turns the passenger airbag off deliberately, usually in the end of the dashboard where the door covers it.
A fault here is dangerous in both directions, which is unusual. If the module reads the switch as off when it is on, an adult passenger travels with no airbag and may never know. If it reads on when the switch is off, a rear-facing child seat sits in front of an armed airbag — and the driver has done everything right and been told it is safe.
Which is why the disable indicator at B00D5 exists and why the two should be read together. The lamp is the only confirmation that the switch was obeyed.
Do not rely on the switch while this code is stored. If a rear-facing child seat has to travel, put it in the back — which is where it belongs regardless.
Likely causes
Start here
- Faulty passenger airbag disable switch · specialist
- Corroded or loose connector · specialist
- Open circuit in control wiring · specialist
Less common
- Damaged wiring harness · specialist
- Faulty restraints control module · specialist
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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