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Discussion of Airbag Emulator for Front Passenger Seat Removal

There's an interesting website called Brad's Hacks that discusses how to prevent the airbag error light from turning on when you remove the front passenger seat. That's a great idea! The product that Brad sells is a 2.2 ohm resistor and 3D printed connector that replaces the connector for the airbag connector on a seat. Unfortunately, this is not enough for a 2nd generation Toyota Sienna. In addition to the yellow connector for the airbag, the front passenger seat also has another connector with 6 wires. This connector is used to communicate with the four pressure sensors under the seat, and the pressure sensors must also indicate that everything is operating normally to prevent the airbag error light from turning on. -Just unplugging this 6 wired connector won't work.

So what is the solution? You need to make a custom "seat delete platform". Go to a salvage yard and buy a front passenger seat for a 2nd generation Sienna, AND, also buy the front passenger seat connectors that protrude out of the minivan floor. (You just need to use some wire cutters and cut those connectors from the floor of the minivan.) Next, use whatever cutting tools you have to remove the four pressure sensors. Also remove all of the wires and connectors to these sensors. You must keep all of the sensors and wires intact, so use care during this removal process. Also, repurpose the feet from this seat, and use some spare unistrut or whatever metal pieces you have laying around, as a base for your platform. Finally, I clamped a Tailgator Tire Table to the top of this base so I had a flat surface for storing stuff. The tailgator tire table also works as a nice camp table! To make connectors for the wires, I used three, 3 prong extension cords. (I used two three pronged cords for the 6 wire connector, and one three pronged cord for the 2 wire airbag connector.) But you can buy more official connectors if you prefer. Since I intend to use the passenger seat when I'm not camping, I wanted to make the connectors easy to plug and unplug. Now remember that I retrieved extra connectors from the floor of the minivan at the salvage yard. These extra connectors allowed me to make new connectors that didn't require me to alter the wires on the passenger seat for my minivan. Solder everything together. And with some luck, you'll have something like you see in the following pictures. Good luck!

Safety Warnings
You are making changes to the SRS airbag system at your own risk. I am not responsible for any injury, death, or loss resulting from improper use. A seat delete platform should only be used when a seat is removed; not to substitute a missing, malfunctioning or deployed airbag. Also, disconnect the vehicle’s battery and wait at least 30 seconds before unplugging or plugging an airbag.