Ouch... Passanger airbag electrical harness.
 

EDIT: Toyota/Scion is covering the other 50% for me, out of warranty. See posts below for story/info.


Took my car to the dealer yesterday to do the ignition coil replacement... Got that done, no issues.

This morning I start my car and the airbag light is on. Shut the car off and start again, it goes off. Weird...

Then leaving school it was on... Made a few stops and it no longer would shut off. Called the dealer and they told me to bring it right away.

They did some diagnostics ($50...) and after an hour came to talk to me. There is a "hole/electrical leak/etc" in the passenger side harness. It would need replaced. Total cost, $1185.

They called Toyota and they are willing to cover half the cost. So still around $600 for the repair. Ugh. :?

Ever since leaving the dealer, I have yet to see the light come back on. They did have the battery disconnected and such to do the diagnostic,but I don't know if that alone would "cure it". Not sure if a connection was loose that is was taken apart and replaced or what, but I hope the light stays away.

If the light continues to come back, I have no choice but to do the repair. Sadly.

This sucks... How is a harness replacement if I were to do it myself? Any DIY's for this procedure? Any other things to check to fix this issue myself? Appreciate any information. They claim 8-hrs of labor to do it and would require them to take apart the interior to do it. I have no problem doing this myself if I can save some big $$$... But looking for some suggestions if any.

Thats crazy, go to the top left of the site to "Scion Vehicles" and select your car. There is a repair manual selection on the page, may take a little digging but it could be there. Good luck!

Mine is a 2008.

I will dig around for some information. Thankfully, the light has not come back since the dealer. Maybe some lose connection was reset or something. They said they tested the line or something and found some issue, but we could hope that is not the case. No light though since so I will keep fingers crossed!

Is it the light on the dash or the passenger airbag light near the glove box? Did you have anything on the seat? That can set lights off. I question the harness as being a problem. It most likely is a crap seat sensor. This happened to my Sonata and they wanted $1200 for the repair. I sure as hell was not going to pay that kind of money on that car. I drove it without functioning airbags(the passenger side airbag fault shut down the entire system) for over a year and then finally dumped it. That really did not bug me as every car I had in the past before the Sonata did not have any airbags and I got along fine without them. To be honest with you I care much more about if a car has traction control and ABS then if it has airbags

I think the newer cars have an airbag system that does not totally shut down when the pass airbag has a fault so that the drivers airbags work still

It is the light on the dash, nothing was on the seat or anything.

Thankfully ever since the dealer did whatever they did, I have yet to seen the light come back *knock on wood*, even after about 8 different shut off and start cycles. So I hope maybe it was just a lose connection or something of the sort *shrugs*

There is some decent downloadable xB2 doc available in the Tech & DIY section.

The harness issue was with some early 2008s, and that was specifically the engine harness.

Well after a month and a half or so of the light being off, it came back since the dealer reset the light.

I tried cleaning all the connections but no success.

I called up the dealer and setup the service for next Tuesday... $600+tax for the repair. Will take two days to complete, will give me a loaner in the meantime.

I hope this is the last damn harness issue I have with this car.

Well a day after my light came back on I emailed Scion/Toyota about my issue. I told them how it was fishy a day after my ignition coil recall that the light came on. I also explained to them that the harness really is not a wear/tear item, and is a safety related one that should never happen in the first place. Also, I was just out of the 5yr/60K warranty (under the 5yr, over the mileage).

They called me and wanted to talk with me a bit and add some information to my "case". They basically told me that since Toyota is already covering 50% of the repair there is probably not much else they can do. But after explaining some of what I said above, they were going to look into it.

Few days later I call back after not hearing from them, they were in process of calling/contacting the dealer and regional managers or something. Today I got the call that they will cover the rest of my repair, so it will be free of charge to me.

Needless to say, I am very happy. This is the second time calling Toyota/Scion directly has helped me out. I was always really nice to them over the phone and just really explained my side of the story the best I could. Seems to work, for me at least! The two guys that helped me out directly were extremely kind and really made me feel that they wanted to help me out.

Car goes in tomorrow at 9am for the repair... Glad I made the call!