Temporary remove passenger seat

[skag1T]

2018 SR5

I am planning a couple weeks of vacation and planning for an overlanding / camping adventure.

I am thinking to remove the passenger seat to gain some storage space (I already removed the back seats and made a sleeping platform, etc.), I understand it is fairly simple process and need to disconnect the battery before unplugging the airbag harnesses.

My question - after I disconnect the harness and remove the seat, will i have any issues when i re-connect the battery and drive around for a while ?

Is there a dongle I can get to connect to the airbag harness to trick the computer ?

Any input appreciated.

Thanks !

 

[bootown]

My question - after I disconnect the harness and remove the seat, will i have any issues when i re-connect the battery and drive around for a while ?

Here's my story. I did this in my old Sequoia so that I could fit a kayak inside on a long road trip. Now, I may have forgotten to disconnect the battery when I put the seat back in but I'm not sure. Anyways 4,000 miles later I put the seat back in and the airbag light never went off. Brought it to Toyota. They said the issue could be the seat airbag, a short in the wiring or the ECU. Replacing the ECU was $2,000+ and if it didn't work there was no refund on the part. Seat and wiring checks were also crazy expensive.

I bought a used seat and tried that. Didn't work. Very luckily found a ECU on ebay and that fixed it.

If you do take out the seat none of your airbags will work during that time just fyi

 

[IslandJim]

Thought that if the air bags were deployed the vehicle wouldn't be able to start up? Wouldn't it do the same thing if the air bags are disconnected?

 

[skag1T]

[MENTION=32061]bootown[/MENTION] - ouch, thank you for that bootown.

okay I will have to re-think this then.

Very annoying that you cannot do what you want with your own car.

Looks like disconnecting the airbag fried the ECU then ?
How about if you keep driving without the seat, will that work indefinitely ?

 

[bootown]

Not necessarily just disconnecting the airbag. It was either driving around with an airbag absent or maybe I forgot to disconnect the battery when I hooked the airbag back up after the trip. I have disconnected the airbags and taken both seats out many times without issue, same for steering wheel airbags, just never reconnected the battery until everything was hooked up again.

Not sure I understand your second question

 

[Soneill]

Thought that if the air bags were deployed the vehicle wouldn't be able to start up? Wouldn't it do the same thing if the air bags are disconnected?

That is only for vehicles that have an inertia switch on the fuel system.

 

[Whippersnapper02]

You'll have to get a scanner that can clear SRS codes. I would just leave the seat in.

 

[Born2Wander]

I'm planning on doing this so I can put my dog's bed up front – I travel with her for months at a time. I *finally* figured out how to do this with my Sprinter, and had done it before in a Suburban. It came down to finding the right resistor to bridge the airbag harness lead to keep the SRS light from coming on. Found this thread as I'm looking for the correct resistor value for the Toyota.

 

[Superjet]

With the seat out, it will trigger the airbag light. The light will go away once reinstalled and maybe a batt reset. The code will stay, so if lets say a dealer scaned it they would find the old stored code and make repairs off that.

Just use a scanner that also does airbag codes and erase it. Autel makes some good scanners cheap that do regular, airbag and abs code reading.