Swapped in 2000 Front Seats with Airbags, now Airbag Warning light on after flashing 3-6

[3xowner]

So I found a great set of front seats from a 2000 Eddie Bauer SOHC 4x4 and they had seat airbags. The yellow terminal under the seat does have wiring leaving it that appears to actual run into the seat itself.

I have a 2000 Eddie Bauer RWD and my original seats did not have Airbags. The original yellow terminal under the seat appears to really just be a dummy terminal block as it has no wires leaving it to go to the seat, only the female end for the wiring harness from carpet to plug into it.


So now the airbag warning light blinks 3 times, then 6 times and does this I think in 4 cycles total before staying solidly on.

It would be nice to have that extra benefit of the seat airbags however I dont know it they are actually functioning or not.

When I google this, it says that 36 is for drivers seat only.

I pulled off the old terminal block from the old seat and when using that, it stopped the 3-6 code flashes, then i got blinks of 3-7 (passenger). put the other dummy terminal on the passenger side, and then no codes when both old blocks were used.

Should I just be able to plug in seats with airbags and expect the system to work ok? Does the PCM or other module need updated to say what airbags I have?

Thoughts?

 

[410Fortune]

Take the little plugs out of your old seat yellow connectors and install them into your new 2000 seats
Your airbag controller is not compatible with seat airbags so it is not happy.
As you found out in order to make your controller happy you need to install the little factory jumpers from your old seats.....you do not want the new seat airbags hooked up
If you want the benefit of the side airbags I believe you would just need the controller from the seat donor. 2001 Eddie, Limited, mounty these should all have dash airbags and seat airbags.
There may also be some wiring differences between the two systems like additional fuses and relays? I am not sure

 

[3xowner]

I take it that those seat airbag harnesses' connectors just loose under seat is not the ideal situation and that I should showhow protect them from getting contaminated? as to prevent the airbags from deploying?

 

[410Fortune]

they will be fine
with no power heading to the airbag they will not deploy
Hang them in the factory location and install the dummy plugs for the non airbag seats

 

[koda2000]

The yellow cap on the wiring of your EB w/out the seat airbags is a resistor that fools your airbag system into thinking there's a working air bag there. I get airbag codes 36 and/or 37 several times a year in my daughters '00 Mountaineer. If I wiggle the yellow caps and turn the key off and back on the airbag light goes out. Below is a thread regarding these codes and how to turn them off.

I think I figured out a fix for the code 36/37 airbag light