Hello all. I have been getting a warning on my dash about an airbag fault recently. It started about a week ago when I decided to remove the front passenger seat to get a plate out that was used for police equipment. The plate was under the two seat rails so the seat had to be removed to get it out. I had the car for 3 weeks before I decided to do this an never had any issues with warning lights on the dash prior to this. So I removed the seat and took the plate out. When I removed the seat, I did not take it all the way out of the car. I removed the two bolts and lifted the front rails out and just sat the seat in about the same place it would normally sit simply to get the plate out. I didn't disconnect any wires or plugs. After reinstalling the seat I went to start the car and noticed the airbag fault message came on the display. I took a drive about 10 miles and the warning message would frequently go off and come back on. It continued to do this for about a day and a half to two days after removing the seat. After that, the warning message was on constantly. I asked a few friends about it and we took a look back under the seat. I had noticed a few oddities under the seat that I paid no real attention to prior to removing the seat. One of the yellow plugs (that I have been told are specifically for the airbags) had been cut before I removed the seat. I can tell this because it was a clean cut on one end of the wire as if it had been cut with scissors. I cut nothing the day I removed the seat. The other end of the wire where the yellow plug was, had been cut also, however there was a resistor wired in place just after the plug. I thought it was strange, but again paid it no mind. Now that I am getting the Airbag Fault message on my dash, it raises concerns as to why that resistor was wired in place. Tonight, I removed the resistor and tried wiring in a patch to reconnect the two ends and re-started the car and it is still throwing the airbag fault message. Here are some photos to hopefully better explain what I am talking about.
This is the yellow plug with the end that has the resistor wired into it. This wire was not connected to anything prior to me removing the seat. It had the shrink wrap around the resistor and there was electrical tape covering the exposed end that you see in the picture. The wires coming out of the yellow plug are one green and one gray. The other end of the plug (coming from under the rubber floor) are one orange and one green
Another view of the same plug
This is the other end of the wire that I attempted to reconnect the above plug to. As you can see it was a clean cut, and inside the shielding is one gray and one green wire. The same that are coming out of the yellow plug.
I apologize for the really long post. But my question is, has anyone else found this similar issue with their car? I wasn't sure if if was specifically wired that way because of it being a police car. Or if maybe there is something actually wrong with the airbag system and that was just a quick cover up to fix it. What would you guys recomment to solve this issue? I know that Chevy dealerships and higher end repair places have scan tools that can read airbag faults. Trying to avoid paying high costs at a dealership. But obviously don't want to be driving around a car that is unsafe for myself or my passengers.
