I screwed up and need help. I replaced the 2 seats in my 03 E350 with later model seats. I did not hook up the seat wires as they were different and I did not want to hear the ding ding reminder to fasten seatbelts. I cut away the wires on the seats and from the floor.
Now I have discovered the airbag light is on and just read that they will not work in case of an accident.

questions:
Will this prevent both airbags from working or just the passenger?
Can I undo this mistake by connecting a couple of wires under the dash or elsewhere?
Thanks

 

The '03 seats have seat belt pre-tensioning devices simultaneously deployed when the air bag sensor is triggered. This device is what the lap belt tang connects to when donning the seat belt.

Disconnecting these doesn't affect the dash and steering wheel air bags, the warning light simply saying something is amiss in that system.

To avoid triggering the air bags by incorrectly connecting different year seats into your chassis just learn to live with that annoying light. (I inadvertently damaged the floor-mounted wiring during a refit and its constantly illuminated. I'll get around to repairing it come summer of this year but then I'll almost miss that being constantly on. )

 

Thanks so much. I feel better knowing the airbags will deploy, if needed.