2011 air bag

[RipNtear]

I’m swapping 2018 model Denali seats into my 2011 gmc sierra denali.  The question is when swapping the seats the service airbag message comes on.  Can this be fixed or will items need to be moved over from the older seats? 

[Jsdirt]

You probably had a seat sensor for the passenger-side airbag in your 2011 passenger seat. If there's less than 40 pounds in that seat, it disables the passenger-side airbag. If there's a plug hanging from it that you had to disconnect there, then that's it. The '18 probably has it's own, too. Code scan with a decent scan tool will confirm this, or not.

 

Not sure if that older sensor is even compatible with the '18 - it's not even remotely the same vehicle architecture. You could try to plug it in to the vehicle, but I'd wager you'd need to chop the old plug off to do so. You could connect the 2 via jump wires just to test -  worst that can happen is a blown fuse if the wires happen to touch.

Edited May 19 by Jsdirt