Airbag how to shut off passenger aairbag on the front

there is a TSB available if you're under 60,000 miles take it the dealer.

light occurs when:The center airbag sensor assembly receives an open circuit signal in the side squib (front passenger side) circuit for 2 seconds.

possible trouble areas include:Front seat airbag assembly RH (side squib (front passenger side)), Center airbag sensor assembly, & No. 2 floor wire.

No there is no switch to turn airbags on/off and No the sensors cannot be adjusted.
Owners manual can be purchased from a main dealer or auto parts store.

Hello Collette,

(Owner Manual Page 2-68)
The passenger sensing system turns off the right front
passenger frontal airbag and seat-mounted side
impact airbag under certain conditions. The driver
airbags and the roof-rail airbags are not affected by the
passenger sensing system.
The passenger sensing system works with sensors that
are part of the right front passenger seat. The sensors
are designed to detect the presence of a properly-seated
occupant and determine if the right front passenger
frontal airbag and seat-mounted side impact airbag
should be enabled (may inflate) or not.

I'm not sure if a purse or other light weight objects would activate the passenger airbag but if your display is showing random passenger activation it would be best to have a qualified dealer check into it...better safe than sorry.
http://www.gm.ca/media/owners/manuals/2010_Chevrolet_Malibu_Manual_en_CA.pdf

As far as the passenger airbag is concerned - OFF may be normal. This is an excerpt from the owner's manual (page 1-67).

Passenger Sensing System
The vehicle has a passenger sensing system for the
right front passenger position. The passenger airbag
status indicator will be visible when you start the vehicle.
The word OFF or off symbol will be visible near the
clock, located in the center of the instrument panel,
during the system check. See
Passenger Airbag Status
Indicator on page 3-27
.
When the system check is complete, either the words
ON and OFF or the symbol for on and off will be visible
under certain conditions.
The passenger sensing system will turn off the right
front passenger frontal airbag and seat-mounted
side impact airbag (if equipped) under certain conditions.
The driver airbags are not part of the passenger
sensing system.
The passenger sensing system works with a sensor that
is part of the right front passenger seat. The sensor is
designed to detect the presence of a properly-seated
occupant and determine if the right front passenger
frontal airbag and seat-mounted side impact airbag
(if equipped) should be enabled (may inflate) or not.


The horn is another matter. There are four possibilities here. I will list them in order of likelihood:

1. Bad switch in the steering wheel. These are common failure items.
2. Bad horn relay
3. Bad horn assembly itself
4. Faulty wiring in the horn circuit (including fuse)

You can have the switch(es) replaced in the steering wheel, but they are just as likely to fail again. I have had this issue happen in the past, and I simply went to the bottom of the steering column, found the horn button wire, and installed a dashboard mounted horn button. It is legal in most jurisdictions for inspection purposes as long as the button is easily accessible by the driver.

They have a safety failsafe, which means there is really no way to turn them off. Remember, federal regulations with car manufacturers require them to notify you that it is unsafe for any child under the age of 12 to ride in the front seat with an airbag, however it is ill advised to do so even without an airbag. Keep the airbags on, if you wipe out, you will be glad they worked.

There is a manufacturer's recall on this if it's caused by a failure in the front passenger weight detection system.

The system has a minimum weight required in the front passenger seat for the airbag to deploy in an accident (if no one is in the front passenger seat during an accident, the airbag does NOT deploy). If the system fails and the car cannot determine if someone is in the front passenger seat, the light illuminates and in an accident the passenger airbag WILL deploy, even if there's no one in that seat.

The purpose of the system is to prevent airbag deployment for a lightweight child in the front seat. The fix is to replace the seat weight sensor mat...free if it's the recall item.

NO! Please do not put your child in the front seat in any vehicle if your car has a back seat. The manufacturer will tell you this in your owners manual and on the sticker inside the door. A child seat in the front seat will not shut off the air bag. Depending on your model for that year, you may or may not have a keyslot on the dash to shut the passengers side airbag off. If you don't have it, please, please don't put your child in the front seat.

There is no factory option to turn it off.

Well, for one you not suppose to put a baby seat in the front of the car. But anyways with an older airbag control system like that you cannot just disable one airbag, if you unplug the passenger side airbag then in an accident neither airbags will deploy.