Power + heated bucket seats with side airbags

[TxTrucksDerek]

Hey everybody, new to the site here. I'm venturing into uncharted territory now on an obs flairside and was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. We stumbled across some buick rendezvous seats a while back while strolling through a pick-n-pull yard. These babies are NICE - cream leather, power, heat, lumbar support, side airbags. They let us take em for $80 altogether since one needs the knob and the other needs the slider switch. They really flow nicely with the kinda rounded square square angles of the truck and they're $1000+ each new. They virtually drop right in (some minor drilling and cutting of the floor) so we couldn't pass them up. I can trace and test all the motor and heater wires if I need to but I'm not quite sure about the airbags for a frankentruck. There's some kind of module under the driver's seat but I'm having a tough time finding any more detailed info. Does anyone with experience in this kinda thing know if it's going to even be possible to make the airbags functional without the buick's ECU? It's not a big deal if I can't but I'd certainly like to if possible. Doing it for someone who literally saved my life by distracting me before I could kill myself. I've gotten clean now and learned to pray, and now I've thrown my heart and soul into this build for the kid. A free custom street truck seems like a small price for me to pay, really but it's a pretty hot setup under the hood and I don't want my return gift to end up being a trade of his life for mine. Any help would really be appreciated. I'll post some pics when I can of how she's coming along so far. For some reason I'm not able to upload from this phone right now.

 

[MIHELA]

Side airbags would require side sensors that the truck doesn't have even provisions for and an SDM which is also tied into OBDII on the Rendezvous. I don't think it's worth it for a system that might even be dangerous in a vehicle not designed for it. The heated seat is probably controlled by that module under the seat. If you can get a diagram that system is much simpler and can be made to work.

 

[TxTrucksDerek]

Thanks. I'm aware of the likely need for some extra stuff like sensors, but the main reason I was curious is that some vehicles have sensors directly under the seats on the floor (my car has these), some have them outside, and some have both. Unfortunately we didn't have the donor car to inspect. For now I'll just power up everything else and leave the airbags dead while I look for more diagrams. The driver seat and the rest of the cab needs to be reupholstered anyway so I may just pull the bags and cover the holes to smooth them out. I did finally get pics to upload, for anyone interested. Still need to button up a few things under the hood but she's almost there.

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[Knuckle Dragger]

The module under the seat is likely the passenger presence module and only has to do with the airbags. If you posted a picture I could say for sure.

IMO, air bag deployment is far more complicated then most people realize. I would not try to incorporate them if it were me.

 

[TxTrucksDerek]

The module under the seat is likely the passenger presence module and only has to do with the airbags.

IMO, air bag deployment is far more complicated then most people realize. I would not try to incorporate them if it were me.

It definitely is. There's plenty of room for the covers to fully open and the bags to unfurl but all the same I'd rather not turn anyone into a crash test dummy just yet. I'll keep the seats I guess, buckets alone are still safer than a bench anyway, and they do fit well. Looks like I've got a couple explosive catapults to go salvage after lunch. I wasn't thinking about it earlier but it wouldn't have been possible anyway since there's no way for any module to know the vehicle speed with this transmission and speed sensor. Much appreciated all the same

 

[Erik the Awful]

If you can easily remove the covers from the airbags and reinstall them, I'd go that route. Otherwise, make sure they're not Takata - you seriously don't want those in your truck, not even just sitting unplugged. It they're not Takata, just leave them in place unplugged.

As far as the seat heaters, it just takes a bit of trial and error. I was trying to find a wiring diagram for my '94 Cadillac Seville leather heated power seats, but in the end I just needed a constant hot on the big red wire and a switched 12v power on the orange wires to the seats and control box.