Getting "Front passenger safety restraint system fault" error right after updating software

[fiehlsport]

This error popped up on my 2020 model 3 two nights ago and today I had a mobile service tech visit my house and service the vehicle. He indicated that most of the time this is serviced under warranty but that because mine showed evidence of liquid damage, it was going to be customer pay. Sure enough, two days ago I spilled my water bottle onto the front passenger seat. He said there is also a sensor inside of the cushion itself that is still showing a fault so now I have to setup another appointment to have the cushion replaced. Who knew a little water could cause such damage to a leather seat! The tech said he’s even seen these sensors get damaged from sweat. Be careful with your liquids!

Usually the cars that have this fault from water damage will self-correct over a week or two. It might have been worth waiting a little!

 

[David99]

I just took my passenger seat out and completely apart. I removed the entire wire harness. The car is pretty picky about having all the connections in place. There are many points of failure that can happen. The service technician can see exactly which sensor or component causes the error and specifically check those connections. I'm surprised how bad the success rate is based on the comments here.

 

[Midnightsun]

Not sure why this has not been mentioned however on our 2020 Y we got the same notice last August.

Fix (under warranty) was to install an "Occupant Clarification System (OCS) filter module.

Part: SERVICE KIT SELF CAPACITANCE REWORK (1479982-00-C).

Never had the issue reappear to date. Work was done Aug 18th 2023 to be exact.

Bottom line, seems to be known issue with a solution.

 

[DarthStar]

Not sure why this has not been mentioned however on our 2020 Y we got the same notice last August.

Fix (under warranty) was to install an "Occupant Clarification System (OCS) filter module.

Part: SERVICE KIT SELF CAPACITANCE REWORK (1479982-00-C).

Never had the issue reappear to date. Work was done Aug 18th 2023 to be exact.

Bottom line, seems to be known issue with a solution.

So I had this fix applied by Tesla in 2022, then just this week the error came back. It was a near constant alert all day on Tuesday. Submitted a service request that night. The fault was gone the next morning and hasn't returned.

I kept the service appointment anyway because it was so intrusive while driving that I didn't want to have it pop back up. The tech came out and said he was going to replace the entire seat harness, but before starting he needed to check for "customer spills."

He pulled back the seat cushion and showed me what looks like surface rust on the seat frame and said that is a sign of a spill so not covered by warranty.

I am OCD about food/drink in my car...there has never EVER been a spill of any kind on my seats. I had him check the driver side...same surface rust.

I'm convinced it's probably humidity causing the rust. Regardless, seems like this known issue also has a known mitigation for Tesla: blame it on the customer and void the warranty.

 

[Chevelle]

My 2023 Model S displayed the same message basically
"Front safety restraint system fault
Service is required" I tried a few reboots, but the message remained for about 2 weeks and occasionally the message would not appear briefly. I finally moved the seat up as high as it would go, and forward so I would have better access front the back seat. I squeezed the wiring harness connector that is located under the seat, and made sure nothing was in a bind and that solved the problem. It's been 3 weeks now and still no messages.

 

[Locutus]

There are a few errors which will through this message on the screen and you have to go into the Service screen to see the actual error code and descriptive message. Weeks ago I first got this message on the screen after I'd put a Pelican Case of electronics tools/parts on the front passenger seat and drove to a work site. It showed up that afternoon. It was an RCM-a058 error which was something to do with the OCS module under the front passenger seat.
A week or so goes by and I find a guy who posts that you can clear that message by rolling down the passenger door window and using the manual release latch to open the door. Well, it did clear that for me which seemed crazy but it did.
Another week or two later it shows up one afternoon on a hot day but the next morning it gone. Days later it does the same, shows up on hot day and goes away in the evening when it's cool.
Driving me nuts so I start looking into what this OCS is and find out it's a module under the passenger seat for the passenger occupancy sensor. I look under the seat after finding a 2019 service bulletin on this where they put a communications filter inline with the communications line to the OCS. I find my OCS dangling under the seat, not clipped into it's home so I make sure the connectors are snug and clip it in. But I still get the display warning on the screen and can't clear it.
So I look in the Service Screen an now I see an RCM2-a124 error message saying the front passenger knee airbag resistance is too high. Ugh.
And guess how many miles are on our 3/2022 Model Y LR now? 60,553 and guess when the SRS safety warranty expires 5yr or over 60,000 miles.

 

[Frostbit3]

Any update on your lemon law buyback? This error just popped up on my less than 1 year old my. This thread is giving me anxiety.

Sorry for the late response, it's been a long road to get to where I'm at. I have finally given the vehicle back to Tesla and signed the title back to them, so I no longer have the vehicle in my possession but there's still a few final things i'm waiting on. But this error as well as my backwards AC that they said was a firmware update to fix was never resolved, so the entire time I owned the vehicle (~16 months) I had these issues.

We're not opposed to getting another Tesla one day as my wife loved it, but it's going to be a bit since i'm still a little sour on having to deal with these issues for so long.

 

[seangoggin]

I have had this problem 3 times on my Model Y 2021 (Made March) front passenger seat, always in rainy weather.

Tomorrow they will attempt the 3rd fix.

In Canada SRS Warranty is 100k km I am now at 108k so I have to pay

1. 28-Sep-2021 Added Filter (under warranty)
   Correction: Install Occupant Classification System (OCS) Filter Module
   SERVICE KIT - OCS 1.00 REWORK(1479982-00-C)
2. 26-Sep-2023 Retrofit SBR in OCS Equipped Front Passenger Seat - Remove and Replace (under warranty)
   FIRST ROW - SBR - BOX - CLIP(1130363-00-B)
   FIRST ROW OCCUPANCY SENSOR(1099592-00-F)
3. 19-Apr-2024 Seat Back - Front Passenger Seat (Remove & Replace) - Remove and Replace (out of warranty $877.33 CND )
   FIRST ROW SEAT 1.00 BACK SOFT TRIM COVER ASSEMBLY - RIGHT HAND -BLACK(1920673-01-A)

So I gather a loose connection, and they move up the solution costs.

I have a 2018 Model 3 and 2021 Model Y and there have been a lot of dumb issues with the 2021 Model Y.
I think this smells of cost cutting gone too far.

 

[Locutus]

Thankfully my problem turned out to be a loose RCM connector due to the locking arm being loose(not latched). Pulling off the center console wasn't that difficult after the car was de-powered and it felt like I knew what the problem was when I went to remove and reseat the connectors and the left connector just loosened really easy since the locking arm wasn't latched and the connector was already starting to walk out of position. The other one too a bit of force to unlatch. Once I put the knee airbag back into place(replacing the 2.2 ohm SRS airbag emulator) it was a relief not seeing the warning on the display.