Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro
When airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro report airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 67,600 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
24% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29,000 miles | 47,836 miles | 54,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 96,600 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $300–$1,600 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 25 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 55,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While riding in the passenger seat the air bag light switch from on to off setting several times riding down the road, it would stay on the off position for sometimes and then switch to on setting, you would have to touch the menu button in the car to get the alarm from beeping. I check and found there are a couple of service bulletins out on this issue. I called the dealership where the car was purchase and they wanted to charge me a service fee of $110.00 because the car just has went out of warranty. I feel this is a safety issue that should be taken care of by gm. If I am riding in the car with the air bag off this is a safety issue, I do not want to loose my life over something that gm should repair and has known about since 2009. There should be a recall on this defect to repair the air bag, this is a safety issue and lives are at risk. *tr
I woke up one day to find the air bag light on. I didn't think anything of it until I went to get the car inspected. The car was rejected due to the light being on. The dealership, who has done all the service since the car was purchased, told us it would be $90 to figure out what was causing the light to be on. It turns out it is the passenger side air bag sensor until the seat, the car has less than 32,000 miles on it. The passenger seat has not been used enough for it to be worn down. The cost to cure this is $729! From my understanding this car is not the only one with the issue. My dealership said they have had another vehicle which had the same thing. I have looked on the internet and have seen other camaro owners who have had similar issues. I have filed a compliant with gm and I am awaiting their findings. *tr
Passenger air bag light and alarm sounding. Passenger seat air bag sensor went bad. When a passenger sits in the seat the senor light and alarm go off and indicate that the passenger air bag has been turned off. The senor and alarm continue to go off and on while driving, turning the air bag off and on throughout the time the passenger is in the seat. *tr
Also reported on the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 26 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault happen on the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro?
26 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed