OBD-II trouble code
B0096: Right Side Restraints Sensor 1 (Subfault)
A restraints fault at the first right-side sensor index. On left-hand-drive vehicles this is the kerb side, which exposes it to impacts and standing water the driver's side never sees — and it sits alongside the occupant sensing hardware under the passenger seat.
Quick facts
- System
- Body
- Category
- Airbag / SRS Restraints
- Severity
- High severity
- Drivable
- Usually safe to drive short-term
- Repair cost range
- $120 – $800
- DIY difficulty
- Shop recommended
What does B0096 mean?
B0096 is stored by the restraints control module when the circuit for the first-indexed right-side sensor stops reading correctly. On most layouts that is the forward station on the passenger side of a left-hand-drive vehicle, and two things about that side of the car make the failure population meaningfully different from its mirror image on the left.
The first is that the right side is the kerb side. Everything about the way a vehicle is parked and driven in a left-hand-drive country loads that side differently. It is the side that gets pushed against kerbs when parking, the side that takes the gutter's standing water and everything suspended in it, the side that collects wheel-thrown grit and salt from the road edge rather than from the centre, and the side whose lower door and rocker are struck by kerbs, bollards and low walls. None of that is true to the same degree on the driver's side. The practical consequence is that on a right-side restraints code it is worth inspecting for impact and for water before inspecting for wear — a dented or scraped rocker, a bent sill, a sensor bracket that has been deformed, or a connector sitting in a rocker cavity that has been repeatedly flooded from the gutter. Where a left-side code usually turns out to be service damage or age, a right-side code has a real chance of being physical damage the owner does not remember taking.
The second is what shares the space. The forward right station is under and around the front passenger seat, which is also where occupant sensing hardware lives on vehicles that have it — the weight sensing mat, the seat frame sensors or the classification module that decides whether a passenger is present and how forcefully to deploy. Those systems have their own wiring in the same restricted volume, under the same seat, running through the same connectors and clips. When a right-side satellite code appears alongside occupant classification faults, the shared under-seat harness becomes the leading suspect rather than either component individually. Under-seat harnesses are damaged in specific and repeatable ways: seat travel works the loom back and forth every time the seat is adjusted, luggage and shopping pushed under the seat catches connectors, retrofitted seat heaters and aftermarket seat covers involve lifting and reseating the same plugs, and passengers' feet find anything that hangs low. Any of those will produce a fault at this station.
The passenger door adds its own history. Passenger door work is less frequent than driver's door work but not rare, and when it happens the same cavity, the same trim panel and the same vapour barrier are involved.
The usual restraints caveats apply without exception. The vehicle drives entirely normally and no engine function is affected, but the module will generally have disabled right-side deployment, so the side airbag, curtain and pretensioner on that side should be assumed unavailable in a collision. The circuits are attached to pyrotechnic devices and the system must be safely powered down following the manufacturer's procedure before anything is unplugged.
Common causes
- Kerb, bollard or low wall impact to the right rocker or lower door deforming the sensor mounting or its bracket
- Standing gutter water repeatedly entering the right rocker cavity and corroding the connector
- Road-edge grit and salt accumulation on the kerb-side lower body
- Under-seat harness damaged by seat travel, worked back and forth every time the passenger seat is adjusted
- Connector snagged by luggage, shopping or feet in the passenger footwell
- Plugs disturbed during seat heater retrofit, seat cover fitting or seat removal
- Shared under-seat harness fault presenting alongside occupant classification codes
- Passenger door trim, regulator or lock work that disturbed the connector or harness routing
- Failed satellite sensor, or a restraints module fault once the circuit has been proven
Symptoms
- Airbag or SRS warning light on continuously
- B0096 stored in the restraints module
- Occupant classification or passenger presence codes stored alongside it
- Passenger airbag status indicator behaving inconsistently
- Right-side airbag, curtain and pretensioner deployment disabled by the module
- Fault noticed after the passenger seat was moved, a seat cover fitted or something retrieved from under the seat
- Visible kerb damage, scraping or denting to the right rocker or lower door
- No change in engine operation, drivability or handling
Diagnostic steps
- 1.Confirm which physical satellite index one designates on this model, then inspect the right rocker and lower door for kerb strikes, scrapes and deformation before assuming an electrical cause — the kerb side takes impacts the driver's side does not.
- 2.Read the complete restraints module code set and note specifically whether occupant classification or passenger presence codes are stored alongside this one.
- 3.If occupant sensing codes are present too, treat the shared under-seat harness as the leading suspect rather than either component on its own.
- 4.Power the restraints system down per the manufacturer's procedure and observe the specified wait time before disconnecting anything.
- 5.Move the passenger seat through its full fore-and-aft and recline travel with the harness visible, checking for a loom that is stretched, pinched or dragged at any point in the range.
- 6.Inspect connectors under the seat for snagging, partial unlatching and crushed housings, all of which come from luggage, feet and items pushed underneath.
- 7.Ask whether seat heaters, seat covers or a seat swap have been fitted, since those jobs involve lifting and reseating exactly these plugs.
- 8.Check the right rocker cavity and its drains for standing water and corrosion product, given the kerb side's exposure to gutter water.
- 9.Measure the circuit against the manufacturer's specified resistance window and replace the complete pigtail or harness section rather than splicing.
- 10.Clear the code after repair and confirm the warning light stays out through several ignition cycles with the seat moved through its travel each time.
Repair cost
$120 – $800
Diagnosis is $120 to $220 with restraints module access. An under-seat harness or connector repair is $150 to $450 and requires the seat to come out on most vehicles, which is most of that labour. A satellite sensor is $80 to $300 in parts, so $250 to $650 fitted. Where kerb impact has deformed a mounting or the rocker itself, add bodywork at $200 to $900 depending on how much structure is involved — and that is a cost the left-side equivalent codes rarely carry. If occupant sensing hardware is genuinely at fault rather than the shared harness, a weight sensing mat or classification module takes the job to $500 to $1,100.
Estimate your repair
Run the numbers for your vehicle
Open the Repair Cost Estimator with airbag / srs crash sensor replacement preselected. Adjust labor rate and vehicle category to fit your situation.
DIY vs shop
Leave this one to a qualified shop. It typically involves emissions-critical components, refrigerant handling, or other work that requires manufacturer-grade tooling, training, or certification. DIY attempts often produce a more expensive problem than the original code.