98 power seat has a yellow connector... what's it for?
 

Bought a used 98 with power seats. The driver seat no longer works, though. The motors spin, but it seems like the gears that move the seat on the track, are stripped.

Anyway, I found a power seat out of a 99, at a junk yard. It fits, and works, but it doesn't have a yellow harness like my 98's seat did.

So, I've got a yellow connector laying on the floor, not doing anything.

Any idea what it's for? Does it matter that I'm not using it?

This seat have a built-in side airbag?

That's a good question. I don't know. Both seats look the same to me, underneath. Where would the airbag (or indications that it exists) be located?

Ah, crap, yes. The old seat was in such bad shape that the previous owner had covered it with a seat cover. So, I never saw the "side airbag" verbiage on it. I just went out and looked at it, and indeed, the previous seat has a side airbag. The new one does not.

Dang.

Anybody know where I can find a power driver's seat *with* side airbag for a 98 Camry? :-)

Is the airbag light now on? If so, when airbag seat installed and connected may need to reset system.

Do you still have the old seat, if so may be able to swap motor parts.

When working on seat with airbag, tape over plug. The bag fires with the application of voltage.

In in future a seat with airbag, unless a seat cover is designed for airbag it will prevent full deployment.

I still have the old seat, yes. It's too far gone to sit on without a cover, so I imagine it was already useless, from an airbag point of view - at least with the current cover. Unfortunately, it's not the motors that are shot... It appears to be something more integral to the rail mechanism, like a gear. The motors all work, and the flexible driver shaft hasn't rounded off. It's something else.