Same weird panel problems here

Mizztaunii

I recently started having my passenger air bag randomly engage and disengage when seat is empty then all the gauges on the instrument panel go crazy and I lose power to the car. I have to pull over turn off and then back on and it works fine for another 15-20 miles. Recently I had an idea to have someone sit in the passenger seat to keep the air bag engaged while I was driving..guess what? it didn’t tweak out or die and I drove about 30 miles with no dying out or gauges freaking and jumping all over..until the passenger shifted her weight off the seat and back down then my car died immediately! I’ve had the dreaded p0017 on my car a while and no symptoms after replacing everything but the timing chain. So I took it to the dealer today and guess what they want to replace? The timing chain and thermostat (Panel was also saying low oil pressure when it has a freak out episode) I told them about the weird short with the airbag and they said “that can’t be..must be a coincidence”..I don’t believe 7 times of noticing the air bag switch toggle off and on and immediately after the gauges freak out and car died is a coincidence! Anyone know if this is a instrument panel problem?? Or is it some sort of short from the passenger air bag or pressure panel? Thanks!!

PF_Flyer

Well your experiment with the passenger sure seems to demonstrate that the weird short is at least connected to the issue