2012 Tacoma occasional airbag light problem

This is gonna be a long story...

So I have a 2012 access cab tacoma with roughly 17,000 miles on it. For the past few months my airbag light would occasionally come on and stay on until I shut my truck off. Usually it would not come back on when I turned the truck back on, but sometimes it did. During my last oil change at the dealership about 1.5 months ago I asked them about it. They said they were not able to check an airbag light code unless the light was on, and to come back while it was on and someone could just read the code to determine what exactly it was. I said fine and I would come back when it did.
The light came on on a Sunday and tried to read the code at an auto zone. They said only dealerships could read airbag codes. I said fine, and I would just have to wait for it to come on and bring it to a dealership while they were open. It then came on again about a week later on a Saturday morning before I had to go to work. So I stopped at the dealership with the truck running and airbag light on and explained my situation to some guy in the (customer service section of the) service department. He then comes out to my truck with a code reader to get the code. It took him about 5 minutes to find where the reader connects, then doesn't realize he has to remove the protective plastic cap, and spends another few minutes fiddling with that. Fine. He then explains that the reader he has can not read airbag codes Worried, I tell him not to shut off my truck because the light may not come back on. He says "Don't worry it will be stored in the computers history". I tell him thats not what I was told last time and about how long I have been waiting for this light to come back on. Then he shuts my truck off. He turns it back on and the light is off.
I make an appointment for the following Tuesday, and they had my truck all day. They said "The code was an airbag code, and we erased it so your fine". It took 3 more calls and 2 days to get a service manager (because he was away on training). Then he tells me it was for an airbag sensor on the drivers side. I was told that a connection was loose because I had stuff under the seat that hit it, and that they plugged it back in and erased the code again. Bull***t. I had stuff under the seat but very small and was not touching any wires. I thoroughly cleaned my truck when I got back from dealership just to make sure. That night going out to dinner the light came on again. I immediately called the dealership, to leave a message because the service manager was gone for the day.
I took the truck in the next day, and 2.5 hours later they tell me that they can't read the code unless the light is on. WHAT!?!? I am back to square 1, where I was 3 months ago. At this point I am very upset because I did bring it in with the light on. They tell me they will keep the truck and give me a rental, and switch around some airbag sensors to try to make the light come on again. That was a week ago.
Today the service manager calls me to explain that the head of Toyota Service in the northeast just happened to be visiting a nearby dealership, and they were having him stop by to look at my truck. He has heard of this issue only associated with a few other tacoma trucks located in New Hampshire and Maine (I am located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts) and only due to cold weather. It is one of 2 airbag sensors on the drivers side, and that it is fine to drive and bring it back when the light comes on so they can figure out WHICH one it actually is. So I ask the service manager "what if the light comes on on a Sunday again and you are closed?" He replies "don't worry it will be stored in the computers history" -----ARE YOU F***ING SERIOUS?!?!?!?
It is at that point that i got even more upset, asking for all records of anything they touched on my truck, how much time they spent on it, and that I would never come back for anything and slander them to anyone I talk to about them. I said I will come see him personally for all records, and the key to my truck.
About 10 minutes later he calls me back and says that he ordered both sensors on the drivers side, and will just replace them both even though he thinks 1 is still good and Toyota said to bring the truck back when the light comes on to figure out which one it is. Now, he says, my airbag light should never come on again for anything related to this issue. So I am set to get my truck back tomorrow and everything should be good, I hope.
So my questions, what do you think of this story? And has anyone in the cold Northeast experienced this problem. Thanks, and congratulations for making it through the whole thing.

 

Northeast? No, but southeast yes. I had this exact same problem with my 12. I got the same answers, "come back when it's on...blah blah." One day it came on and I drove over to the dealership and 2 hours later, they found the problem. It was my rear passenger side airbag sensor. One of the pins were bad. They ordered the ONLY one left at the time in Florida. It's been a month and it's still good! So hopefully they got the right one for you. I know the technician that worked on my truck said there's 4-6 sensors that is associated with it and all of them are inside the cab.

 

I just got my truck back today, and I spoke to the "shop foreman" who worked on my truck. He said that he replaced both the front and rear drivers side airbag sensors, and that it was something having to do with the cold. He said the code in my computer would not say which one was bad because they are wired in series. That is why they tried to switch them around from drivers to passenger side to try and get the light back on. Regardless, both were replaced with new and I should not have the light come on again for these sensors. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

That's good. Hopefully it doesn't come on again!

 

you have to have a top of the line OBD reader to read airbags codes, i keep one in the truck at all times. if they say they can not read the codes thrown, they are lieing! the computer stores all past codes for a good while! in the menu you can select current codes, past codes or live mode.

if you have multiple codes from several random spots its your spiral cable. mine failed twice, each time it started throwing a variety of random codes. it would say driver side then passenger side the squibs then even a seatbelt error.

if it keeps up even if your is not in the recall make them replace spiral cable.

cheers,
disco