another camry hybrid owner told me that the side airbag is in the seat under you and that the manual says one should not recover the seats; however when i leased my car it had cloth seats and the dealer said i could change them to leather. has anyone else heard this or changed seats and if so does that render the airbag useless or worse does it eliminate the airbag when the seat is changed from cloth to leather?

 

The side curtain airbag is located just above the window. The sensor for that airbag is located down on the floor near the seat. I've heard of people changing their seats out without problems...Hope this helps.

 

There are both side airbags, mounted in the seat, and side curtain airbags, mounted in the pillars (if the legends on the pillars are any indication). I would think that a reputable firm would have designed leather covers that would properly accomodate side airbags by now, especially since leather is available as an option from the factory or port-installed.

Classic Soft Trim may be able to tell you if the airbags would be compromised. http://classicsofttrim.com

 

The problem with having "unofficial" after market leather installed is that Toyota may not warrantee the change since they can't predict how the airbags will deploy in an accident.