I'd like to replace my non-tilt column in my '91 vert with a tilt one. Is this even possible w/the air bag? Would any 89-91 column work? Anyone?...

 

The air bag columns are supposed to be different and non-tilt.

I suppose if you removed the air bag you could put a tilt column in from any year, but you would run into wiring and mounting issues.

 

Appreciate the response!

So no airbag equipped convertible came with tilt? What about loaded tIIs or other models w/airbags from 90-91? Did any of them come w/tilt?

 

No T2s came with airbags in 90 or 91 in the US.

The 'vert was the only model with an airbag. The coupes got mouse belts.

 

thats surprising they didnt put airbags in their highest hp model of the time.

 

The FC3C airbags were a throw back, Mazda needed a quick fix for the manditory SRS requirement of '90, so they went to Ford and put Ford based airbag systems in the 'verts. That approach was considerably more expensive than the mouse belts.

The Mouse belts were already on the coupes, but (of course) were unpracticle for the 'verts (since there is no roof).

And I personally think that explosive fire and gas burning devices don't belong less than two feet from my face in the first place, so the T2 was lucky not to get an airbag. Airbags are simply the US government trying to save the life of morons who forgot to use a seat belt in the first place.

 

icemark..i like your train of thought on the exploding airbag thing...many medai/commercials for other cars use them a a selling point for the cars safety..but like you i dont want a small bomb going off in my face when i get touched by another dumbass driver....

 

seen a lot of friends get burns and more damage from a bag than from the accident itself.

Heck, I was at GM watching a crash test of a 'vette a couple years back and the air bag deploying blew out the front window after the main inpact. The windsheild and dash would have been fine without the airbag deploying, but were distroyed only because of the bag.

And toss in the fact that if you are less than 5'3" or taller than 6'3" and less than 125 lbs, the air bag wasn't even designed to protect you and can hurt you more than the accident alone did.

yeah, I have a crappy opinion on almost all SRS systems. Should be survival of the people smart enough to use a seat belt. You just don't see airbags on any race cars.

 

icemark--you are incorrect on srs...

why do you think it is called SRS?? SUPPLEMENTAL restraint system. It is designed to be used WITH seatbelts, NOT in place of. matter of fact, if you don't wear a seat belt, chances are in a bad crash you will be thrown around the car and you will not stay centered in front of the air bag anyway.

An air bag saved me in 1991. The crash was so bad that they couldn't believe I survived it. I ended up with three broken vertebre, broken hand, arm, collarbone, and leg, among others, along with a serious concussion. The powder burns from the nitrogen and a broken nose were a SMALL price to pay to still be alive. Not to mention, I spent some years as a fire rescue EMT, and I recall a ton of MVA calls where the airbag was the reason they were not dead. There is no FIRE involved in the airbag deploying--it is filled with nitrogen, and the residue powdered nitrogen causes the burns.

You can't say that your friend would have been better off without the airbag, simply because he WASNT without it....who knows what it would have done? in the same accident type with vs. without it, the testing shows a FAR fewer severe injury rate with it.

Oh, and you're right--no race cars have airbags. There are two reasons for this--

1)race cars have a full welded roll cage, 5-point harnesses, breakaway parts like motor mounts(to get rid of some of the energy), and so on...their drivers wear helmets, the HANS system, etc....AND:

2)the cars we drive onthe road DO NOT have a full welded roll cage, 5-point harnesses, ............

Here--go put a 5-point in your car. have you ever been buckled into one before?? it is totally different from our belts--you cannot move the 5-points like you can a regular seatbelt once buckled in. In a crash, regular seatbelts do NOT stop your forward movement, or there would be no use for an airbag, but the 5-WILL stop this movement.

 

We are getting off subject on this thread, but I wonder if your broken collar bone, concussion, and hand (all very common air bag induced injuries) would have been avoided in a car with out an bag???

It is an intresting statistic that more people under 5'3" have been killed by airbags (without any doubt proved during an autopsy) than in the same model cars and trucks where the bags were disabled and also were in an simular accident.

Did you know that most car dealerships if pressed will disable the airbag free of charge for drivers outside the effective range of support. There are TSBs for almost every manufacture suggesting that very thing.

And did you know that most airbag systems need to be replaced every 10 year as the containment plastic tends to dry and rot out. I wonder how many 90-91 RX-7 'vert owners have ever had their airbags systems serviced.

Airbags are deployed by an explosive chemical reaction that often hits over 600F. While you are right, that technically is not fire, burns are very very commone because of the reaction.

And although you were only 10-12 when the big SRS debate was going on, here is a little history of SRS systems. The US Fed Gov told the States, that if they could get a 75% or better driver use of seat belts, then the manufactures would not be required to put the SRS in. That too me points to lame *** drivers who can't be bothered to put on a seat belt and get themselves killed caused the whole problem.

All that aside, I am glad you like airbags and feel that it helped save your life in a what sounds like major accident.