Some background - I just picked up a sweet Nardi steering wheel with airbag from forum member ZE Power MX6 to replace my ratty looking original FD wheel. Great seller BTW, buy with confidence! So to prepare for the steering wheel R&R job, I dove into the FSM to read up on how to R&R the airbag.

The FSM procedure looks simple enough (see pasted snips), but one of the steps calls for using an SST (also pictured below), which is basically a couple of mating connectors with jumpers on it that short out a couple of the terminals on the airbag diagnostic module. Questions:

1. I'm referencing the '94 Body/Electric FSM here, and my FD is a 93 without a passenger airbag. Since the battery is disconnected before the step in question where the SST is used, do you still need this SST for a '93 car?
2. If you do really need this SST, does anyone have a diagram that shows which pins of the diagnostic connector are supposed to be shorted together? Finding mating terminals and building the jumper wires to function as the SST (minus the keyed plastic connector back shell) is easy enough if necessary.

 

lmao, never seen one of those things. that said the airbag is no joke, you do not want to have your head in front of it, and it needs to be stored face up. so far it seems to be safe to just unplug the battery and unplug the air bag and remove it.

before i started at Mazda, the mechanics replaced an air bag, and the final procedure is to set off the old one. they put it face down and set it off, and it went ~40 feet in the air and came down on a new car in the lot next door.....
the dealership next door was still made about this ~15 years later....
by the time i was working there they would put the airbag in the parts cage face up, and set it off. this would empty the building as everyone came to see what the noise was.

 

So is it a requirement for the dealer to set off the old one? That’s such a waste especially they are so hard to find nowadays haha.

Pete, I’ve had the airbag on and off the car several times before, disconnecting the battery will do the trick, you can disconnect it and let it sit for a bit before working on it.

 

My guess is there's a capacitor or two in that diagnostic module, and the SST simply shorts any current that may be stored in the capacitors to ground, reducing the risk of a misfiring the bag from something like 0.00001% to 0%

LMAO, clearly they didn't read the FSM.

 

^That's what I figured, disconnecting the battery then keying on the car/pressing the brake pedal would discharge any juice that's left stored anywhere on a capacitor.

 

I also bought a wheel from ZE some years back, did nothing more than unplug the battery overnight and use some care to keep from being directly in front of the bag as much as possible. Other than that my old 93 wheel and bag, which was still pretty pristine has been store away without issue since.

You’ll like the new wheel, and not just the more modern look. IIRC it’s only something like 10mm smaller, but it felt (to me) like it was much more.

 

Pete,

I feel like at this point everybody has bought a wheel from him or has bought a wheel that someone else bought from him. I know I’ve bought a couple from him over the years. Anyways, when I changed mine I did what most people do, disconnected the battery and held the brake pedal down for a few seconds. For a little added value though, you can take both leads off the battery and touch them together for a few seconds too.

Sidenote - I remember doing some maintenance over the one Chevrolet dealer and those guys were setting off a couple old airbags… Man did it draw a crowd. Sure makes you think twice about sitting so close to the wheel.


~ GW

 

Yep, disconnect battery, let it sit a bit, then hold down the brake pedal for a bit (20 seconds or so) to discharge any capacitors.

The stock airbag is held in with like 3 or 4 10mm bolts then you can bring it forward and disconnect. As soon as any wire is disconnected from it it's a dead circuit.

It's really not that big of a deal, just don't be crazy dumb and you're fine.

Dale

 

if they were replacing it, it was bad anyways.

 

True, but then they are able to set it off? I guess it just couldn't pass the ECU test and throw a light.

 

I know a guy who works at a junkyard. One of the clowns who worked there thought it would be funny to pack 10 airbags into a junked car, and set them off. Apparently the car caught air, the explosion was heard for about 1 mile around, and he was walked off the job that morning.

Probably was hilarious as hell though.

 

I actually lol’ed at this. One airbag going off alone is extremely violent… I cannot even imagine a car full. That had to be one spectacular show.


~ GW

 

Well the job is done, easy-peasy! Here's the before & after pictures:



Before shot, the old ratty wheel - looks worse live

And the after shot, looks better live

With all the funny exploding airbag stories, I'm tempted to blow up my old one, but I'll probably just sell it instead.

 

Where did you get these floor mats? The color matches well.

 

They look like OEM to me, I have the same mats.

 

They came with the car, and yes the color & logo is spot on, so I presume one of the PO's got these OEM mats from Mazda. Unfortunately the foam/rubber underside on both of them are disintegrating, leaving behind a mess of black foam/rubber particles every time the mats are moved slightly. On the passenger side mat the foam/rubber shedding is so bad that I removed as much of the loose stuff as I could.

Since the color match is so good, and they are OEM, I wonder if I can restore the undersides of them somehow? Was thinking something like a coating of Flex Seal or similar product on the underside might work, after preparing by scraping off all the existing loose stuff

 

I love the idea and may just do the same on mine. It's also disintegrating underneath. Would need to make sure the product cures with a surface that provides a little friction. Then again, its rubber and I wouldn't think liquid rubber cures like a liquid plastic/urethane.