Has anyone done this? I have heard horror stories, of techs being killed by them..........

How is it done? and how hard?



Craig

 

Hi

My car has no airbags.
Both driver's and passenger's were removed.

One airbag weighs around 5 Kg, then 11 Lbs.
It's very easy.
Is there any legal problem in the States?
I have a problem concerning insurance.

 

>bump<

 

It is very easy to remove, just take off the 3 plastic plugs on the back of the steering wheel and find the 10mm bolts under neath, take those off and just pull it foward. Make sure that the battery is unhooked and then take off the connectors (using 2 people makes it very easy). Becareful cuz if it goes off, its gonna get a lot bigger very quickly!!! make sure you dont got any screw drivers near/infront of you, (there is no reason to have screw drivers near you btw). After this, use a wrench and pull off the steering wheel.

Good luck

P.S. Airbags scare the crap out of me!

 

First piece of advice... disconnect the battery before doing anything with the electrical system of your car, but especially before messing around with the airbag system.

The ECU for the air bag system is under the dash, on the left side of the center console (radio area) near the gas pedal, and it's not especially easy to reach. I think there were three 10mm bolts holding it in. Unplug it and remove it. You'll probably get a constant light on the SRS (Supplemental Restraing System) warning indicator in your gauge cluster, and you'll have to remove the bulb to solve that. Sorry for the lack of precision in my instructions, but it's been a long time since I did this myself.

I removed all three sensors at the front of the car, and all their wiring, to the point at which it entered the car through the rubber grommets behind the fenders. You will need to remove the wheel well liners to access this area. Later, when I had my dash out, I removed the rest of the wiring for the SRS at that time.

The driver's explosive charge can be removed by taking out the three 10mm bolts on the back of the steering wheel, and then sliding the center section out of the middle of the wheel. Unplug the connector to the airbag charge. The explosive charge is connected to the center pad with four 8mm nuts, I believe. Regardless, it is easily removed. The air bag itself, however, is part of the center pad, and cannot be removed from the stock steering wheel. I ended up using an Efini steering wheel which was never equipped with an air bag, so it wasn't a big deal. You'll have to replace the center section in the steering wheel, minus the explosive charge.

Store the explosive charge with the mesh grill side (hidden side) up, and the side that was exposed on the back of the center pad down. If, for whatever reason, it should go off, this will minimize damage. If it's pointing the charge down, it can generate some impressive thrust...

The passenger's side air bag is more difficult to remove. I didn't have a shop manual at the time, and after removing all the nuts and bolts that I could see, I ended up taking the dash out of the car (to remove the AC system also) and finished the job there. It also allowed me to make a very lightweight aluminum bracket to hold my passenger's side bag cover (the airbag itself can be removed on the passenger's side) exactly where it used to be.

The passenger's side assembly is quite a bit heavier than the driver's side because the bag is larger, and the housing of the explosive charge has a very thick rear assembly to direct the charge forward. I didn't think to weigh mine at the time, but I would estimate ~15 lbs. for my '95. 11 lbs. could be right, but it felt heavier.

If there's a chance that you may sell your car in the future, don't eliminate the wiring for the SRS system, and make sure you don't modify anything that would prevent you from reinstalling all the components in the car. I don't believe that it is illegal to remove your own airbags for your own personal use of the vehicle (don't quote me on this) but I know that it would be difficult to sell such a vehicle, even if you had a signed waiver from the new owner stating that he/she knew that the airbag system had been disabled. Basically, you're probably opening yourself up to a huge lawsuit should anything happen.

Store the air bag components somewhere cool and dry. I'd think the explosive charge(s) would be better off in a sealed (or as air tight as you can get) plastic bag to protect them from any moisture which might damage or ruin the solid propellant. The passenger's side bag, if you have one, is probably fine as-is, but the driver's bag with the vented area should probably be protected better.

Warning: Doing what I am about to describe is a damn fool thing to do, and you take your own risk if you follow any of these steps...

Trev (Dagley) and I had a "plethora" of air bag devices from the three cars we'd removed them from (my PEP, his R1, and his dad's R1) so we had three steering wheel charges and one passenger bag sitting around. One day while we were working on the non-sequential conversion and upgrades for my car, we got bored...

We stripped the two wires on the air bag explosive charge and inserted them into the end of an unplugged 100-foot extension cord. We had another extension cord running from the garage to where we'd built our "bunker", from a big piece of 1/8" aluminum that Trev got from Boeing surplus.

The pronged end of the extension cord attached to the air bag and the female end of the cord plugged in at the garage led to this bunker, and we set the air bag out in the field behind the garage. A quick check of our defenses and we started the countdown... 3... 2... 1... and plugged the two cords together. BOOM!!

I'll tell you now that after seeing that, I never want an airbag as close to my face as it unfortunately is in the tiny interior of the RX-7. Thanks, but no thanks, I'll take my chances.

So of course we had to try it again, but this time with a projectile. We put a cinder block under the explosive charge (steering wheel) and pointed the device up the first time. This time we pointed it down, and placed another cinder block on top of it. After double-checking that the cords were unplugged, we stripped the wiring and plugged in the ends into the second extension cord, then went back to our bunker.

3... 2... 1... BOOM!! Small pieces of debris were plunking down here and there, the air bag charge had come unplugged and was laying 15 feet from the bottom cinder block, which was split in half. The top cinder block was what was raining down, although most of it had also broken into two large chunks which were laying a few feet from the bottom block.

So for the last one (we had no intention of trying to sell these to anyone or trying to ship them, which as far as I know, would pretty much constitute trying to send an explosive device by UPS or priority mail... I don't recommend trying) we did the coffee can test, and we got some pretty good height with the explosive charge facing up again.

And for the finale, we hooked up my passenger's side air bag, put it inside the coffee can, and put a milk crate with a cinder block on top of it over the assembly. BOOM!! Goodbye coffee can, it was split open like it had been cut from a sheet of paper, and the part that was touching the bottom block had the imprint of the concrete surface on it. The air bag was partially burned because it couldn't deploy fully, and we ended up dumping a bucket of water on that one before throwing it on the junk heap. Was it a waste? Sure, but how much money have I wasted on my car anyway? A lot. And it was fun.

So, you've been properly warned. DO NOT try this at home, especially without close adult supervision. Do not light and hold in hand. Place object on ground and ignite at a safe distance, and all that crap...

 

Doesn't the Mazdaspeed hub adapter stop the ABS light from blinking???
Nice write up Jim.

 

yes i prefer the 5 point safety route to airrbags anyday.
Airbags Kill

 

But then you need the roll cage...

And if you get the roll cage, you need the helmet...




P.S. I agree with you about taking the 5 point safety harness route to airbags.