I am going to replace the front bumper on my 2004 Wrangler Sport. The question is what trips the air bags? Are the connected to the bumper or can I remove it without worry? Any and all comments will be helpful and hopefully amusing. Thanks Tom
What trips the airbags is a sensor near the gear box IIRC - certainly nowhere near the front bumper, so you can remove it without worry. The sensor fires when you need help (takes quite a lot to set it off by all accounts), but the bigger and thicker the bumper is, the less shock will be absorbed and the more will go through you, so it will most likely fire at a lower speed impact than it used to. Obviously the thicker the bumper is, the more knocks it can take, but the chance of twisting your chassis on the big one increases.
Dave Milne, Scotland
I've taken my TJ bumpers off many times. No worries, mate!
tw
Just replace the dang thing - I've done it several times. Your sensors wont care, they are not in the bumper.
-jenn
From the FSM, Page 8M-3: "The impact sensor provides verification of the direction and severity of an impact. One impact sensor is used. It is located insude the Airbag Control Module (ACM), which is secured to a bracket on the floor pan transmission tunnel inside the vehicle".
.. which is not a million miles off what I said.
Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ
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