According to the label on the door jam of my 97 Accord, my airbag is now 10-years old and should be inspected according to the maintenance schedule. Does anyone know how necessary this is, or what it should cost for a mechanic to do it? Thanks
" snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:
I have never personally known anybody on the face of this planet who has ever, deliberately, on purpose, presented his airbag to a professional to be examined for faults after ten years of lifespan.
Chances are excellent that if you bring this heap to any garage and ask them to inspect and certify your ten year-old airbag, you will be told just one (very liability-lawsuit-aware) thing: REPLACE IT!!!
Airbags are horrendously expensive, for very little statistical gain in safety. Is it really worth it?
other than looking to see if the enclosure is full of spilled cola residues, there's not much inspection to do. the electronic self-test the vehicle performs each time you start the car is about all the inspection it needs. other than that, you can replace everything, and i'll bet that's what a dealer will recommend. in other words, i'd leave it alone.
i understand that, but real-deal inspection is not something you can do with the naked eye. in fact, i doubt you can do it at all without destruction of the device. replacement is the only "real" option, and the economics of that, like you said earlier, are prohibitive.
i'd consider the statistical likelihood of there being a problem, weigh that against the timeline for which the vehicle is expected to be used, and decide from there. maybe after 15-20 years, it would be worth replacing, but only if it was anticipated keeping the vehicle for that long again. if you could get the parts!
I have been thinking of disconnecting and disabling the airbag system on my '92 Accord. At 235,000 miles with the first year device, I never really became comfortable with the possibility of something exploding in my face,if and when it decides to go off. ole bob
1 - Unplug and short the connector. or
2a - See if that ArmorAll crap you've been using has cracked the vinyl cover.
2b - Turn to "on", wait&watch for 6 seconds, instead of going straight to "start".
Yes. The airbag system is 'fool proof' long as the fool doesn't "fool" around with it. In 20 years, of airbag involvement, I have not seen an airbag "deloy" by itself for "no" reason.
Several years ago I had occasion to search what I recall was the NHTSA database for complaints regarding some car I was considering buying (used). In the complaints were three for unwanted air bag deployments; two of them occurred while turning one particular direction. Hmm. I agree that more recent airbag systems are stringently designed and that it shouldn't be a problem in a '97.
The NHTSA website does warn that disabling the SRS is prohibited in the US and that in many states inoperative SRS will cause the vehicle to fail safety inspections.
When I disconnected the airbomb on a '93 Prizm I once owned, the airbomb's connector was of the "self-shorting" variety where a piece of metal would spring down & contact both pins when the plug was pulled out of the socket. This effectively safed the airbomb.
no, read it again. it doesn't say it's prohibited, it says is that it's prohibited for /dealers and repair shops/ to disable, and there there /may/ be state laws requiring them to be enabled. but other than that it merely "strongly discourages" disabling, not exactly a rigorous legal requirement.
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