Air Bag Disabling

- M
- Mike
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Oct 14, 2003 12:53 PM

I have a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire and have to do some work around the ignition area. The workshop manual says you must disable the airbags by disconnecting the battery, removing the fuse and disconnecting both airbag connectors at the base of the steering column. It also says once the battery power is removed there is a 10 second reserve of power to operate the airbags. Why all the extra precautions when it would seem disconnecting the battery and waiting a few minutes would effectively stop them from going off? I'm sure there's a good reason, just can't see what it is! Thanks, Mike

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- Don Bruder
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Oct 14, 2003 1:16 PM

I believe it's commonly called "cover your ass".

The first time the capacitor (or whatever it is) that stores those 10 seconds worth of reserve power outperforms specs, you can bet it will be at a time when somebody didn't take *ALL* the extra precautions, and is in the exact perfect position required to permit the airbag to remove his head from his shoulders and deposit it somewhere in the back seat. Which, of course, opens the door for a massive lawsuit.

Just another tidbit of evidence confirming that "common sense ain't".

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- Mike Walsh
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Oct 14, 2003 2:01 PM

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- Mike
  
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posted
20 years ago

Fri, Oct 17, 2003 12:17 AM

Thanks for the comments. I think disconnecting the battery, pulling the fuse and waiting 30 minutes should be enough!

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- Bob M.
  
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posted
20 years ago

Fri, Oct 17, 2003 12:28 AM

30 minutes? A capacitor bleeds down much faster than that. 60 seconds should be good enough.

But disconnecting them may not be a bad idea. Consider how close you will be to the airbomb. Airbombs could be detonated with static electricity, and that could come from anywhere in the wiring harness. The connectors on the airbomb are of the "self-shorting" type - disconnect the airbomb and a piece of metal inside the airbomb-side of the connector makes contact with the two pins inside, effectively closing the circuit and making it virtually impossible to explode.