Re: Deployed Airbag for 96 Camry

Try:

Bought a switch from them and installed it myself (about 1 hour but could do the next one faster). They'll also install one for you but you need a permission slip if they do it for you (easy to get, fax request from NHTSA website, you'll have one in about a week).

Done it twice. Once w/2000 Ford Windstar van and another with a 2001 Solara.

If you buy only the switch, they also send great quality instructions with photos, etc.

(not afiliated with them, just like their service/product)

barry

: Try:

typo.

Also, they sell disconnect kits.

b.

Go to :

Ulf wrote: : Thanks Barry!

: That was a great site. I down loaded the form for NHTSA

: They want $85 for instructions!

: How much do they charge for a switch?

: Ulf

It was about $160.00. I opened up the box. It's not a simple switch but one could make one to do the job. This one controls both the side and passenger airbag. Basically the airbag is two wires. You cut one of the two wires, tap in to the uncut one and it either completes the original circuit or switches in a resistor. Additionally, if they are installed by someone, you need the NHTSA form. If installed by someone, the switch must be a keyswitch and the unit must contain a LED indicating the airbag is disabled (LED on with disabled). If you install one yourslf, you do not need the NHTSA permission slip, nor does the airbag have to conform to the items noted above.

Be aware of static electricity discharging. It can set off the airbag. I made sure to touch both the car frame and the ground to "discharge" although it isn't the "staticy" time of the year out here.

In my practice, if someone is in the car besides my son, I turn it on or turn it on and tell the passenger they can turn it off.

I'm in a situation where I have to drive about 200 miles every other week with a small child. If I had to mess around with him in the back seat, it could cause an accident. In a parenting class I took, the instructor mentioned that it could be more dangerous doing that than having the child in the front seat with the airbag disabled. For that reason, I did it. Additionally, I don't want to banish my kid to the back seat for

(flamers, keep it to yourself.. I don't want to hear it).

b.

One more thing. I'll note that in the Solara and other Toyota sedans, there is a rectangular cover in the glove box on the (in my case) top left side. If you gently pull out this cover, it allows access to the airbag connector.

Last, when I had one professionally installed and when I installed mine, I attached it to the inside, left side of the glove box. Out of the way and in the place near the airbag wires.

b.

I went in there and found the connector this weekend when I started to look at teh issue. That is why I asked for a deployed bag.

It is trivial to make a dummy for the bridge wire if one had a cable. I don't like the idea of permanetly modifying the wires such as cutting them since I might like to sell the car if Toyota decides to make a Camry wagon again in the future :-)