Was my airbag stolen?

You'd need a tech or a manual to tell you for sure, but I'd be flat out amazed if the airbag light didn't come on and stay on if somebody took the airbags out. Surely the system polls them to see if the circuit's complete at startup?

He might have been getting *ready* to steal it and cut and ran for some reason. Way back, I had an '82 Regal that I came home to find running. On the street. With no keys in. Somebody had broken in, cut the column, started the engine, and then been interrupted. He either ran before he could break the steering lock, or couldn't break it, because that was the only thing remaining before you could put the car in gear and drive away. *I* broke it, and drove the car like that for a month before I could get it fixed.

"Gone in Sixty Seconds" and like that notwithstanding, your average car thief is a punk, only knows a few tricks, and will run like a scared rabbit at the first sign somebody's on to him. (Note that I said "average.") I called an acquaintance of mine who happened to be, um, knowledgeable about car thieves, and he told me how to break the steering lock and a few other tips.

Yup, the light comes on at key/on and then goes off once started, just like normal. I have pulled out the glove box and removed a plate above that and did see what looked like the bottom of the airbag system. It *looks* like nothing was removed, but I guess it really would take a proper mechanic to verifiy that nothing was damaged by the pry attempt.

Yup, and this happened sometime between 8am and 4pm, which would make it broad daylight so I would not expect him/them to have much time to fiddle about.

Oh, I knew you'd have mentioned it if the airbag light was on - I just meant that it seemed extremely likely that removing an element from the circuit would cause a malfunction indicator lamp to come on when the computer polled the circuit. Since one's not on, I'd be amazed if the circuit wasn't complete.

By all means take it to a mechanic, but since the light's not on and everything looks to be in order, I wouldn't worry about it overmuch.

Wouldn't the dash or center of steering wheel be attached to the airbag? Isn't that something that is one unit? I could be wrong.

Either way, the airbag light should come on and stay blinking when engine running. I blew my seatbelt tensioner and that light drove me nuts. haha

Even if they did steal it, I doubt they would put the dash back for you :)

Just to be sure I am clear...

I was only figuring that they might have taking the passenger side airbag or part of it. And as you note, this could only include something that could be taken right out of the hatch/door that the passenger airbag flies thru when the bag activates/pops.

It may be that there is nothing worth taking that can be taken via that hatch/door, but this is where I just have no clue.

Yes, they may have thought it was the glove box, in a hurry, scared etc. But stealing air bags is becoming a problem. Kids jack them sell them to body shops for a hundred dollars, they charge your insurance (body shops) over $800 each. If it was off or unplugged, it would of had a air bag light on. Usually body shops will "order:" the bags, ie 98 Tacoma, blue interior etc.

I doubt he would have been kind enough to reassemble your dash and wheel.

--- Rich