Airbag Removal
 

In a 97-99 eclipse gsx, how do you remove the drivers side airbag without it blowing up in your face? I havent taken anything out yet but was wondering if this was a hard job or easy one. Im going to be mounting my SAFC in the steering wheel and im sure there wont be enough room to wire around the airbag. and my DSM CD broke so i dont have any instructions on it.
BTW i would be much thankful if someone could zip up one of the cds and send it over aim for me.
Tom

Re: Airbag Removal
 

The easiest way for you to remove the airbag from the drivers side is to get out of the car.

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That wasn't very nice.....

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lol. but anyways, from what i gathered, Disconnect the battery and/or pull the fuse, touch the battery wires together (to discharge the SRS capacitor) wait 15 minutes just to be safe, then have at it and keep your face out of the way just in case.
Im just gonna pick up a manual on the way home from work because of my dsm cd being broken.

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You don't even have to do that.Just make sure the ignition is turned off, and unplug them.They are designed to short out the terminals when unplugged, making them, for the most part, impossible to fire when unplugged.The SRS is designed to be extremely safe to work on

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How exactly are you going to make all the wiring swivel with your steering wheel. Maybe if you have enough slack it will work but the wires will rub alot.

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I've mounted a lot of things in airbag steering wheels.TV screens, gauges, even the face from a MP3 player.Its really easy, just remove the airbag detanator, propellant and bag itself from the back side.Fill the whole thing in with expanda-foam(home depot or whatever the hell you have in Cali).Then trace and cut the hole.Hot glue it in there.And do the wiring(top secret, it took me a while to figure out how to run a gang of wires without them getting fucked up)

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Well not all systems have that safty feature. The srs does have what your talking about there called bridge bar's. Not all do either like you stated. It's accually very illegal to remove any part of the srs system. Say if you get into a reck and the insurance of course has to review the crash and the car. Say you took your airbag's out and well now they can denigh you of any claim's or anything accually. I wouldn't remove them myself if you've never done it before, also they are very dangerous at all times no matter what (even with the bridge bars they still can deploy with out warning). All of the powder that comes out can give you a nice chemical burn also. Well I'm done with my 2 cent's (wouldn't mess with them myself unless replacing them)

Kevin

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Tom why exactly have you chosen to mount your AFC in your steering wheel? What is going to happen, say a year from now, if you decide to upgrade to DSMLink? You will be left with a ugly f*cking hole in your steering wheel along with no air bag.

IMHO this is a stupid idea.

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What i was planning on doing for the wiring is follow the other electrical wires. but ill have to see when i get in there.
If i decide down the road to get a dsmlink ill just get a new cover for my steering wheel and call it a day no big deal.
Im going to discharge the capacitor because Its better to be safe then have an airbag deploy on your face.

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Good thing we were talking specifically of his DSM, and not airbags in general.I don't see where I stated all systems were this way

I'll stick by my statements, airbags are for the most part extremely safe.Unless you're trying to pop them, there is a near zero chance they will deploy unplugged.If you actually understood what the shorting pin or bridge bar does, you would agree

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As I look at the 2g DSM SRS schematic, touching the battery terminals together will NOT discharge anything in the SRS system.Well unless the IGN is on when you touch them together, and I wouldn't recommend doing that.

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ok then should i just let it sit for a good 10-15 minutes to let it discharge? the chilton manual says 2 minutes but that just seems too short.

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Seriously, make sure the IGN is off and just unplug it already.It takes in excess of 9 volts to fire it.As soon as its disconnected, the shorting pin shorts out the terminals.This makes the shorting pin the path of least resistance in the circuit, and according to a 100+ years of science, that makes it impossible for current to flow to the detanator.If it makes you feel better, just get out of the way when you unplug it.And if you don't trust 100+ years of science, wear a wrist grounding strap when you remove the detanator from the airbag assembly

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BTW I did have an airbag blow up in my face a few months ago, it wasn't that bad at all nor did it burn me at all

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so how do i blow it up after its out of the car, im thinking about launching a watermelon, a small animal, or my roomate into space. LOL JK

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Do you realize how much an air bag costs? You could easily sell it to someone that had a wreck and make some bank off of it. Why do you think so many cars are totalled if the body damage isn't too bad but the bags deployed.

Seriously, I would have to go with Jakey on this one. I've been in a few accidents and believe me, things can get real expensive real fast. Especially bodily injuries. With the way you and other people drive out there in CA, I would want all the protection I could get. And why would you want to have upside down half the time? You should put it in the rear seat since you only race in reverse anyways....

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Yes, I do fucking understand what the bridge bars do. I wouldn't of said anything about them if I didn't know what they did. They are still dangerour no matter what. Yes its not easy for them to deploy once unpluged but still things happen that shouldn't. They are still dangerous thats for sure. The chemicals in them still can burn you if you come in contact with them.

And for your information Tom, all you have to do is wire to wires off the back of the airbag itself not where the bridge bars are.. and touch each end to a 9volt battery and boom!

Kevin

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When you say stuff like this, it makes it very obvious you don't understand.Any current going to the bag results in a dead short at the shorting pin(or bridge bar as you call it).I know you think your smart because you go to whatever school you go to, but this is junior high physics here

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ok the bag is off and i didnt blow my head off. Now the problem i ran into is that i cant find a way to run the wires without it wrapping around the steering column.... LightningGSX how have you solved this mystery in the past with mounting the screens and such. I took off the steering wheel and saw that rotating thingy that the srs wire and cruise control go through but how do you add wires to go through there? Any suggestions would be great.

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Seriously, after my accident two weeks ago...I HEART AIRBAGS! The thing either saved my life or saved me from even more serious injuries. They work, and like Eric, I didn't have any burns or anything either from it. I recommend leaving them, just my 2 cents after recently using them in a 70mph head on accident.

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Honestly, I wish this thread would have been locked from the beginning because this is quite possibly, one of the worst and most stupid modifications anyone could possibly ever make to their airbag equipped vehicle.

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hmm lets think here for a second... did I ever claim to be smart anywhere in this topic or anywhere else for that matter??? Nope. Second, not every single bag system has bridge bars. I know that the system is dead when you unplug it, only if the system has a bridge bar. And last I clearly understand.

Kevin

Re: Airbag Removal
 

We are and have been talking about his 2g airbags, no others.At no time did I speak of anything other than 2G DSM airbags.2G DSM airbags have shorting pins.Considering we are talking about nothing other than 2G DSM airbags w/shorting pins, I don't know why you would be speaking of any others and I don't know why you think I'm speaking of any others.

Also, make up your mind.First you say "even with the bridge bars they still can deploy with out warning", then above you said "I know that the system is dead when you unplug it".Seriously, I apologize for being a prick, but you admitted you're not smart at this topic, why do you keep posting about it?

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I disassemble the air bag clockspring(rotating thingy), rig up sliding contacts using either conductive epoxy or adhesive backed copper foil.Its not easy at all and considering the AFC has both chassis and signal grounds, I'm not sure if it would like the sliding contacts.

I believe some vehicles with other controls in the steering wheel(radio, temp, etc) have clocksprings with enough wires to run the AFC.I've always wanted to check them out but never had a chance.Maybe hit up a junkyard and find a clockspring off one of those vehicles and make it work on your car.That would be the easiest and most reliable way I can think of.

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I'm going to have to disagree with you this time Jakey. Tom wasn't asking peoples opinions on airbag safety (that is a whole other topic, which you should feel free to start), he was just asking how to remove his airbag and install an AFC in place. This thread has gone off on a few tangents, but I'm glad to see Tom and Eric keeping it on track.

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Right here is where I stated that not all..."Well not all systems have that safty feature."......and this statement that you said.."It takes in excess of 9 volts to fire it" is incorrect... you can set them off with a 9 volt battery I've seen that personaly. And where in this topic did I state "You admitted you're not smart at this topic" ...this topic..? I never said this topic exactly. You said, you think your all smart because of the school you go to. where the hell did I say that? find it.. I'll pay you a $1,000 if you find it anywhere! They are still dangerous even with them removed. It would be stupid to not take the proper safty steps with handling an airbag that hasn't been deployed. The DERM sensor holds a certain voltage also when disconnected, which is also in the airbag unit itself which also holds the detonator. I dont know why this is still going on but whatever I guess. I don't appreciate the personal attack either just because I'm at a school learning doesnt mean you can rip on me.

Kevin

ps... Sorry about all the spelling and Grammar mistakes.. You all know I suck with that shit.

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staying on topic like TalonTSiDude said. Be careful is all im saying really.

Kevin

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Nope wrong again, The Diagnostic Energy Reserve Module(DERM) is not part of the airbag unit itself on DSMs or any other vehicle I know of.

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WTF?

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That is kinda funny i must say.

ill have to look into the clockspring, as for right now i just have enought slack to make it go around.

Umm.... do you drive in circles a lot? because its only upside down if im turning and then i wouldnt be looking at it, id usually be looking at the road.

as for the comments about safety, The way i see it, the way i drive i have my seat reclined an aweful lot (no im not a gangsta, just poor posture and im too tall) so if i were to get in an accident where the airbag would deploy i would prolly be slammed pretty hard into the bag breaking my own neck. Not to say that this would happen, i know airbags have saved a lot of lives, but this thread was not about safety, just how to do it.

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I will probably take mine out when I get a full 10 point roll cage in there and harnesses to hold me in.

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I took mine out of my honda for this reason and it didn't blow up in my face and i didn't disconnect the battery. just uplugged it and pulled it out. then i took my guage cluster out and broke the bulb that lights up the SRS light. :)