Motors Airbags

Please excuse my ignorance, but questions exist only to be answered.
I am looking at buying a car that has been in a slight accident and the airbags have been deployed (driver and passenger). Now, basically, i was wondering how the airbags would be fixed. Would the whole airbag system need replacing or just the compressed air and bags, or can everything be folded back much like a parachute (by somebody qualified of course)? Thank you in advance for any answers and forgive the silly comparisons.

philth

 

its ussually just the bag which needs replacing very easy to do but quite expensive

 

Don't know about the UK, but in the US (well, NY State at least) if the airbags in a car have been deployed, by law the whole airbag unit needs to be replaced with a NEW one. You can't use one from a junkyard. That's why it's so expensive.

 

Well you can't use one from a junkyard that they know about.

 

Thing is, it's very illegal for a junk yard to even sell it to me

 

Go ask at the local police station?


This raises a question that I've never even considered, if you simply tore out the airbags and patched the wheel and dash back up, what is the legality of driving an airbag car with the airbags removed?

 

chances are they'd go off then you removed them.

 

Is it illegal to drive a car without airbags?

 

Not all cars come with airbags so I'd be inclined to say no.

*n

 

No, I don't think they are law. (the ricerboys put new steering wheels onto cars that used to have airbags and can still drive them)

the whole airbag unit will need to be replaced as they are only guaranteed for ONE use.

On a different note, if the airbags have been used they car musta had a large accident. They don't pop out on 'minor' collisions!

 

It needs a new bonnet and bumper, past that everything except the airbags is okay. Got a quote from Seat today to replace them, £250 for the passenger side and £480 quid for the drivers side. So, can we answer the question of legality of driving without airbags, because after the initial outay for the car it'll take me a few weeks to afford to replace the airbags.

Cheers,
philth

 

The above quote from http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/press_releases.asp?sec=pr&key=DTLRA suggests to me that it's not illegal no drive with a disconnected airbag however,

taken from some lycos hosted car modding site suggests that it is.
Don't know what to think.
philth

 

Well there's nothing on http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/ so I doubt they are law...

check with a garage they'd know...

 

That depends on the sensitivity of the airbag system. In some cars you can activate the airbag by hitting the steering wheel hard enough

 

true. ive see cars get destroyed beyond recognition and wont deploy the bags while kicking the bumper on some cars will set them off. lol i saw a car that had 7 airbags deploy just because a car barely tapped it while parallel parking.

 

Just a friendly reminder, you should drive at 8 and 4, not 10 and 2! Also, dont cross your hands when you turn, if you hit something and your airbags go aff, BAM, wrists into face

 

thats the exact opposite of how drivers ed teaches in new york.

 

That's how I learned - 10 and 2. But you have to remember it wasn't illegal to drive without your seatbelt when I started driving either.

 

they still teach 10 and 2 yet i drive 9 and 3. they also teach steering by doing the hand over hand thing.

 

I drive at 9 - 3.......

Why anyone would drive at 8 - 4 is beyond me though!! Holding the wheel below centre certainly wont give you good control over the car!!

Using the BSM shuffle aint to cleaver either, you should always try to keep your hands in the same place on the steering wheel, unless you need to turn loads.