I'm just wondering if anyone has installed a steering wheel air bag in an earlier F-body that didn't originally come with one. I realize that it has it's own dedicated fuse, so I doubt anyone has done this, but if anyone has, please post results. I like the styling of the older F-bodies, but since this is a daily driver, I don't want to die while I admire my car as I drive.


And yes, I looked in the Tech Articles and did a search. All I could find was information on air bag removal, not installation.

 

It takes a crazy ammount of work to install an airbag. Think about the computer and all the sensors that would have to be put in and done properly.. Had you considered that?

 

Yes, I had. That's the main reason I assumed it hadn't been done. I wasn't planning on doing it myself without advice/a walkthrough from someone who had done it before. Ho well, guess I'll have to go withour one.

 

Because of my wreck, I looked into this.

Besides the front and rear trigger sensors, there is a structual steel bar under the dash. You'd hafta to remove 100% of the dash, to put that in. That pretty much sealed the deal for me...No airbags.

 

I have a 91 GTA with a factory airbag, have had the dash apart, and I dont know what steel bar you are talking about. I think this would be a fairly easy thing to do, you would just need the wiring from a donor car with all the sensors.

 

Dunno. The friend that I was going to get everything from looked at his car, so I didn't see it myself to tell you what to look for.

 

Here's how we installed a steering / airbag system into our 87 IROC. It involves a whole lotta work...

Warning! Do not try to use or re-use impact sensors, etc. from a donar that has sustained critical impact or has a deployed air bag!

Find a 100% complete (see note above!!) 90-92 donar vehicle. Remove the steering column, entire dash & wiring harness and air bag impact sensors, including the impact sensor under the center console. Remove the wiring harness and impact sensor from the front of the donar. By the time you've done all of that, you should have the entire intact wiring harness gutted from the donar.

Now strip out all of yours and install the donar harness & dash, (might as well since the 90+ cluster wont fit in the 89 and older... and the later model harness wont match up well with yours. Deal with the electrical issues and mis-matches that come along as a result of this transplant. It's no pic nic.

 

For the money and time you are looking at puting into this progect. YOu might want to look into better tires, Rebuilding the suspention with new parts and investing in brake upgrades. The stuff that will keep you out of an acadent. If that stuff is already done whey not better seats and aftermarket restraints. There is alot out there already with out retrofiting Airbags into your car.

My car has Airbags, and for now it's staying that way. Partualy becase of the fact that I am too lazy to talk it out and figger why when it's a factory instaled system.

Sure it sounds like a good idea and definatly in the vain of upgrading old cars that I am a big fan of. But Do you realy need one, Have you been in many acadents and are you the type of driver that usaly geting into more the other people.

We all know the type of driver that gets into acadents, Random lane chages, Driving to fast for trafic or wether conditions, Drunk, Tired, Distracted. It seems like every day well driving for about half and hour I end up seeing somebody do something stupid like shoot out of a driveway across four lanes of trafic or Rush the Red Light to get trough. Sure acadents happen. But they happen more to people who arent' looking for them. I know myself, it's a hell of a lot easyer to react to and avoid a accedent in a camaro then In a Something Like the Kia SUV's that sold like crazy at the auto dealership I worked at. I was the shuttle driver I called it the "Kia Complaints Department" Becase all they people who bought the veical out of safety where compaining about the lack luster profomince of the lunk of junk they own. One person prowdly proclaming "I don't wear my seat belt, I need a safer car" It took all I had to bite my tounge. Seat belts are probaly the only thing that wil keep you planted in your seat and stop you from hiting the searing wheel and heading trought the windsheild. Everyperson Is safer for wearing a seat belt proporly.

Well there is my Rant and two cents.

 

All the upgrades in the world to AVOID the accident, won't do as much as the airbag when you DO have the accident, and your face meets the steering wheel.

You're welcome to ask my wife...Lemme know what she says.

Abd no, she wasn't your typical "woman driver". Look in my sig at HER car.

 

damn Im sorry about that, yes you will need a doner car to do the swap evrything from that car in cluding dash if you want to be able to see the infl rest light come on if there is a problem. I lost a girlfriend in a accident back in 2/28/05. cause of death savere head trama to the back of her head from the wonderfull airbags deploying pushing against the head rest of the seat smashing her skull after death her foot stood on the gas and slamming the oak tree sideways ripping the car in half her friend died from the seatbelts ripping apart and alowing her to slam the tree with the speed of the car crushed her skeleton. so i dont like wearing seatbelts and i wont buy a car with airbags.here its law have to wear seatbelts i wish it wasnt.
thats mo again sorry about your wife

 

Sounds like you have enough reason to hate them, as much I want them. It sounds like she must have been sitting very close, for the airbag to have caused any damage, as they start to deflate in under a second. So, she must have been close enough for the bag to reach the headrest.

One of these days, I'm getting a 6 pt street cage, for the extra protection. Broken arm hitting the side bar be damned! I'd rather walk away with a broken arm, than not walk away at all!

Sorry about your girlfriend. I to tell people they are full of ****, when they told me time heals. Aug. 28, 2004, 2.5 years later, and time doesn't heal, but it makes it tolerable.

 

well she went off the road hit a mailbox paramedics say she must have raised up when she hit the mailbox because wasnt sitting that close to the wheel.
i was told this will never heal i will always remember like it happened yesterday just somedays will be better then others. she was driving a 04 hyundie senatra staiton wagon only survivors of the accident was her friends 6 mo. baby in the back seat found in the tree by a couple passing by

 

I feel for the baby. Only upside is at 6 mo, the baby will have zero memory of mom, so, in a way, mom was never lost.

Can't say the same for my 4 yr old daughter. Me and my wife were thrown from the car, and everybody was so focused on us, it took them a couple of minutes, before they heard the screaming of our daughter in the back seat. Fortunately, the car seat did it's job. Only a broken collar bone, and a rib.

I guess I'm slightly beneficial, in that I have zero memory of the entire week before the wreck, so the wreck itself, is not vivid in my head.

Anyways, enough depressing the masses...

 

If I was you I would get a f-body from 1991 to 1992 that has not been wrecked and get everything you want because like stated before you will need all the stuff you can get Im not sure how much sencors are for the bag
good luck to ya. I seen your from texas, I am to from pasadena harris county
i have to it be kind of cool to see an older 3rd gen with new stuff

 

No local club up there? Start one! We have ATGO here.

 

Im not sure how exactly, the only 1 around is in il, because i moved from texas to indiana

 

i know that in theory when an airbag goes off that you are much safer than without one, but to tell the truth you are probably safer in a car with no airbag. aside from cost has anyone here ever seen an airbag launch a 2 pound football a hundred feet in the air? at the dealership we have made a game out of blowing up airbags that are pulled from cars due to service indicator lights coming on. What we see is more than enough to make everyone in the service department want to remove their airbags.

 

i heard that the force those things generate is more than a 12 gauge shotgun shell. do you really want to play with that?

if youre that worried about it, just get a 5pt harness

 

If 5-pt harnesses were street legal, I'd do it. But, somebody PLEASE tell why they aren't? There is no doubt they are safer, when installed correctly, even if they are a bit more trouble to put on.

 

Are you sure about that? I havent seen anything about that in the PA code, basically you just have to have a seatbelt in the car.

 

Yep. From the inspections criteria...

"....were a part of the manufacturer’s original equipment on the vehicle."

That's how they get away with it. Until the OEM installs a 5 pt harness, they haven't been federally tested, for safety, so we are SOL. Even though we both know, NASCAR, NHRA, etc., isn't going to say a 3 pt shoulder/lap belt, is good enough for competition use.

My wife was the supervisor in Texas, over the state inspections, and believe me, I tried to find a way around the 5 pt thing, with zero luck!

An inspector will pass you with it installed, as long as the factory 3 pt harness is still there. But if you are pulled over, wearing only the 5 pt harness, you'll still get a ticket for no seat belt.

 

Take these guys word for it. It is a major hassle to put a air bag in ...... well unless she decides to do the driving then you'de have a drivers side air bag ...... But in all seriousness to do it right a donor harness is the best way. I installed a complete 1990 harness in my 1982 trans am yes I could have put a air bag in. But theres also supports built into stuff that the airbag impact sensors mount to. My 82 didn't have these a later model might though. Unless you are patient and willing to spend a few days installing a harness and possibly the complete dash ( I used my 82 dash since the cluster was the same) camaro probably isn't like that since they changed the dash at some point. Only other way is to possibly seperate the air bag wiring from a donor harness but then to add it to your original harness would be more of a hassle then istalling a 1990 up harness.

Sorry but there is no easy way nor a shortcut. It's all or nothing

 

I installed '90-'92 air bag steering wheels in both my '85 Z28 and '89 RS. The air bags are non-functional, I just thought they looked better than the stock steering wheels.

 

Personally, I'd find a car that came equipped with airbags from the factory. While these cars may be identical other than the wiring, sensors, computer, and the airbag itself, I gain a whole load of comfort knowing that the system in my girlfriend's car was standard equipment, not aftermarket.

You may be a wiring god, but I just can't bring myself to take safety equipment from a donor car.

To those of you that have suffered losses to vehicles, I feel for you. One of my friends was killed in a wreck a few years back. For me, it's just not something I think about often. It does serve as a reminder that vehicles are dangerous when handled improperly.