JimRockford

I really don't care for the cumbersome design of the air bag steering wheels used on the firebirds starting in 1990.

Has anyone here installed an earlier third gen firebird steering wheel on a 90 or later firebird,and what was involved in removing the air bag?

MNformula350

iTrader: (2)

I reaplaced the Fugly Airbag wheel on my 90 with one from an 87 Firebird, was a Direct Swap.

Other than having to splice the Horn Wire. The airbag wheel has teh 2 buttons, the 87 has the single center button.

camaronewbie

Might want to check local inspection laws first - having a non-airbag wheel in an airbag car might not pass.

You'll also want to notify your insurance company in writing if you swap. If you are in an accident, and have no airbag, that could constitute insurance fraud (since you might be getting a discount on your premiums for the airbag), and they could present a winning case to not pay your claims (would suck to get sued and lose your a$$ just because you swapped out an ugly steering wheel).

corey8084

time to bring an old post back to life! I bought a 91 firebird that had this swap done but they didn't hook up the horn and I have no idea what I'm doing. anyone can shed some light on this poor lost soul?

FirebirdUSX

Its funny how that works in US.You can see cars with 40inch rims that have no problems driving around but when it comes to a useless bomb inside your car ...oh noes the entire government is after you.

btw anyone figured out why they don't use air bags in nascar ,formula 1 ,indy 500 ,etc?

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Because of far better custom restraint systems, helmets, rollcages and HANS devices.

FirebirdUSX

I'd trade the bomb for a better restraint any day

I remember a lady in a small Peugeot 206 got hit in the driver side door (at low speed ....very very low) and the damn side air bag exploded so loud that I heard it from across the street.When I looked she was fine except her left ear.

Mercedes has seatbealts that inflate while braking or in a crash to minimize the injuries ...I'm sure in the future we will look back at the days we had bombs in the car to protect ourself .

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

It would be veeeery pricey to custom fit each person to the car they buy and then to custom fit it to the next person that comes along.

FirebirdUSX

a 4 point seat belt is better than then normal one with air bag.

The street cars will never be as safe as race ones ,still having a few bombs inside your car is not the solution.Would hate to see that crap explode if you have glasses or if someone is shorter.There are other ways to control your head movement in a crash...the bomb is not the answer.All this started because the governments ruled the bomb should be on all new cars ...I'm sure the engineers would have come up with better stuffs by now.

and I'm even saying how creeped out I am about cleaning the dash when I know there are bombs inside it

in a crash chances to break your feet are higher than to break your face ...but if the air bag pops and you are shorter or you are not in the "right" position then you will break both

Yenipenny

First, I do believe that it is against federal law to disengage or remove any safety device including air bags.


You may call them "bombs" if you wish, but I was in the collision repair industry for many years doing 250-300 vehicles a month and I have seen the results of steering columns buried in the chest of the dead driver where no seat belts were worn or the car had no air bag. I would never, ever disable/remove an airbag or not wear a seat belt.

corey8084

what if you bought the car from someone and they removed the safety device? can I be held accountable?

FirebirdUSX

Im sure the steering column can still get inside your chest with the air bag.Just check IIHS crash tests to see how useless air bags are especially in small overlap crash tests.If the safety cage fails everything from wheels to steering column will get ontop of you.

I don't think anyone said anything about removing seat belts .I still prefer a 4 point seatbelt to the standard seat belt and the bomb.Just check what Volvo are doing about safety in a crash.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

If you haven't notified your insurance company then yes. You bought the car, insured and drove it knowing full well that the airbag was missing/removed. The person that sold it to you would also be in trouble for removing it if they did not explicitly advertise the car as having it removed when they sold it as well. That's trying to use the "i didn't know it was illegal" defense. Ignorance does not excuse someone from the law.

Most cases if you completely remove the entire system, and let insurance know you will be fine. But then there's state inspection to deal with.

Some states go by whatever the insurance companies are cool with, so some states will pass a car with airbag removed as long as the entire system is removed. Other states will flat out fail anything that's not factory if it came with a bag.

It's a bit of a crap shoot. But the people that scream about how life saving an airbag is fail to bring up all the people driving before airbags existed that are still alive........

Seat belts save lives far more reliably than airbags. Airbags are just for the idiots that refuse to wear a seatbelt. You don't wanna wear it fine, here's an inflateable wall made out of burlap to rub your face on, and mind the dust, that's a stinger in the eyes!

firemedic2714

I know it's been 4 years since this was posted, but airbags were created as an attempt to save the lives of people who refuse to use seatbelts. Thankfully, it works. The downside is this used to be a way of "thinning the herd".

Flat-twin

Hi, I read the thread but except a lot of talking about airbag and safety, nobody talked about the real deal. I'm in Canada and will check the local law but does someone now how to safely disable the airbag in order to remove that ugly steering wheel and use an earlier OEM or aftermarket one ?

And even if I reuse my original steering wheel, it's not straight nowadays. I'll see with other rims/wheels (oem instead of the ones I have that I don't like) and will probably have to check other stuff but it might be just off from one tooth.