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Author Topic: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement  (Read 1245 times)

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bizza69

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03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« on: 24 April 2007, 17:05:04 »

This may be frowned at by officionados amongst you, but may just be of use to someone else attempting the same project as moi, so I'm telling you about it.  I have leather seats from a 98 Elite which I'm in the proces of fitting to my 03 facelift 2.2CD as I like leather.  Nuff said ;-).  Seems to be going ok, but the problem of facelifts having seat airbags and the proposed front seats not was posing a bit of a problem.  A visit to a streetwise Vauxhall dealer employee sorted that; if you go to the seat connections under the side trims between the door and seats on the floor, you'll find all the connections for motors, heating and airbags.  The airbag ones are the yellow ones with yellow connectors.  Disconnect the battery and wait for a while until the charge to the airbag dissipates (a friend advised 10 minutes but I left it 45 as I didn't relish the prospect of an airbag going off in my face as I worked  :-?) and then pull the connectors apart.  Bridge the terminals of the connection farthest away from the seats, ie the end going to the battery as opposed to the seats, securely with a 2.6 or 2.7 ohm resistor, 0.5 watts, as available from Maplins price 13p a pop, and this fools various circuits into thinking that the airbag is still wired in, as opposed to the red airbag light lighting on the dash suggesting it is not.  This does not affect the efficiency of the warning circuit for other airbags which may have a fault.  Hey presto; the project can now continue unhindered, and seats minus airbags can be fitted with confidence.  A different Vauxhall dealer, for whom I used to work on the sales side, chose to take the official "seats fitted should be of standard specification only" tack; what rot - if the prefacelift Omega was unsafe without a seat airbag it'd surely have been condemned long before now......happy days  :D
« Last Edit: 24 April 2007, 17:07:42 by bizza69 »
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tunnie

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #1 on: 24 April 2007, 17:18:54 »

The donor 1998 Elite, is it a mini-facelift?

(does it have steering wheel controls)

If your donor Elite does not have side air-bags you might be in trouble....
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tunnie

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #2 on: 24 April 2007, 17:44:49 »

As per PM you might have issues putting in pre-facelift seats which do not have airbags into a facelift...
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bizza69

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #3 on: 24 April 2007, 18:09:30 »

Thanks for your concerns tunnie, but I'll inform the appropriate authorities and am sure I can get around the technicalities of it.  At the end of the day the car still has, ummmmm, 6??? airbags to protect me and mine in the case of any unfortunality.  Can my driving really be that bad?!  :-/
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bizza69

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #4 on: 24 April 2007, 18:11:39 »

And anyway - did the boffins at Vauxhall really sit down when they decided to put seat airbags in and say "So, what can we make less safe in the Omega now it's got seat airbags?"  I reckon not.....
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Markjay

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #5 on: 24 April 2007, 21:03:39 »

Quote
...At the end of the day the car still has, ummmmm, 6??? airbags to protect me and mine in the case of any unfortunality...

6??? airbags?  :o



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Markjay

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #6 on: 24 April 2007, 21:06:21 »

I believe Tunnie's point was that disabling the airbag is classified as 'modification', and knowing what insurance companies are like no doubt they will only be too happy to use this as an excuse to shy away from their obligations... if they find out that is.

Personally, I am never in favour of disabling safety equipment no matter how redundant it may be, but I suppose ultimately it is down to the individual owner.
« Last Edit: 24 April 2007, 22:33:31 by markjay »
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tunnie

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #7 on: 24 April 2007, 21:19:23 »

my concerns are on how the whole airbag system will be affected....
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TheBoy

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #8 on: 24 April 2007, 22:03:13 »

If the side bags are replaced with resistors, the ECU should be happy.

I would not recommend this though.  Not only will your insurance take a very dim view of it, but the car's SRS system is based on the 4 bag system on the post 98 models...
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bizza69

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #9 on: 25 April 2007, 00:26:52 »

Good grief Charlie Brown - can of worms or WHAT???!!!! :o  Ok ok so I was wrong about the 8 airbags; there's me thinking I had the same number as a new Vectra; never really taken that much notice till now :'( I'll just have to drive three times as carefully..... ;D
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Marks DTM Calib

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #10 on: 25 April 2007, 08:16:49 »

Its a trick I have known about for some time and given its the side ones....probably no big deal.......
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palmer3914

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Re: 03 Facelift seat airbag disablement
« Reply #11 on: 25 April 2007, 20:01:46 »

well dont know about you guys but this has helped me!!!!! thanks bizza69....... this allows me to fit my fixed back bucket seats WITHOUT the dash board light showing!!!!!!!

i did wonder about the seat air bags.
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now thats a DIFF!!!!!!!!!!
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