Need instruction to disable passenger air bag

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David Busey

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Greetings from Oregon!



I'm picking up my ST today.

It's an Estate Green 2001 4x4 --loaded. Used w 42K mi.



It would be nice if my son could ride up front with me as he has in my old car but I need to learn how to disable the passenger side airbag. Anyone know the trick to this?



I've seen the post about disabling the belt minder but suprised this question hasn't been asked. Then again, perhaps it's in the owner's manual.





Thanks to all!

David

Beaverton, Oregon
 
David,

Good Luck with your trac. I don't know of a way to turn off the airbag on the passenger side, but I'm sure someone here will, we have a lot of incredibly knowledgeable people around here. I've learned a lot and I'm sure you will too if you hang around here much.

Have a nice afternoon and welcome to the forums.

-Scott
 
You have a back seat, use it. Most vehicles only have a switch to disable the passenger side airbag when there isn't a back seat. Since you have a back seat, kids are suposed to ride there. For the sake of your son's safety, put him in the back seat. You only got one of him, don't take any chances. His life is in your hands. Do what is best for him.





Tom
 
There is no easy or safe way to do this due to legal reasons. You must obtain written permission to do so from your state. Then an authorized company must do the work. You as an individual can not do the work as the service facility has to file paper work after completing various tsets.



In Ohio you will only get permission if you have a physical disabilty or hight issue on the drivers side. Having a back seat I see no way that you can obtain permission.
 
There is a way to disable it and I'm sure there are many many folks here that can tell you. It won't be me though. Where I come from, kids MUST, by law, be over 12 to ride in the front (assuming you have a back seat of course). Purely for safety reasons. I urge you to please reconsider until he is old enough to safely ride in front based on size. :(



And welcome to the site.



grumpy
 
I have a 2005 XLT, the dealer told me there's a switch it the both front seats. If you don't weigh enough then the airbag doesn't go off. Not sure I belive it though.
 
Jimstracn, I am certain your dealer is incorrect. WAY too much liability to have a switch in the seat to activate or bypass the system. I have seen a few vehicles where the seat belt must be connected to allow the bag to deploy, but never a switch to determine weight....
 
Last edited by a moderator:


Hay Coastiejoe I just bought a 05 ford car and it has a switch in the p/seat that if you are not over 40 lbs. it wont work and there is a light on the dash. Could be in all the new ones. Good luck and put the kid in back. Bill
 
Yup, my 05 F150 has that switch in the pass. seat as well.
 
I have seen where the switch has been in the seat to determine if someone is in the seat which will in turn allow the bag to deploy. I have never seen a sensor that determines the weight though. Just the simple fact that people sit in the seats different would make a difference on what the sensor/switch registered.



For example. Lets say my daughter weighs 35 pounds and has a ball in her back pocket. If the ball is placed directly over the switch/sensor it would think she is heavier than she is as the rest of the seat is not displacing as much weight as it normally would if the ball did not make th initial contact to the seat.



No remove the ball. The same 35 pounds would not active the switch because the entire seat is supporting her weight.



So I still think that I am correct in the fact that the switch is nothing more to allow the bag to go off regardless of weight. If no one is in the seat then no need for the bag to be deployed......
 
Nope, it says in my manual that it is weight dependant. Don't ask me how it works, I have not ripped my seat apart. It says it was designed to prevent it from going off if a kid or an object like a laptop or a bag of stuff is in the front seat.
 
I know there were some vehicles that were getting the key option put in them to disable the passenger side airbag. After the option came out people were having it put in, either as a recall or out of pocket expense I don't know. Talk to a dealer because ALL vehicle manuals tell you not to tamper with the airbags. Many law enforcement agencies will not use a slim jim anymore due to officers being killed by side impact bags (slim jim being shot into officers' heads). Bad business, have your son ride in the back till you talk to the dealer.
 
OK folks. Thanks for all the in put and the huge welcome!

Glad to see that this is such an active (heh, and passionate) forum.



In short: Point taken - the lil guy is going to the back seat.



My previous truck was a '96 Ranger supercab. That was back in the day when passenger side airbags were an option. My old rig (used) did not have the option installed. Obviously there was no back seat to speak of where a child seat could be secured so I got pretty accustomed to having him along side me. Just as he would prefer to be along side me!



I guess that's what had me stuck on the idea of working out the front passenger side delemma in the ST but y'all have cured me of that notion.



Again, I sincerely appreciate your replies. (Um, 'cept for the dood who resorted to name calling.)





As for the technology associated with airbag deployment that senses the weight of the passenger... Yes! It exists! I used to work in an NEC Electronics manufacturing plant. One of the products we turned out were some slick little electronic modules for Honda including the brains for their anti-lock breaking systems and the airbag deployment stuff brains too. Included in that was the seat sensor stuff discussed above.



It takes a reading while the car is sitting still to determine -- Airbag on or off. Once the car is moving that on/off determination persists until certain conditions are met. I forget actually what is required for the sensor to be 'given permission' to take a new reading causing the airbag system to re-assess whether or not it should be activated.



K. Nuff trivia.





Thanks again, y'all!





CIAO!

db
 
In most of the new vehicles with the weight sensors, this serves two purposes:



1. First to determine if in fact someone is actually riding in the passenger seat, so it knows whether it actually needs to deploy the airbag in an accident. I believe that this came about due to rising insurance costs. Too many front-end collisions resulting in both bags deploying when there was only one passenger. Airbag assemblies cost anywhere between $1000-2000 to replace, depending on the vehicle.



2. The sensor also determines the force at which the bag will deploy, dependening on the weight of the passenger. Smaller passengers were sustaining greater injuries from first-generation airbag.



As noted earlier in this thread, the capability to disable passenger side airbags is for the most part found only in two-seater cars and regular and super-cab trucks, where there is not a third, full size seat option for a passenger.
 

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