Turning air-bag off in 03 almera

hawkelady

We are expecting a new arrival in July and I was just wondering if we were to put the infant seat in the front,as we have 2 others under 5 in the back already, is it possible to turn off passenger side airbag.Would I have to go to Nissan dealer or would any garage do it or could I do it myself? If it can be done at all..I know in newer cars there is a switch to either have it on or off.
Ant advice would be great.
Cheers.

Darsad

There is one simple rule here Kids ride in the back ! If your car is not equipped with a switch to switch off an air bag then you cant ! if you were lucky enough to find somebody helful / stupid enough to disconnect your air Bag please dont put a child in front of it as unless the bag itself is removed there is still a live explosive device sitting there !

hawkelady

I understand where your coming from Darsad . When you say the "live explosive device" stuff,sure the same risk applies to the driver driving at 120 on the motorway. Just because a car is equipped with a button to disengage the airbag,would you trust it? The car seat will be rear facing btw.
Can the removal of the passenger airbag altogether be done,what cost would that be?

Mr Benevolent

Darsad wrote: »

There is one simple rule here Kids ride in the back ! If your car is not equipped with a switch to switch off an air bag then you cant ! if you were lucky enough to find somebody helful / stupid enough to disconnect your air Bag please dont put a child in front of it as unless the bag itself is removed there is still a live explosive device sitting there !

+1

There is no good reason to put an infant in the front seat of a car. It's distracting for the parent and very dangerous for the child.

kazul

I actually find it less distracting to have my infant up front beside me. Airbag still in place and live, it's not a bloody handgrenade.
Plus she can see my in-dash dvd player better from the front seat.
It might be possible to disengage the passenger airbag by disconnecting wires underneath the seat thereby fooling the system into thinking the seat is unoccupied.

carefull now!

it can be disabled or removed if you like by any garage or mechanic but your airbag warning light will stay on (nct failure) and im pretty sure this will dissable the whole system. if your unlucky enough to be in a crash none of the other air bags would deploy. my advice is to look for a change in car, not easy i know but its the safest option.

hawkelady

Why would newer cars have a switch to disengage the passenger airbag? Is there another reason apart from if you wanted to put an infant in the front seat.
Im not thinking of putting an infant rear facing in the front because I feel the need to be no more than 2 foot away ,its because 3 car seats wont fit in the rear of the almera.....

kazul

Darsad wrote: »

There is one simple rule here Kids ride in the back ! If your car is not equipped with a switch to switch off an air bag then you cant ! if you were lucky enough to find somebody helful / stupid enough to disconnect your air Bag please dont put a child in front of it as unless the bag itself is removed there is still a live explosive device sitting there !

In newer cars there are airbags all over the place. Burns from airbags are most commonly to drivers who the have their hands on steering wheel. There is a risk to very small infants in front-facing seats if they are facing an airbag, otherwise not a big deal.
All sorts can happen in an accident and airbags are not the be-all and end-all of passenger safety.

Darsad, do you stow away all loose items in the passenger cabin which might be a hazard in the event of vehicle rollover?

stevenmu

Airbags are very carefully designed and carefully calibrated to provide the right amount of force to stop an adult completely in case of a crash. They are rated for people in a certain weight range for impacts at a certain range of speeds. They can be extremely dangerous for anyone outside those ranges. This is especially true for small children, who would be significantly lighter. The force applied by an airbag designed for an adult would actually launch a child backwards so during a collision a child would be launched forward into an oncoming airbag, they would then be impacted by the bag, then launched backwards, where they would then impact the seat. Don't forget too that small chlidren will be lower meaning alot of these forces will be applied to their head and neck, and they have more room to travel and accelerate before each impact.

Airbag manufacturers themselves claim that airbags are extremely dangerous for small children and baby seats, if people who make safety devices claim they can also be very dangerous, I think they should be listened to, and small children or baby seats should not be in the front unless the bags can be disabled.

(which is why many cars offer this ability)

Darsad

Many but not all offer the ability to disconnect the air bag , there was a fatal case involving a child in Germany with a VW that had the passenger air bag switched off and it still deployed in a head on collision. As stevenmu stated air bags are not big air filled marsh mallows that you could fall asleep on they are violent explosions and know as SRS supplementary restraint systems they work in conjunction with the seat belt restraining an adult not a child or child seat.

pajero12

carefull now! wrote: »

it can be disabled or removed if you like by any garage or mechanic but your airbag warning light will stay on (nct failure) and im pretty sure this will dissable the whole system. if your unlucky enough to be in a crash none of the other air bags would deploy. my advice is to look for a change in car, not easy i know but its the safest option.

Its not an nct failure...Our 307 went through the test twice with Airbag Fault flashing on the centre console

hawkelady wrote: »

Why would newer cars have a switch to disengage the passenger airbag? Is there another reason apart from if you wanted to put an infant in the front seat.
Im not thinking of putting an infant rear facing in the front because I feel the need to be no more than 2 foot away ,its because 3 car seats wont fit in the rear of the almera.....

Airbags are expensive to replace..when they deploy they crack the dash.If theres only the driver in the car..Less cost in the event of a crash

bazz26

carefull now! wrote: »

it can be disabled or removed if you like by any garage or mechanic but your airbag warning light will stay on (nct failure) and im pretty sure this will dissable the whole system. if your unlucky enough to be in a crash none of the other air bags would deploy. my advice is to look for a change in car, not easy i know but its the safest option.

There are very few garages I'd imagine who would take this task on, simply for liability and insurance reasons my guess. What would happen if the car was involved in an accident and the driver's air bag didn't go off either? Who then would be held accountable?

The OP would also have to inform their insurance company that a safety device in the car has been disabled. Insurance companies would then bog you down with lots of paper work and disclaimers

I'd agree though that either put the infant in the rear or change the car to one that has a manual override for disabling for the air bag built into the car.

patrickc

pajero12 wrote: »

Its not an nct failure...Our 307 went through the test twice with Airbag Fault flashing on the centre console

so did mine, but it is a failure under the new nct guidelines out this week

hawkelady

Thanks for all of you who contributed....better safe than sorry,me thinks..

Cheers

Stoolbend

http://www.multimac.co.uk/home

Stolen from this thread.

Might be worth looking at OP!

crumliniano

When I was buying a baby seat a couple of years ago the guy in the shop told us that if you disable the airbag it invlidates your insurance. Don't know if it's true or not but wouldn't chance it.