Need Advice On Fitting Sports Steering Wheel

Green_Martian

HI Im thinking of putting a sports steering wheel in my car, but my current steering whell has an airbag.

I need to know if my car will pass the NCT test without an airbag, as it came as standard??????????????;)

puntosporting

It will pass the nct but you must clear it with your insurance company.

JohnCleary

It may NOT pass the NCT if the SRS light stays lit on your dash.
It may light up because you'll be tampering with the AirBag. If this happens you can stick a resistor in, should sort it (Did for a mates)
TBH if I had an airbag I wouldnt remove it as its a safety feature... but ive heard stories :rolleyes:

bazz26

Are you for real? Replacing an airbag steering wheel for a "sport" one without an airbag is not the cleverest thing to do imo.

If you had a serious accident and you sustained serious head or chest injuries from the steering wheel, your insurance company would have their accident investigator examin why the airbag did not activate. There would be serious legal implications and your insurance would be void.

Safety devices such as airbags or ABS are there for a reason (to protect the passengers) and should not be interfered with or replaced by gimics.

kdevitt

bazz26 wrote:

Are you for real? Replacing an airbag steering wheel for a "sport" one without an airbag is not the cleverest thing to do imo.

If you had a serious accident and you sustained serious head or chest injuries from the steering wheel, your insurance company would have their accident investigator examin why the airbag did not activate. There would be serious legal implications and your insurance would be void.

Safety devices such as airbags or ABS are there for a reason (to protect the passengers) and should not be interfered with or replaced by gimics.

Isn't there reserach in the states to show that steering wheels with airbags cause more fatalities than those without??

I'm not a big fan of them to be honest - not that I've required one to save my life, but have seen very nasty scars on a friend whose arm got nasty burns when their airbag deployed.

IN asnwer to the original question - as above, make sure your warning light isn't displayed on the dash and you'll be fine - removing the bulb from the instrument cluster sometimes does the job too.

Dades

kdevitt wrote:

Isn't there reserach in the states to show that steering wheels with airbags cause more fatalities than those without??

There's also research in the States to show that cars with seatbelts cause more fatalities than those without...

And that 1 in 1000 Americans has been abducted by Aliens...

*shrug*

lomb

airbags are dodgy city. unless u sit well back from the wheel and belt up tightly the airbag could give u a very severe punch or be fatal. my mum had her nose broken by a one that deployed(sat to close)

fletch

lomb wrote:

airbags are dodgy city. unless u sit well back from the wheel and belt up tightly the airbag could give u a very severe punch or be fatal. my mum had her nose broken by a one that deployed(sat to close)

I often wondered what would happen those women who crouch forward with their face up against the windscreen....personally I sit as far back as possible thus giving the airbag time to deploy before I am launched forward

puntosporting

Some incorrect info above your car will pass the nct test even with an airbag light showing ive put numerous cars through the test with the various airbag light fault on.

Alun

Note that airbags in the US are (as many things over there!) bigger than the SRS airbags used in Europe. This may go some way to explaining some of these airbag related incidents.

And, quite frankly, if I had the choice between having a burn scar on my arm or a broken nose, or having my brains splattered over the inside of the windscreen, I know which one I'd choose

lomb

Alun wrote:

And, quite frankly, if I had the choice between having a burn scar on my arm or a broken nose, or having my brains splattered over the inside of the windscreen, I know which one I'd choose

thing is the passanger compartment was 100% intact and it wasnt a fatal type crash, so she suffered needless injuries. new cars have 2 stage airbags.

Green_Martian

Cheers for the advice, i am aware i must let the insurance company know. Im under the impression that i would be better of without the airbag, cos i have heard of them going off for no reason in some cars.

byte

What about waiting until it "goes off without reason" and then replacing the steering wheel instead of a new airbag thingummy