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Considering they've been fired off already, I don't think there's much of a worry.
FWIW, here in California, it's illegal for junkyards to sell airbag assemblies.
I'm thinking about installing the new or ex-junkyard assemblies, when I say disconnect the battery.
Thank God most of the country is a good bit free-er than the Land of the (former) Governator.
AFIK most states you can buy used airbag assemblies from junkyards, offhand if the car is junked with intact airbags, unless the windows have been left down and the car has been rained in a lot, no particular reason to think there is anything wrong with the airbags. If the firing circuit is not intact, I don't think the airbag light will reset when you get done re-installing them.
I take your point that the car has probably been tweaked at least some if the airbags fired - but for a kid who needs a cheap car, this thing, even if tweaked a bit and with ex-junkyard airbags, would be better than most other options he can get for the limited funds he has to spend.
On a Grand Am I would expect to see at least the core support bent if the bags have fired. The front sensors are mounted directly on the bumper, so if that got tweaked enough to fire them off, then you are going to need to straighten or replace the ends of the frame rails where the bumper mounts as well.
Mitch is right, disconnecting the battery is for installing the new bags, obviously we don't care about the old ones at this point. Shouldn't need to replace the module that tells the airbags to fire, but it is possible. On these cars IIRC it is under the passenger seat, hidden under the carpet. You may need to replace the clockspring, which involves removing the steering wheel after the bag is pulled out. It's not a terribly difficult job, but you need to do things "just so" in order for everything to work properly. You may also need to replace the front sensors, mounted on the back side of the bumper reinforcement bar.
Hi, I have a similar situation with a nissan 350z 2004 that blew the passenger front and side air bag yet only the driver side airbag (did not set off the airbag in the steering wheel). Is it safe to keep this one (drivers front airbag) and replace the others? What other parts (sensors, etc) need I replace and which ones may I leave as is?
BTW, does anyone have an idea why the front driver airbag was not set off? The car left the pavement towards the left side (driver's side) and fell in the grass area between the lanes. It did a 360 degrees hitting all 4 corners (guess thats why the side airbags went off as well). The odd thing was that the passenger seatbelt locked, both front and side passenger airbags set off but the seat was empty, while on the driver's side the seat belt did not lockup, front airbag did not set off, only the drivers side airbag was set off.
Hi, I have a similar situation with a nissan 350z 2004 that blew the passenger front and side air bag yet only the driver side airbag (did not set off the airbag in the steering wheel). Is it safe to keep this one (drivers front airbag) and replace the others? What other parts (sensors, etc) need I replace and which ones may I leave as is?
BTW, does anyone have an idea why the front driver airbag was not set off? The car left the pavement towards the left side (driver's side) and fell in the grass area between the lanes. It did a 360 degrees hitting all 4 corners (guess thats why the side airbags went off as well). The odd thing was that the passenger seatbelt locked, both front and side passenger airbags set off but the seat was empty, while on the driver's side the seat belt did not lockup, front airbag did not set off, only the drivers side airbag was set off.
(sorry if i went off the tangent...)
That's actually a bit odd because although I could see the sensors only picking up significant impact on one side of the car, in most vehicles the passenger side air bags won't go off unless someone is sitting there (there is a sensor in the seat).
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