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98: removing airbags

JohnJohn

JohnJohn

Member #42
Location
Austin, Texas
I am now ready to build my 98 XJ. I want to remove the airbags, both sides. Anyone done this on the passanger side? The driver's side looks pretty straight forward, I am putting in a Grant Steering wheel. I am wondering if the passanger side will allow me to put the hard plastic peice back in after the bag is removed. I want to do this because my 5 yr loves to sit shot gun, in his car seat, on the trail.

Thanks,

ps: I did search and found nothing.
 
well before the police get to you, go for it. It's your Jeep. I haven't looked at it but wouldn't think its that hard to do if you remove the panals under it to get to the back side.
Not sure if it's legal. I'm sure the higher ups will come in on this one. Juice
 
I wish I could say I had first hand knowledge of this, but I can't. I was able to get a couple of pics of the pass airbag module and the cover. It appears that the airbag cover is attached to the module itself.

airbag2.gif



airbagcover.gif



I can think of a few options for you, but I'm sure there are more if you use your imagination. One would be to disconnect the passenger airbag and just leave it in place. Two would be to remove the airbag and then remove the door and fab up a brace to hold the door in place. The last option would be to remove the airbag assy, take off the airbag door, blow the airbag, then cut the blown bag off of the module, reattach the door and reinstall the assy back into the dash.

I'm rambling, I better stop now. Hope the pictures help.

Bryan
 
Thanks Bryan,

You pics helped me make my decision. I wanted to make sure that there was a flexible connecter and it did not connect to anything by just being installed. Many of these things have pins that just touch up with some pads. So if it's in there then it's installed and active. I think my plan of action is to just remove it, unplug it, and reinstall.

Anyone see issues with this?

My son knows that he must ride in the back seat until we get to the trail, then we move everything up to the seat. He never goes on the real scary stuff...then again neither do I. :D

Thanks,
 
If you plan on leaving the airbag in the dash, I would suggest just disconnecting the air bag control module. The 98 has a recall that relocates the module from under the drivers seat to under the center console, so it is hard to say exactly where it is at on your 98. Disconnect the battery and wait 5 mins before doing anything with the air bag system. Then just disconnect the control module itself, and for good measure remove the air bag fuses from the fuse block too. It should be fine like this. The air bag light will be on in the dash unless you remove the bulb itself.

Bryan
 
JohnJohn said:
I am now ready to build my 98 XJ. I want to remove the airbags, both sides. Anyone done this on the passanger side? The driver's side looks pretty straight forward, I am putting in a Grant Steering wheel. I am wondering if the passanger side will allow me to put the hard plastic peice back in after the bag is removed. I want to do this because my 5 yr loves to sit shot gun, in his car seat, on the trail.

Thanks,

ps: I did search and found nothing.
Click to expand...

FYI I think that if you were to get into an accident on a normal road, your insurance company might use the fact that you removed your airbags as ground for weasling out on payment for any medical that you might need/want resulting from the accident..... Wouldn't it be better to do a switch as someone suggested for the time being?? Or is there any other reason why you want to remove the airbag??
 
first off - 5 minutes is not long enough. undo the battery and let it sit overnight.
if you want to disable the passenger side air-bag -
un do battery - wait over night
remove trim
undo air bag
un plug air bag
reinstall airbag without plugging back in
re-install trim
re do battery.

if you do get in an accident on the road, and they airbags dont go off and you kill a passenger of yours, you are liable.
 
Atl XJ said:
They don't have a switch to turn it off? That sucks, most do.
Click to expand...

I didn't even think about the on-off switch idea. I found the Chrysler part number for the driver and passenger on-off switch add on package, but the part has been discontinued. I ran a parts inquiry and found no depots or dealers have it and there are none on order from the supplier. The number is 05013502AC, list price is $261.

The on-off switch has been an issue with Chrysler lately as they have been getting sued by people who turn the air bag off and forget to turn it back on. Then they wreck the car and sue Chrysler because the air bag didn't work.

Bryan
 
deke said:
first off - 5 minutes is not long enough. undo the battery and let it sit overnight.
Click to expand...

This is from the Chrysler Techconnect website, and also appears in all service manuals.

WARNING:
· THE AIRBAG SYSTEM IS A SENSITIVE, COMPLEX ELECTROMECHANICAL UNIT. BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO DIAGNOSE OR SERVICE ANY AIRBAG SYSTEM OR RELATED STEERING WHEEL, STEERING COLUMN, OR INSTRUMENT PANEL COMPONENTS YOU MUST FIRST DISCONNECT AND ISOLATE THE BATTERY NEGATIVE (GROUND) CABLE. THEN WAIT TWO MINUTES FOR THE SYSTEM CAPACITOR TO DISCHARGE BEFORE FURTHER SYSTEM SERVICE. THIS IS THE ONLY SURE WAY TO DISABLE THE AIRBAG SYSTEM. FAILURE TO DO THIS COULD RESULT IN ACCIDENTAL AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT AND POSSIBLE PERSONAL INJURY.
· WHEN REMOVING A DEPLOYED AIRBAG MODULE, RUBBER GLOVES, EYE PROTECTION, AND A LONG-SLEEVED SHIRT SHOULD BE WORN. THERE MAY BE DEPOSITS ON THE AIRBAG MODULE AND OTHER INTERIOR SURFACES. IN LARGE DOSES, THESE DEPOSITS MAY CAUSE IRRITATION TO THE SKIN AND EYES.

They say wait 2 minutes, but I think you should wait at least 5.

Bryan
 
This if from a firefighter on accident scenes. im telling you from a saftey standpoint from my technical manuals anywhere from 5 seconds to 30 minutes for a fully discharded capaciter.
if they are saying 2 minutes, then wait 2 minutes. I'd rather wait over night and know for damn sure its dead.
Have you ever witnessed or been at the recieving end of an airbag? thats not a beast i want in my hands when it goes off.
 
I think the airbags are deployed via a sensor that measures the decelleration of the jeep, not a crush sensor or impact sensor like back in the day when airbags first came out. I read somewhere that at camp jeep, they took a ZJ and smashed the front end into a boulder over and over pretty hard to prove the point.
Its admirable that you want to protect your son, but if the jeep is a DD, I think the mechanisms in place will be more likely to help than to hurt someone.
 
Leave the airbags

You should leave the airbags intact, the will not deploy unless the vehicle is traveling more than 25 miles an hour (I think, hard to recall) and you come to a sudden stop. Like was stated earlier, they have come a long way and will not deploy very easily. It has a decellaration sensor in the airbag module that controls deployment on your model year. You have to create something like
7 g forces to set it off. Buy a manual and run an interupt switch on the fuse wire at the block. CAUTION PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU DO THIS AS POKING AROUND WITH HOT WIRES OR MISWIRING WILL CAUSE THEM TO POSSIBLY DEPLOY! :rtm: (problem solved either way! :gee: :D

Rabbit
 
Saw an S10 with a welder where the airbag used to be...food for thought...
 
Here is my passenger side airbag removed (sitting on the seat).

oba18.jpg


IIRC, the cover wasn't hard plastic at all. I think it was just rubber. It is removeable from the module itself.

Like others have said, use safety in dealing with the airbag. My FSM recommended the negative battery cable removed for at least 2 minutes. I waited 30 - 60 minutes to be sure.
 
I worked at Autoliv (they are the main supplier of airbags to the Big 3) for a summer while I was in school at their R&D airbag module facility. I never worked specifically on the cherokee module but all of the airbag module covers are usually a foam rubber type of material molded to the module. When they deploy they usually tear open a thin point in the cover and it isn't a pretty picture so i wouldn't want to try and salvage a cover after deployment. I also wouldn't want to be around a module and have it go off while it's not bolted down securely because I have seen some pretty wicked things in testing these units. Also If you decide to disconnect the module be sure that you wrap the connector in electric tape so a static electric shock cannot be transmitted to the connector.
Good luck on what ever you decide but for a daily driver I would be very wary of the Liability issues mentioned earlier with disableing the airbag.
 
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