deactivating Frontera airbags

With the thousands of 4wds out there doing some pretty seriousbleep, they dont have any issues, and some of them are doin more serious crap than you would in a Frontera. I dont think theres an reason to bother.

and its illegal.

Hi rengatt,

Airbags will only deploy IF the vehicle speed is above 28 km/hr (from memory, but its an odd number!) AND a certain G force is exceeded on impact. If you hit something hard enough to set an airbag off then your vehicle is more than likely undrivable.

While I have never hit a roo in an airbag vehicle, I have never heard of a roo making an airbag go off and I know people with airbags that have hit roo's (anyone know any different here ???). So that gives an idea of how hard you have to hit to make an airbag activate.

As truckster says, its illegal to deactivate them and I for one would never consider doing it. But as for your question about is the vehicle driveable (assuming mechanically OK otherwise), it depends on the model. Some ECU's will not start the engine until the airbag is replaced (dealer fix) while others have no connection between engine and airbag activation.

Cheers

Captain

There is a great misconception with air bags . it takes more than one thing to set them off . Now every vehicle is diffrent . some have seat sencors , others have chassis sensors . For instance , in a vr Commodore . You body weight must change in the seat before it deploys . A simple nudge in the front wont do it . It would have to sence a shift between chassis and body before it deployed a air bag from bottoming out on a track . Dont touch it and you will be fine

Don't know about the Frontera, but I recall with the Disco I had you had to be moving at a min of 20kph into a totally immovable object before they would deploy. In that instance I very much doubt the vehicle would be driveable.

I'm fairly sure it's somewhat similar across the board. In the USA they are apparently set to deploy at lower speeds due to seat belts not being compulsory in some states.

I really don't think you have an issue to concern yourself about.

Cheers

Rengatt
As I understand them, foreward facing airbags are activated by sudden deceleration. And it has to be extremely sudden. The application of brakes alone will not generate sufficient deceleration to activate them. Hence the kangaroo report above. Having once hit a cow i would imagine that type of impact would generate the appropriate deceleration.
Can't comment on what activates side airbags, but probably not a concern in a Fontera.

Tessa

Guys,
Airbags do go off, dont kid youselves, hit a big roo (or cow) under brakes and they will go off in many vehicles. Although they are better than they used to be.
If the ECU locks you out you could be in trouble, vehicles can often be able to be driven after such a collision and if somenes hurt or sick (maybe why you were going too fast anyway!!)

Problem is legally if you have Airbags installed they MUST be active and working all the time. Same with ABS
JR

Thanks for all the feedback,

Yeah you can disconnect them but it takes time, and you will get an airbag fault light and code when running. BUT WHY ? - you wont accidently set them off unless you punch a tree head on, and then you will probably appreciate them.

its never been a real prob with 4x4s so dont worry about it, cheers.