I have encountered a very big hassle since my car was damaged in an accident 2 weeks ago. The damage was not the issue, that was only a fender replace. I have a 98" CX hatch that came with an airbag, I have like many of us installed a non-SRS CTR steering wheel. This in turn requires you to remove the factory driver airbag and unplug the sensor. When doing so the SRS light stays on. Anyways, the guy at the body shop is fukin' giving me hell about it and has notified my insurance company of the changes. He says he has to do that and it is a liability issue for him if he does not do so. Which it may be. I am wondering if any of you have had any experience with this issue and if so what are the results.

He is telling me that if I have a passenger in the car and have an accident, and that person is injured, my *** could get toasted in court. And that if the insurance people were to investigate and find the changes they could drop my coverage and put the whole deal on me personally.

I'm really just venting and confused about the whole deal. If anyone has been through this what did you do and what was the outcome?

 

bump for good Question

 

sounds like an ***hole mechanic. i think you should just order yourself a fender if thats the only problem or take your car to another shop.

 

yea that is what i am leaning towards

 

Pull out the cluster, pull the SRS plug and be done with it. No more airbag light, but no more functioning passenger side airbag either.

EDIT: Sounds to me like the mechanic is trying to dick you out of some money. Don't authorize him to fix it and go get your car from him asap. Tell him to keep his *** working on the fender which is what he got hired to fix, and to not bother the rest of the car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by civic_rice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">isn't there some trick about using a resistor in the SRS plug?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah it's called just unplug it. I just did this on an 00 Si this weekend. It's fine.

 

yup , i pulled my srs fuse and unpluged the srs light on the cluster .... and FYI if the passenger knowingly gets in the car with removed airbags , its on him.....personally i only let close friends in my car so it isnt a problem . well now its really not a problem since i only have one seat in my car

 

I agree with all of you. I feel the exact same way about the whole deal. He has already done the body work and it looks good except that the paint is so fresh compared to the old dull 98' paint. They are buffing the entire car out, to attempt to match it up better. If that doens't work they can spray the whole car as far as I'm concerned. It has really been a bitch the entire situation. The ONLY positive outcome is that I managed to get them to replace my two front Tokico Illuminas for no cost to me! All I can do is never take my business there again and for damn sure will not recommend them to anyone.

 

Thanks for the input

 

um it is against the law to tamper with srs. dont know the law, but if it came with an airbag, it must be in the car and in working order. thats what i have been told. he is not being an asshol, just covering his *** if anyone comes down on him. dont be so quick to judge. there are a few honest people left in this world. my shop will not install an aftermarket, or non srs wheel in an srs equipped car.

 

yes it is illegal to run an aftermarket steering wheel on an airbag equipped car and it is very common for insurance companies to drop people because of the tampering with the srs unit..i have a spoon wheel in my car and i deleted the airbag..if i get into an accident that is my fault i will just throw on the airbag steering wheel and leave it unplugged and act dumb about the whole situation.(unless the steering wheel is mangeled because of me flying into it then im screwed)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedcivicsir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">um it is against the law to tamper with srs. dont know the law, but if it came with an airbag, it must be in the car and in working order. thats what i have been told. he is not being an asshol, just covering his *** if anyone comes down on him. dont be so quick to judge. there are a few honest people left in this world. my shop will not install an aftermarket, or non srs wheel in an srs equipped car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, it is illegal. People put the aftermarket ones on knowing the risks. Think about all of the "illegal" things that are done to our cars. Test pipes (which carry a MUCH larger fine than removing the airbags), HIDs, clear corners, lowering beyond the legal limits, and many many other things. He may be a "concerned citizedn", but he wasn't hired to snoop around in the car and look for other things that are wrong. He was hired to do a little bodywork. I don't give a damn if I have an open header and a non srs wheel along with a non carb legal turbo kit and my car is dumped with my HIDs on....if I did'nt hire the mechanic to work on any of those other things I would expect him to keep his nose out of it, not go above my head and try to report me.

EDIT: And it's not as if the original poster was asking the shop to install a non SRS wheel in a SRS equipped car. I can see how that would have been a problem where the mechanic would have had to cover his own ***, but in this situation, he was just being a dick and trying to talk to owner into more repairs.

 

either that, or he's trying to get some cash outta you to keep his mouth shut.

 

Yeah I would not say I am being quick to judge. The guy called me and said hey do you know what's up with the SRS light? I said yes the factory steering wheel has been removed and replaced with a unit that does not have one. At that point they simply siad fine, and that was the end I thought. He never once said hey this is a big *** deal, come bring me the steering wheel, or hey I gotta tell the insurance company if we don't fix this. So the hell with him he can eat one as far as I'm concerned. LET the customer know up front, BODY man!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B_Something &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
He is telling me that if I have a passenger in the car and have an accident, and that person is injured, my *** could get toasted in court. And that if the insurance people were to investigate and find the changes they could drop my coverage and put the whole deal on me personally.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

The above statement is very true. Even if the passenger is your father/mother/brother/sister and fully acknowledges that there is no airbag, you will still get charged. Since airbags are built to save lives, removing it simply means you are trying to prevent saving lives -- which I believe is the case.

If you drive by yourself, it will be ok and your insurance will still cover the damages EXCEPT your personal injuries. So if someone else decides to smash your car and you had a concussion, you will not receive even a penny from anyone because the airbag was removed on purpose.

 

I honestly don't like the idea of airbags altogether. If your seatbelts work like they're supposed to, there is no need for an airbag. I've been in 1 accident in my 9 years of driving (not my fault). I had my 93 Protege that I had only had for like a month or 2. I was stopped in traffic behind an old full-size pickup. Then this bitch comes out of nowhere doing between 45 and 50, rear ends me (at a complete stop) and I in turn end up in the *** end of the pickup. The only thing that happened to me was I banged my knees on the bottom of the dash. And that's a hard hit! I'd like to start a petition to change the SRS laws. I think it should be a matter of personal preference. What does everybody else think?

 

The bad thing about the whole situation is that, the guy at the body shop says there is no way to get a new vehicle in the U.S. with out the airbag system. And in the near future all car will have SRS systems that will need to be replaced every 5-7 years, which will be coming out of the customers pocket. The hell with that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JRI94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I honestly don't like the idea of airbags altogether. If your seatbelts work like they're supposed to, there is no need for an airbag. I've been in 1 accident in my 9 years of driving (not my fault). I had my 93 Protege that I had only had for like a month or 2. I was stopped in traffic behind an old full-size pickup. Then this bitch comes out of nowhere doing between 45 and 50, rear ends me (at a complete stop) and I in turn end up in the *** end of the pickup. The only thing that happened to me was I banged my knees on the bottom of the dash. And that's a hard hit! I'd like to start a petition to change the SRS laws. I think it should be a matter of personal preference. What does everybody else think?</TD></TR></TABLE>

unfortunately it isnt up to us when it is law for us to carry insurance. the insurance companies have alot to do with it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B_Something &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> And in the near future all car will have SRS systems that will need to be replaced every 5-7 years, which will be coming out of the customers pocket. The hell with that.</TD></TR></TABLE>
If this is true it's bad for people in the new car market, but good for engine swappers Unless it's cheap as hell to have the bags swapped out...

 

I have a question:

I have an aftermarket steering wheel on my car that was OEM'd with 2 airbags. I removed the driver air bag but i left the passenger air bag also. My cluster does not show an SRS light,(its canadian though) so does that mean the passenger air bag is still good(as in it will go off). I don't care about me not having an air bag as much as im worried about my GF or friend who rides in the passenger seat.

I also heard that it is only illegal for car dealers to remove the air bag, however, you will are able to remove it at your leisure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JRI94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I honestly don't like the idea of airbags altogether. If your seatbelts work like they're supposed to, there is no need for an airbag. I've been in 1 accident in my 9 years of driving (not my fault). I had my 93 Protege that I had only had for like a month or 2. I was stopped in traffic behind an old full-size pickup. Then this bitch comes out of nowhere doing between 45 and 50, rear ends me (at a complete stop) and I in turn end up in the *** end of the pickup. The only thing that happened to me was I banged my knees on the bottom of the dash. And that's a hard hit! I'd like to start a petition to change the SRS laws. I think it should be a matter of personal preference. What does everybody else think?</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedcivicsir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

unfortunately it isnt up to us when it is law for us to carry insurance. the insurance companies have alot to do with it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I didn't say start a petition to not have to carry insurance. That would be stupid. I said a petition that would change the laws that require us to have an airbag. And it most certainly is up to us. We as citizens of the US make the laws. Why do you think you can't smoke indoors in NY state? Because of the citizens that complained enough about smoking in public places. And they did that complaining with petitions. So we start a petition which could change the laws for airbags to be optional.

 

you are missing what i am saying. insurance companies have their hands in the cookie jar. with the deletion of airbags, watch your premiums go up. thats all.