(T) Removing Air-Bag steering wheel, safely?

On my '98 Cinq. (RHD but from Germany), has an air-bag wheel, & before anyone says its just the wheel it's not. Above the seatbelt on the drivers side its a got a sticker in 4 languages stating the air-bag gas discharge system has to be checked/replaced in Dec 2007, and I have moved the centre section of the wheel, which is held in place very tightly, just far enough to be able to see the air-bag from the side.

I don't like the wheel as I have a v.nice MOMO sitting in a box that was originally bought for my 'grale but was only used for 3 months till I replaced that with a genuine Abarth wheel.

Therefore my question is this, has anyone removed an air-bag equipped wheel from their car safely, as I do not want the thing going off in my face, as the Haynes manual just points you in the direction of FIAT?

Cheers Aaron.

Personally, not something I would do without expert guidance!

There are a few FIAT techs on here, though, who may come up with a solution....

be very carefull it can go off and damage your hands, i would go ask fiat how much. if airbag wont fit on new wheel you may have to tell insurance aswell.

Cheers for the reply guys, looks like I may have to ask FIAT then, and seeing as the FIAT dealer in Bournemouth is rubbish, I may have to live with it

Gas lift up seats are meant to be the same. We had someone at work that through the seat down and bang.... deafened everyone in the building for ages! I really wouldnt do an airbag urself, coz ur ****ed if it does go off, especially those expensive bills!

If it helps I've got to do my steering wheel this weekend or so and when I've asked, i've just been told to disconnect the battery for 15 mins or so and it should be fine....

Cool, let me know how you get on, or conversely where to send the get well soon card

Aaron.

PS may have to go and order a boss now

check with your insurance about any increases when i had my corsa *spit* i asked vauxhall *spit* to disconnect my passenger airbag to put my car seat in the front and they said to contact insurance first when i did they wanted a stupid money as they say its makes the car unsafe without them my argument is some cars have airbags u can turn off yourself

Yeah thats right, many/most cars now have this function as I think there was many cases where toddlers/babies in rear facing child seats were actually killed by the air-bags forcing them in to the seat & suffocating them & its possibly now legislated that you have to be able to turn off the passenger side one because of this? Could be wrong.

I feel as my car may be one of a few if any other Cinq's fitted with one, and it originally being a German personal import it probably meets different standards & air-bag fitting may not be accounted for.

Plus of course MOMO steering wheels & boses may not be as safe as an air-bag equipped wheel but better than a standard non air-bag equipped one as for many years, they have been made to collapse, (TVR still use MOMO/Nardi with no air-bags) which is just as well cos I wouldn't fancy hitting my head off it

Did you get a handbook/manual with the car? There, should be some mention of a fuse controlling this then.

Surely removing the shrouding from the steering column should reveal some kind of wiring which you can disconnect.

Liam

No, the FIAT Cinquecento owners handbook has 2 pages (42/43) of referance to the airbag none of which really says more than if anything goes wrong with it bring it back to us!

Plus there is no fuse listed for it.

I thought I would resurrect this thread so I can inform all on my safe air-bag removal.

1st I disconnected the battery & left the car for an hour (don't actually believe you need to do this as there are no wires attached anywhere to the air-bag system). I then proceeded to inspect the wheel to see if there was any way it could be removed. Behind the 2 spokes you can see the faint outline of a little door either side that can be pried open with a screw driver, this reveals 2 Allen bolts either side which when unbolted releases the air-bag with the centre of the wheel attached. Once out this reveals the air-bag gas discharge system which is held in place with 3 torx screws, remove carefully as there is a nice big sticker on it saying not to hit with anything. Extract and its just like a normal wheel now with 24mm bolt holding steering wheel in place.

Just make sure you get the correct boss as my local Halfruads sold me the wrong one which I can turn the wheels with but have no horn, no indicator cancel, oh and about an inch gap all the way round the steering wheel boss so I can see right inside the steering column, needless to say the correct MOMO only boss is on its way for the weekend.

Aaron.

did you sh*t yourself during the removal incase it went off or were you quite happy throughout??

To be honest, at 1st I was leaving tread marks & not the rubber kind

But once I got into it I realised there was nothing to fear as there was no electrical connections & I therefore deduced that it must only be activated with a large shock/bump/bang so I wasn't intending on doing any of those things so felt comfortable with it, so much so that I think I could easily remove one now in under 30mins

If you plan on doing it, follow as I've said & you shouldn't go wrong

Oh & make sure you get correct boss, as only MOMO do one for the replacment of air-bag wheels.

Aaron.

Wow, the only Cinq with an airbag!

Cool, seems a shame to remove it though but then maybe you could sell it!

If it would still work that is?

Liam