I have a '95 legacy wagon with the standard passenger side airbag. I also have the need to carry one adult and three children (2 in rear-facing carseats in the back seat, and one 4 year old in a forward facing belt positioning seat). The subaru is just not big enough for 3 car seats across the rear, and I would like to put the 4 year old in the passenger seat. These models don't appear to have a easy way to disable just the passenger airbag. Has anyone done this? How can you disconnect the passenger airbag and leave the rest of the system functional? Even better would be wiring a switch in the system to "arm" or "disarm" the airbag if a adult or child has to sit up front.

I would ask a couple of dealers first, and ask subaru of america itself they are good at answering emails.

 

I have a solution, but I would rather wait for other sources to answer.

 

I would use a double pole single throw relay in the wire going to the seat sensor. If it does not have one I am out of ideas. I would wire it to disconnect bothe leads to the connector. This should reproduce the same thing as someone sitting in the seat. I would put a switch in an obvious place and a BRIGHT light in your line of vision or your line and the passengers line of site.

I will not tell you how to do it, but I can describe how the airbag computer functions.

 

The airbag computer checks the resistance of both the airbag inflators. I believe they are about three ohms. If the airbag computer sees an open circuit it will set the SRS warning light and I THINK (not sure) it may disable the entire system. If it sees a three ohm resistance, it will not trip the warning light.

 

I would not advise EVER doing anything which leaves the wires to the airbag electrically floating (open circuit.) All the airbag connectors are designed to be self shorting when unplugged to prevent static electricity or other things from setting off the airbags accidentally. So I would respectfully suggest that the DPST relay mentioned earlier would not be a good idea.

 

One other thought: do the front inertia reel seat belts have the 'pull out all the way to engage the latching mode' function that the rears do? If not, airbag disabled or not, I don't think it's a good idea to install a car seat up front. The seat can shift quite a bit before the inertia reels lock in 'normal' mode.

 

Nathan

Just pulled up the wiring digram (what a pain). The switches are simple pressure switches. There is a resistor is across the switch for the self test.

 

 

 

Afterr much research look here

http://www.airbagonoff.com/ This may be yout best bet. There is a form you need to fill out to get Gov't permission to do it

 

 

http://www.electronix.com/universal-passenger-airbag-disable-switch-p-20433.html

 

This is a lotus site just to show you how it is installed

 

http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f3/installed-passenger-airbag-disable-switch-96134/

 

I did find one humorus but serious site on how to disbale the airbags "for racers" by setting them off!

 

DO NOT DO THIS KIDS!

http://www.ehow.com/how_7611625_disable-airbags.html

Edited January 13, 201115 yr by nipper

FYI: Messing around with a vehicle's safety systems is a BIG no-no. By that I mean VERY large fines and (in some cases) jail time.

 

no passenger car that I know of comes with an arm/disarm switch for the passenger airbag. I'll have to look up the regs again, but, as I recall, there are some very specific regulations that dictate NOT having that arm/disarm switch in a passenger car. Trucks, SUVs and vans are not passenger cars. That's why they are allowed to have that.

 

Yay for the nanny-state

Actually there are quite a few that come with them now, and a NHTSA regulation allowing them to be installed on older cars. if you notice the links one of them had the proper documentation needed to get permission to get it done.

 

Pick up trucks and 2 passenger vehicals have them. Quite a few other cars have them too

 

 

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/rulings/airbagqa.html

Nipper-

 

I misread your post. You were talking about adding a relay to the seat pressure sensor circuit, not directly to the airbag inflator circuit. My apologies for my 'not a good idea' comment!

 

Nathan

Nipper-

 

I misread your post. You were talking about adding a relay to the seat pressure sensor circuit, not directly to the airbag inflator circuit. My apologies for my 'not a good idea' comment!

 

Nathan

Tis ok. Trust me i am big proponent of "FOR GOD SAKES DONT TOUCH THE YELLOW WIRES"

 

otherwise instant pillow.

Might price/call a Subaru dealer and see if you can buy the airbag test harness used to diagnose bad airbags. We used to remove one, plug in the harness and road test the car for a few miles. If the airbag light was on and now off that meant the rest of the system, harness, etc was good just the airbag itself bad. Otherwise you could unplug the airbag control module and not have airbags on the entire car.

 

None of the replies are liable for anything on this thread by the way. Do any solution, at your own risk and realize the dangers/precautions beforehand.