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replacing airbag with grab handle?


Mark

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Our 300 tdi disco has an airbag in the dashboard in front of the passenger. this is somewhat less useful in an off road situation, and the sandard grab handle is far more so.

So, given that the airbag is now 12 years old, and therefore not really to be relied upon I was thinking about removing it, and replacing it with the standard grab handle.

has anyone removed the airbag from the dash of a 300 disco? Is it just a straight swap?

Does anyone have a grab handle from a beige 300 disco they don't want or is anyone breaking one?

Cheers

Mark

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Oh Oh! Me!!!

I knew someone would want it eventually!!! It's only been in the loft for two years!

I even have the rubber mat for the top of the dash too!!

Argh bolliox, just realised you want 300. Mine's only 200 :(:(:(:(:(

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The dash is totally different, if you pull the bag out you will find a ruddy great hole underneath it so you need to change the whole dash I am afraid - I have seen bagged and non bagged dashes out of the vehicle and I thought about doing the same thing on my old one but it would look hideous unless you changed the whole dash assy. It isn't as difficult or expensive as you might think (it can be done in less than a day) but probably not worth it on what is now a 10 year old vehicle unless you can get it v cheap from a breakers.

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Insurance is boring I know, but my question is, would an insurance company invalidated the policy if they found out that a safety feature of that vehicle had been removed.

Also 4x4 vehicles (as far as I have seen) don't have dash mounted grab handles now, I assume because there's an air bag mounted there, that's why I see pasengers holding on to the handle above the door when the going gets rough.

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Insurance is boring I know, but my question is, would an insurance company invalidated the policy if they found out that a safety feature of that vehicle had been removed.

The airbag is there for your benefit not the insurer's - if you disabled the ABS they could get stroppy if you then hit something, but TBH it'd be an eagle-eyed inspector who picked up on the thing not having an extra airbag.

Could you perhaps disconnect the airbag but leave in-situ and then mount a handle to the dash in some cunning way?

(Oh and does anyone remember the 5th Gear test of cars with 10+ year old airbags? They proved that they still can be relied upon.)

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Could you perhaps disconnect the airbag but leave in-situ and then mount a handle to the dash in some cunning way?

As far as I am aware it's not the bag you need to disable, but the explosive charge. ;)

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Mark,

I have removed the Airbags from mine, after I filled the ECU with water and got a permenant warning light.

As BM says does leave you with a big hole in the dash. however it is possible to remove the airbag assembly from it's facia. This allows you to convert the big hole into a storage area and of course you can then mount a grab handle as well.

No photo's yet as I am only part way through the conversion.

I have now removed all the airbag system apart from one loom which is buried in the dash. To remove the warning light involves a bit of dis-assembly of the instrument pod but is possible.

If you change the steering wheel Devon 4x4 do an adapter for aftermarket steering wheels for about £40. (It's a funny sized steering column (15mm 28ish splines IIRC))

Pete.

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The airbag is there for your benefit not the insurer's - if you disabled the ABS they could get stroppy if you then hit something, but TBH it'd be an eagle-eyed inspector who picked up on the thing not having an extra airbag.

Could you perhaps disconnect the airbag but leave in-situ and then mount a handle to the dash in some cunning way?

(Oh and does anyone remember the 5th Gear test of cars with 10+ year old airbags? They proved that they still can be relied upon.)

The question was not 'for who's benefit is the airbag'. :rolleyes:

A vehicle insurance premium is base on a perceved risk to the occupants and therfore removing or isolating an air bag increase's the risk. Im sure if a vehicle crash was investergated and if it involved a vehicle fitted by the manufacture with two front airbags and only the drivers airbag had deployed and not the passengers, also the passenger was injured, the reason would be looked into.

I do fire investestgations for insurance companies not for vehicle claims but claims fire damage in office bulidings and if I can find something wrong, and we do look and measure everything, the claim will not be paid in full.

If an inspector is 'eagle-eyed' he/she will get paid very well. :lol:

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