Turning off passenger airbag??

[John B.]

I'd like to install an on/off switch for the passenger airbag circuit in our 95 525iT. Has anyone done this? Any tips? If its not doable how about an off/on switch for the entire circuit?

[Bill R.]

Mr. B. I don't think it can be done. You can have the passenger air bag turned off by unplugging it but then you have to recode it anyway to accept that. To turn it back on you have to recode the module..

I ran into this recently on a customers 540it with rear side bags turned off that he had reconnected, we could clear the error codes but as soon as you started the car it came up again with some really wrong error messages since it was now reading more bags than it knew of in the system.. Had to have the system recoded to accept the side airbags again.





I'd like to install an on/off switch for the passenger airbag circuit in our 95 525iT. Has anyone done this? Any tips? If its not doable how about an off/on switch for the entire circuit?

[John B.]

I haven't had a chance to look at the wiring diagrams but does the passenger seat have a weight sensing switch that activates the air bag system for that side? I was thinking that if it did you could add a switch in the power feed line so that when that new switch was off it would be the same as the switch not sensing weight????

Also if there is a weight activated switch any idea how much weight it takes to turn it on?

[Ross]

Since the passenger's airbag doesn't deploy unless the seat is occupied wouldn't it make sense to fool the system into thinking the seat unoccupied?
The system uses a sensor in the seat and the seatbelt latch to determine occupancy.
The seatbelt latch has a fixed resistance when the latch is not in use and is a closed circuit when latched. The seat sensor has three wires, one a ground. My service manual does not explain how it functions but with only three wires it should be simple to figure out and defeat.

[John B.]

Since the passenger's airbag doesn't deploy unless the seat is occupied wouldn't it make sense to fool the system into thinking the seat unoccupied?

That is pretty much what I was asking about in my previous post. So connecting my dog's harness strap to the seat belt latch would trigger that circuit? If the seat sensor was "tricked" into sending a no passenger signal & the seat belt is connected would the airbag still activate? I would think the seat sensor would be the key element in activation as not everyone uses the belt.