Re: Watch OUT - Airbag exploding!!!

[e6941tb@gnn.com]

> A couple of people have recently made quiet inquiries to
> the list asking about steering wheel removal/replacement/
> fixes etc.  To which they have received some dire warnings
> from some Chicken-Little types quothing how these innocents
> will probably get their hands/heads blown off, taking half a city
> block with them ... etc, etc.
> 
> Come on guys ... get a grip.  I agree that basic precautions
> should be taken, but you go a bit far with your quotes of
> "pyrotechnics" (after all I, and I'd hazard many others, enjoy
> setting off "pyrotechnic" fireworks).

I was trying not to cut into this thread, but now feel that I ought to
comment the last post.

Several years ago, as a side job, I ran a 4 bay HiFi installation shop
(Sassafras-Soundworks). One day one of my technicians was installing a
HiFi sys in a brand new 911 (from a dealer's lot). He was working under
the dash, laying across the front seats. He needed +12v for memory and
probably figured that a thick yellow wire is a constant battery lead
(evidently he thought that Porsche uses a standard Alpine color scheme).
He cut the wire and the friggin' thing exploded like a grenade, leaving
about a sq.foot of black-n-blue on his rib cage. Later that day, over a
beer, we both felt pretty lucky. He - 'coz he was not sitting upright
with his face in a foot of the steering wheel with the cutters in
between the former and the latter (a typical installer's position). I -
well I was happy that I did not get sued.

The guy was very quick on the job. I once clocked him install a Prestige
APS2 alarm in 40min. Unfortunately he was also totally illeterate in
electricity.

Incidently, someone posted earlier that an airbag circuit was always
wired in RED. That is incorrect!
AIRBAG WIRING IS YELLOW!!! Watch out for those thick yellow jacks and
wires, and don't even think about touching it without an electrical
schematic and a clear understanding of how to disconnect it's power
without triggering the charge.

We (at my main job) have been recently approached by a certain automaker
on the subject of airbags triggering redunduncy. If the guy in the
corner office with a fish tank decides that he is not afraid of a threat
of potential litigation, that goes hand-in-hand with the auto
industry/savety/mass consumer market related manufacturing, my group
might start developing an X-Y coord tracking device/fuzzy logic, which
would tell an airbag when (and if) to go off. I am really looking
forward to that project. Hopefully I'll get a better understanding of
how the damn things work.

While we are on the subject, does anyone on the list (hopefully from a
jurisprudential crowd) know for sure if I can legally disable a driver
side airbag on my (hopefully coming this Summer) A4TQ, without being
screwed out of the first party benefits in case of a collision by an
insurance co?

Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ