Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) 2005 US Roadster

I just bought a USA 2005 Roadster with a "federalized" bumper. Meaning a bumper with pistons on them to absorb impact. The car has airbags on driver and passenger side. If you loswered the bumper and put the lenses back into the proper slots, would you loose the airbag sensors? I want to change steering wheels to something more sporty (losing the airbag on the drivers side) but keep the airbag on the passenger side working. Can this be done?

Not sure there are many folk on here who will have an answer to that. None of the european classics have any airbags (apart from new +8)
Are there actually sensors in the bumper mounts? I thought airbags were activated from decelerometers or the like which could be anywhere in the car.
Anyway good luck there may be somebody about who has 'the knowledge'

Andy

They are now saying that after 10 years the airbags should be replaced anyway. Some legistlators are trying to bring in a regulation to that effect.

Normally airbags (SRS systems) don't have sensors in the bumpers, that's not to say they cant have just that its not normal, then again what's normal in a Morgan ;-). Somewhere in the system is a crash sensor, its an aluminium box (think small ECU as that's what they are) that measures retardation and impact, if parameters are met the bag deploys. Finding the crash sensor will be fun, normally mounted low in a car and central, under seats or around transmission tunnels, just look for wiring going to the bumpers or mounting irons. Since 1990 SRS wiring should be colour coded Orange.....again what should be and what Morgan do may not be the same but it might give you a heads up.

Reading one of the books on our cars, I think the Haynes +8 book, it suggests the airbags as fitted by Morgan are self contained units, so they only need a power supply.
Removing the steering wheel one might cause the air bag warning light to come on, but might not. I suspect there is a way to "fool" the warning light.

The federalisation was done by the US importer of the day, I think - but I may be wrong.

When handling airbag modules (steering, glovebox, seat or curtain) the technician uses a 'test' resistor that matches the resistance of the airbag igniter. The procedure is to disconnect the battery, wait 30 seconds for the internal (in the crash sensor) capacitor to discharge, if your smart you give it a couple of minutes just in case, and unplug the connector and fit the test resister to it. The airbag can then be removed, of course you don't go sticking your fingers on the connector pins as even static can cause them to deploy! Provided you follow procedure the warning light should not come on, if it does its just a case of 'Read the Code - Clear the Code' in the same way as OBD2 codes.

http://xj40.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=167&p=766&hilit=disarm+airbag#p766

Here some good info on the subject