MX5 airbag steering wheel

OutlaW · Post by **OutlaW** » September 7th, 2007, 12:27 pm

Hi gang
i triyed to look for anything about this , but it came up empty.
Can anyone help me out in a question :
I want to change my steering wheel, and i like the MX5 steering wheel
Can i make this steering wheel still remain his airbag and be equipped in my MX3 ?
If i cant have this steering wheel, which one can i mod into my car ? ( With airbag )

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » September 7th, 2007, 3:29 pm

Well, there is this similar thread you posted in a while back

http://www.mx-3.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.ph ... ring+wheel

Aa for the airbag, dont know...I dont know how the wiring would work ont he week, nor what it looks like on the Mx-3 since mine didn't have one...but considering i see people fire off airbags with just just a set of jumper leads (Dirty Jobs style), my guess is that all you need to do is match up the pair for the mx-3 to the pair off airbad in the wheel.

No one that I know of, besides that Protege wheel, has swapped in another wheel with an airbag, usually it's people with airbags swapping to an aftermarket wheel that doesn't, of course, have one...

OutlaW · Post by **OutlaW** » September 7th, 2007, 5:43 pm

I remember to post on that thread, and since then i wanted to have a new steering wheel.
I dont want to lose the airbag, just to have more style... because IF it get's used, i rather hit my head in an ugly ballon instead of crashing my brain in a pretty iron badge :roll:
He has the right look, but he cant have a airbag.
I want to keep mine :?

Dali · Post by **Dali** » September 7th, 2007, 9:06 pm

the air bag will not work, you need all the sensors off the miata to make the it work properly. just pull the bag out and fill the hole/reinforce it. im working on one from a mx6 that had a airbag in it.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » September 7th, 2007, 10:20 pm

I don't know airbag systems, so I just want to ask why it won't work? Wouldn't the SRS sensor have nothing to do with the bag itself? There the sensors are conncted to the SRS module, and it would be that module that trigger the bag, and if the bag triggers from a 12v source, than why would the sensor have anything to do with the bag since the sensor isn't connected to the bag?

OutlaW · Post by **OutlaW** » September 8th, 2007, 6:30 pm

that is my idea ... the power is 12v .. the same.
The SRS sensors can be connected the same way by an electrician ... why cant it work ?
I guess that it add's a little work, but almost 99% of the aftermarket parts for our car have to be custom ... i dont want to lose the SRS system just because it gives me a little more work than a Ebay steering wheel.
At least , i know my steering wheel will be ONE OF A KIND :wink:

Post by **Mooneggs** » September 10th, 2007, 10:30 am

OutlaW wrote:that is my idea ... the power is 12v .. the same.
The SRS sensors can be connected the same way by an electrician ... why cant it work ?
I guess that it add's a little work, but almost 99% of the aftermarket parts for our car have to be custom ... i dont want to lose the SRS system just because it gives me a little more work than a Ebay steering wheel.
At least , i know my steering wheel will be ONE OF A KIND

I would just make sure an electrician does it unless you are experienced with that... if you connected it wrong the airbag could deploy or if it was a bad connection maybe the airbag would not deploy in an accident.

PurpleDinosaur · Post by **PurpleDinosaur** » September 17th, 2007, 3:13 pm

Guys - I work in SafetyRestaints and I was a release engineer for Airbag systems...

in a word - STOP!

Airbag sensors and firing algroythym (sp?) are taliroed to each hecicles crash pulse... (Pulse it the acceleation data taken at the points on the car where the crahs sensors will be mounted)...

For refernce, a generic Airbag timeline:

T0 = Crash occurs
@ 6 milliseconds - Sensor fires airbag
@ 8 ms - Airbag Inflator begins making gas
@ 40 ms Airbag is completely full and driver begins interacting with bag
@ 60 mm occupant has rebounded off off airbag - the event is over.

The above to illustrate the magnitude of the event - each vehicle vaires a bit from the above. you cannot simply swap an airbag from one car to another. The volume of the bag, the output of the inflator, the venting (if any) of thge bag) the ride down characateristics of the steering column (you do know that the steering column is engieering to colapse along its axis in a controled manner and that the airbags is tunded, in part , to the characateristics of that vehicles steering column, right?), the shape of the seat cushion - all these an more are consiedered and accounted for in each airbag desing - EVERY DRIVER SIDE AIRBAG IS UNIQUE!

Retorfitting with the worng bag is not just a case of possibly not getting the benfit you would have with the stock bag - in many cases if you have the wrong bag it can and will HURT YOU instead of saving you.

Do not do this.

Better off removing the airbag altogether and relieing on your seatbelts... Better yet, accept that the Steering wheel is going to stay stock so that you can stay safe.

We spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to save you butts in very violent crashes, please do not mess with your airbags - you are risking your life.

Besides - if the unit happends to deploy while you remove it it could easily kill you.... I am not being melodramatic - do not mess with your airbag.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » September 17th, 2007, 3:53 pm

Hate to say it PD.. but your kinda pissing in the wind.

Good info though.

Tunes67

PurpleDinosaur · Post by **PurpleDinosaur** » September 18th, 2007, 8:02 am

that and spelling for s--- too!

As for pissing in the wind... well, yeah, kinda figured that,but would not have felt right if I didn't say something. Well, now I've thrunted up 3 or 4 threads with my "don't mess around with Aribags" rant so I guess I'll let it go...