disabling only the 2 side curtain airbags

[pimpedout97x]

ok, im putting a huge stereo system in my MINI, which will be in the way and interfere with the top curtain airbags under the headliner, in the event they ever need to deploy.

i know people that have sparco racing seats have done the resistor thing to trick the airbag light to not coming on, can this be done with the top curtain airbags ONLY? im keeping my stock seats and leaving the dash board airbags.

also, if the airbag light is ON, for whatever reason (say 1 seat is unplugged) does that disable every airbag in the car, while the light is lit?

thanks for ANY help!!!!!!!!!!

[Fen]

My response is based purely on received wisdom, my understanding and what I see as the best functionality of the design ONLY, so don't take it as gospel.

I think you can disconnect any airbag and replace it with a suitably sized resistor to fool the electronics into "thinking" the airbag is still there. Note the resistance needed may well vary from one bag type to another.

If the light is on it indicates that the system has had a condition that it would not normally expect and hence flagged a fault code to have it checked. I don't believe it is likely that it is disabled in any way as it's a safety system and surely would be designed to attempt to trigger in an accident even if it had a fault that may make it fail to trigger rather than by design completely disable . In other words even with the light on it would be safer for the system to try to operate and possibly partially fail rather than not to attempt to operate at all.

[pimpedout97x]

i gotcha. i wonder who i could find out for sure from. i guess i could ask the dealer...id call alot of them though, i wouldnt take the word from one service guy and believe it, he may be right whatever his answer may be, but id get the answer from a couple different ones to be sure its true.

[KillerByte]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fen (original)

If the light is on it indicates that the system has had a condition that it would not normally expect and hence flagged a fault code to have it checked. I don't believe it is likely that it is disabled in any way as it's a safety system and surely would be designed to attempt to trigger in an accident even if it had a fault that may make it fail to trigger rather than by design completely disable . In other words even with the light on it would be safer for the system to try to operate and possibly partially fail rather than not to attempt to operate at all.

This is incorrect. With the airbag light on, the system is disabled so that it cannot possibly fire at the wrong time - for example, while driving normally.

[Fen]

Fair enough - I'm happy to be corrected if you know for sure how it works.

[pimpedout97x]

Quote: Originally Posted by KillerByte (original)

This is incorrect. With the airbag light on, the system is disabled so that it cannot possibly fire at the wrong time - for example, while driving normally.

by any chance, do you know what resistors i need to fool the system for the side curtain airbags?