306 Bodgey upgrades!

[baldrickthecunning]

About a month ago I purchased a 2000 Peugeot 306 HDi with low mileage and 1 owner from new, trouble is the 1 owner was old and tall, and found it hard to get in and out of the car so he had worn out the steering wheel in one place and scuffed the seat a lot until the material had ripped. 306's don't have particularly hard wearing interiors at the best of times so finding decent second hand replacements for the drivers seat and steering wheel wasn't all that easy.

 

By pure luck a V plate Meridian had appeared at my local scrapyard when i went yesterday, hadn't yet been stripped out and was in great shape apart from very light front end damage.

 

I set to work on removing the 90% pristine drivers seat (10 minutes) and then spent a lot longer trying to remove the steering wheel as the steering lock was on! Had to remove the switches and smash the cowelling off to get to the airbag screws but after an hour I'd done it! Also acquired a new wheel wrench, manual heated screen switch (the auto off ones are quite annoying) and 2 Xantia rubber mats.

 

Backseat driving the V plate 1.8 16V

 

Today I set about fitting my haul and soon the battered seat was out, sitting next to its replacement.

 

 

Trouble is.....looking underneath I noticed something...

 

 

2 extra wires on the original seat - so i test fitted the new seat, fired the engine up and alas the airbag light stayed on. Seat airbag FTL!

 

I don't particularly care about having a seat airbag but didn't want the light to stay on so I hacked the unit out the old seat, connected it up and sure enough the light went out.

 

 

Question is, is there a safer way of telling the airbag system that I have one when I don't? At the moment the old unit is sat under the new seat and I am waiting to get launched into the roof when an uninsured Escort hits me!

 

For the record, the steering wheel fitting was no problem...and I've still yet to fully cure the shite door loom wiring

[Skizzer]

Question is, is there a safer way of telling the airbag system that I have one when I don't? At the moment the old unit is sat under the new seat and I am waiting to get launched into the roof when an uninsured Escort hits me!

 

Put it under the passenger seat instead - be like James Bond

 

[baldrickthecunning]

I'll bare that one in mind but need a sunroof first.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Just drive round with a sack of carrots in your lap to take the impact if any airbags go off by accident?

[dieselnutjob]

I believe that if you put a resistor in the circuit instead of the airbag then the airbag ECU thinks that the airbag is still there. Problem is that you need a resistor of the right value and I don't know what it is. Measuring the resistance of the airbag could possibly cause it to explode in your face (though I don't know what the probability is). I have a vague memory of 70 ohms but I really don't know so don't blame me if you try it and it fries your ECU.

If it was me I would put the good covers on the old seats complete with airbag still in place.

On our 806 I found that passenger seat covers will fit on a drivers seat frame which makes it easier to find good ones.

[baldrickthecunning]

Thanks for the advice dieselnutjob (and Mr. Bo11ox!)

 

i will try to measure the resistance on the original airbag and make sure its pointed away from me! The original seat was too far gone to patch up or replace covers, all the foam was sagging or missing on one side.

[dieselnutjob]

you could connect up the airbag once with your meter in line and measure the current going through it

then connect it up a second time and measure the voltage across it

R=V/I

where V is voltage across and I is current going through

[baldrickthecunning]

Great suggestion, thanks. I have access to resistors at work too. Much better than an ejector seat.

[cobblers]

you could connect up the airbag once with your meter in line and measure the current going through it

then connect it up a second time and measure the voltage across it

R=V/I

where V is voltage across and I is current going through

 

 

If you must measure the resistance of the airbag directly, don't point it at your face!

 

 

I've seen people use resistors from 2 ohms to 40 ohms, but 3.9 is the most common.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It might be worth taking the airbag and multimeter and carrry out the check in the home furnishings dept of a high-end department store where there is lots of fine bone china & swarovski crystal ornaments and what have you.

[Minimad5]

BE CAREFUL !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S1CZ08w4H4