Disabling Airbags on TJ for offroading?

2

2Greys

Insert title here
Club Member
Hi all,
I have a question for any TJ owners regarding what to do to disable the airbags when offroading? I looked on another forum and found out what to do if it is a JK but are the TJ's the same? With the JK, you remove the fuses in the PDU under the hood but is this right for the TJ as well?
Would like to know before I accidently set it off.
Thanks!
Chris
 
R

Root Moose

Guest
I think it is a waste of time to bother with this.

Having seen the types of accidents where air bags DON'T go off, I wouldn't worry about it.

I've never heard of air bags being an issue while wheeling in a TJ. Maybe I'm not reading the correct Internet lore?

If you hit something hard enough to deploy air bags you needed them anyway.
 
Mitko

Mitko

The G-Spot
Club Member
AFAI remember the pasenger one could be disabled with the factory build switch, at least mine had one. But as was said before it is just waste of time and effort - I had done a lot of rock beating and such stuff with mine and never had problems.
 
2

2Greys

Insert title here
Club Member
Mitko said:
AFAI remember the pasenger one could be disabled with the factory build switch, at least mine had one. But as was said before it is just waste of time and effort - I had done a lot of rock beating and such stuff with mine and never had problems.
Click to expand...

The reason I ask is if it did go off it would be expensive to get fixed. The quote I heard was about $2000. I figured if it was as simple as removing a fuse right before starting (or even implementing some kind of switch in serial with a fuse) then at least you never have to worry about it. Since my Jeep is a DD, it would be nice to keep it. The fact that most here is saying not to worry about it and I am looking at doing nothing extreme with it, that makes me feel better.

Update: Found the following link
Long story short, what someone says is it is fuses 3 and 4 that need to be removed in your glove compartment and it normally doesn't engage anyways below 25mph. So assuming you are bombing along, should be no issue. Course this is off the intertubes so take with a big grain of salt, but from what it sounds like, it probably is true.
 
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R

Root Moose

Guest
Yes, this is correct. Different manufacturers make them NOT deploy under a certain speed. Typically around 40 km/h.

IIRC some use a different programming when in four low as well but I can't remember if that is a Jeep, M-B or TLC thing.
 
2

2Greys

Insert title here
Club Member
Joust said:
they use accelerometers
Click to expand...

I remember way back when I had to do a technical report for an English class and did it on ABS and air bags and the early models of airbags used a bearing on a magnet and if the car stopped hard enough the bearing would come off of the magnet and trip the circuit. Some of the early problems was the magnets used weren't strong enough and it would only take a small bump to set it off. Not sure when they fixed that but I am pretty sure it was around 96.
 
J

Joust

Guest
thats a Shock Fuse. I could see them using them in the early days.
They certainly don't now. they use electronic devices, accelerometers.
They also have batteries in the airbag so that it can work even if power is cut during a crash. So in some cases even removing the fuse will not work.
 
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