| Can anyone advise how the passenger airbag on MK2 can be made selectable and therefore 'child' friendly. Essentially want to be able to turn it OFF sometimes for the occasions that son is in baby seat in car and rest of time left ON. Reading in the Renaisannce Sportscar book on th MK2 it mentions the facility to disable it BUT does state if it is a once and done of selectable. (1/00) |
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Miatas in the US have this. The airbag computer is the same as the one our cars get, just that the pin to the cut-off switch is "tied off" at the connector. There will be two connections to the computer you can use. 1) the connection for the cut off switch 2) the connection for the warning indicator that the bag is turned off You just need somewhere to mount this switch - best to buy a switch with built in illumination. US cars use a key operated switch and lamp mounted in the same place as the rear fog light switch. The computer is mounted in a place that means you have to remove the dashboard to get at it but if you are brave, then it's not difficult. Question is, how do you test it? Drive into a tree ?? :-) Well no, as the airbag computer has diagnostics that can be accessed inlcuding a test for the cut off connections. More drastic solution is to remove the fuse for the airbag, but will affect the drivers airbag too. (1/00) |
| The UK MK2 Mazda brochures (and/or handbook) mentions that there are approved Mazda child seats that disable the passenger airbag. If you have a friendly dealer it could be worth asking for a demo, either to purchase or suss how it works. (1/00) |
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You will probably find the only thing your dealer can do for a UK car is to permanently disable the bag. Retrofitting a pressure mat in the seat with the associated electronics is a bad idea. They are very difficult to set up and are specifically designed around one type of seat. The dealer will fit an 'airbag simulator' into the connector near the passenger bag. This is basically a high quality robust 2 ohm resistor which will keep the car thinking it has both bags plugged in. The bag can be reconnected when you come to sell the car. You can get a switch on some cars (such as Jags and Audi TT) which is operated by the ignition key. These however are rare and have to be designed specifically for the car they are in. Your dealer will make you sign some huge disclaimer just in case you need the bag as a full size passenger and it doesn't go off..... (1/00) |
| Do you have a child or a baby seat? If the first one is the case then you don't need to worry about the airbag. If the sit is the one in upright position with the child facing forward the airbag will not interfere, it will work the way it is supposed to. If on the other hand you have a seat for babies up to 6 months, which are facing towards the back of the passengers seat then the airbag will be dangerous in case of an accident. (1/00) |
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My son is 1 so has a forward facing seat so not as MUCH of a problem BUT! Reading through the owners manual ( what you do when you want to go for a drive BUT other things stop you ) I find the section on Airbags. Boy do they like that section, pages and pages of it! However it goes on about the seat sensor mechanism and how you shouldn't put heavy bags etc on the seat otherwise the sensor will thing there is someone in passenger seat and in event of accident bag will go off. ( There was me thinking that both went off irrespective ) The other bit about child seats states that you can buy a MAZDA SRS Friendly seat that interfaces with the car and disables the passenger bag when its plugged in. Now there's a cunning ploy ( or plan as Baldrick would have said :-) ) So now to see if a) Any UK dealer knows about this |