Re: Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1.8 2002 - Replace airbag steering wheel with aftermarket non airbag # Archived Message
Posted by Paul Howd on January 18, 2009, 7:19 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1.8 2002 - Replace airbag steering wheel with aftermarket non airbag #"
I refer you to my original post. "Irrspective of the advisability of this, (Would it affect insurance etc??) is it practical?? " I have not, in the last 25 years, been subject to such a request and I had already decided that I wouldnt really be interested but was curious about whether anybody else had experixced a similar request and what they did about it. I was also curious about the technical aspects of this issue. On a broader note, Air bags are not (yet) compulsary equipment and an SRS warning light on does not equate a MOT fail. I am sure that this sort of thing goes on all the time (Or MOMO and the like would not be selling steering wheels/be allowed to sell steering wheels and there would be no "Pimp my Ride" industry!) Even before airbags became commonplace, Standard steering wheels were designed to protect the drivers chest in the event of a collision (along with collapsing steering columns) replaceing the standard wheel with a huge lump of metal with a "sporty" wheel bolted to it would not do you any favours in the event of an accident so this is not really a new issue. Was it ever a legal/insurance issue in the past with the fitting of non-standard steering wheels?? Is disabling a steering whell airbag any diferent? So, (unlike the earlier example of a modifed brake pedal-which is both a compulsary item and safty critical in a way that an airbag is not) would chosing to disable an airbag actually be any more of a legal/insurance issue than similar mods would have been in the past?? After all, many cars have the facility for the owner to disable passanger airbags . It would be "Interesting" if it turned out that this affected their insurance.
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