Air bag replacement

almcl · Postby **almcl** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:29 am

A cheery little notice on the glovebox tells me that the air bag on my 1993 XJS is due for replacement.

Has anyone had to do this yet?

If so, how much and where (given the current lack of support for the face lift cars by either the JDHT or Jaguar I guess we're going to have to go 'outside'?)
http://www.almclwebpages.pwp.blueyonder ... airbag.jpg

ptjs1 · Postby **ptjs1** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:13 pm

Al,

Good question and one that we need to look at closely. If you say that your airbag needs replacing then I guess your car was made in 1992, or at least your airbag was. All the ones that I have seen have 15 year time warnings on them.

At first glance the situation looks depressing. You can still theoretically buy a drivers or a passenger airbag for an XJS. £450 + vat for a drivers bag and £800 + vat for a passeneger bag! However, Jaguar only apparently have 3 drivers bags and 1 passenger bag left, even if you wanted to pay that sort of money. (There is a guy on ebay who's always offering a "new" XJS passnger airbag for £100) What concerns me more is that I suspect all the new bags are themselves many years old so would they really be any better than the original ones in my 1995 car?

What surprises me is that we haven't heard more noise from the US who had airbags fitted earlier on their cars and as we know are typically far more litiginous about safety aspects. And yet, Jaguar apparently only have one US passenger airbag in stock as well. So, I wonder if anyone in the US is actually bothering to replace their airbags?

So, I think it is right that we should contact Jaguar and see what is the official response. I don't know really know if they have any legal responsibility as a current car manufacturer to ensure the continued supply of safety-related items such as airbags for older models. I suspect not, but we'll see what they have to say. I don't think the JDHT will be of much help as they are not involved in the provision of parts for cars. They are merely the recipients of a certain amount of the profit from the sales of XJS (& other classic Jaguars) parts generated by Jaguar Classic Parts (which is a division of Unipart and is contracted to the main Jaguar company).

Tks again for raising this. I'll post back on here when we hear from Jaguar.

Paul Sinnott
XJS Registrar
Jaguar Enthusiasts Club

almcl · Postby **almcl** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:08 am

Thanks, Paul.

My driver's side bag is not actually due for replacement till 2008 (if I had managed to post the image...)

http://www.almclwebpages.pwp.blueyonder ... airbag.jpg

But it seems we have three choices

Source a new air bag

Drive with a 15 year old, time expired firework 30 cm from our faces

Replace the steering wheel with one that doesn't have an airbag

Be most interested to hear what Jaguar have to say...

dhdove · Postby **dhdove** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:20 pm

Almcl/Paul
Where are these placards located........? I haven't spotted one in the '95 4.0, but there again I haven't looked for it!
It can't be in the glovebox, I haven't got one....ITS FULL OF AIRBAG!!!
DH Dove

wolf · Postby **wolf** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:15 pm

A car manufacturer is only duty bound and obliged to supply FULL spares and parts for a vehicle for 10 years after the end of production.

When I was at T****a, we were still pressing panels and interior parts for the Carina E in march of last year.

almcl · Postby **almcl** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:34 pm

Where are these placards located........?

Well on mine (which only has a driver's air bag) it's on the top edge of the glove box lid...

almcl · Postby **almcl** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:39 pm

Paul

Did we ever hear from Jaguar about air bag replacement?

Milan · Postby **Milan** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:31 pm

On a related note - how easy would it be to deactivate the driver and passenger airbags? Is this the sort of job a garage would be willing to take on (I'm guessing not...).

MichaelSB · Postby **MichaelSB** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:50 am

My Airbags are due replacement in 2010 so I too am wondering what to do about them!

Milan · Postby **Milan** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:07 am

Makes me wonder... is there a fuse that one can just pull out to deactivate them?

almcl · Postby **almcl** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:23 pm

As I understand it, the driver's air bag (which is all I have) is purely mechanical. So no fuses, unfortunately.

There is a procedure to disarm the bag which involves winding a small part around with a special tool but I have an idea that some part of the trim can't be re-fitted with this in the deactivated state. And of course there is a chance the thing will go off while one is attempting to deactivate it.

bigjim · Postby **bigjim** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:35 am

As far as I know the best before date on air bags does not mean that they become dangerously unstable after this point just that the maker does not gaurrente that they will work as intended after this point, they may or may not deploy when needed. Some cars have a 10 year life on their bags and some longer. I recently recovered an RTC involving a Volvo (15 years old, air bag life 10 years) and the bag had deployed ok.

Air bags are funny things, a lot of the motoring public see them as the B all and end all of safety devices and I often get asked when dealing with RTCs why they have not worked. It all depends on the type of impact and what speed it happens at. (Modern VAG group cars seem to have the most sensitive, clout a kerb at over 15 MPH in a recent VW polo and see what I mean!) Having had one deploy on me I can say that they hurt and leave friction burns on your face!