Airbags, seats and steering wheels.

Hi guys, I could do with some advice regarding the airbag system. I will be fitting bucket seats and harnesses in my EP3, hopefully an aftermarket wheel at some point too. I'd like to do the work myself but electronics are a black hole in my knowledge of cars.

I understand that replacing the steering wheel with an aftermarket non-airbag wheel will disable the entire system. The fix being to replace the wheel airbag with a resistor (22 ohms?) to fool the system. Please correct me if this is wrong.

Regarding seats: My understanding is that the system has inputs from the seatbelt buckle and a weight-on-seat switch. So I assume that removing the oem seat and/or seatbelt will also disable the entire system.

So what is neccesary to fool/replace these sensors? I would rather not have the oem belts in the car.

Thanks chaps.

Anybody?

Alright Jimbo?

I was also looking into getting an aftermarket steering wheel and boss. I think you need a 2.2 ohm resistor to cancel the airbag warning light, furthermore there is a step by step guide that I found for resetting the airbag light after fitting resistor and so forth. Still trying to find the right one LOL

By the way heres a link on Demontweeks : http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/perfo.../honda/civic-00-06-type-r/2002/2-0-type-r-ep3

Best to double check with them for obvious reasons that it is the correct bits needed.

Thanks bud, that's a good link. I'll get one of those once I've got the money together for a wheel.

I'm still in the uncertain about the seats though. I'm fairly certain now that the seatbelt sensor can be fooled by connecting two of the wires in the plug. I guess I'll find out soon enough, first seat should be here any day now.

Still looking for answers about the seats and belts!

I've been scouring the tinterweb, but I've still not got exactly what I need. So far I know how to cancel the weight on seat switch by fitting a resistor, I'm fairly sure there is only a switch on the passenger side seat. I'm confused about the belts now, I've read horribly written (American) explanations about pre-tensioners and buckles and conspiracies, and I'm still none the wiser.

Somebody please help!

For the steering wheel the fix to fool the system would be a resistor, I'd expect 3 or a 5 ohm resistor in my experiances it's usually 3 but I've never done it on a honda so could be either.

i wouldn't imagine the drivers seat to a a weight sensor in it as it'll assume (and hope) they'll be someone in the drivers regardless and I don't think the passenger seat sets the warning off although you say different so I'll believe you and that'll require a resistor to like you say.

If there are airbags in the front seats they'll need resistors (same rating as the steering wheel resistor). The buckle I'm not sure on, but I'm sure someone on here must know the fix for that. Surprised no ones come up with a answer yet to be honest.

OK, so all airbag systems use ignitors that are somewhere between 2.2 and 5.4 ohms in resistance.

To fool the ECU you will need to use one of such rating.

The weight on seat (or seat occupancy sensor) IIRC isn't fitted to UK models and is fitted to US models as it is not law to wear a seatbelt, so the system requires an input from that sensor to determine seat occupancy.

HTH, any other Q's give us a shout, I taught passenger protection systems for Audi.

Excellent, thanks a lot guys. I had a good look under the seats this morning, you guys were absolutely right, there is nothing connected to the passenger seat.

The driver's seatbelt has this:


It connects to the seatbelt buckle, so I'm guessing that this will need to be fooled into thinking that there is a seatbelt buckled whilst driving. The consensus from everything I have read is for a paperclip to connect the wires. Ghetto fix styleee yo. Yeah, I'll use properly insulated wire and heatshrink thank you very much American ricers.

There is also a connection to the seatbelts here:


I'm assuming that this is the pretensioner, and will need fooling also, most likely with a resistor.

This got me thinking; There is no way for the car to tell if there is a person in the passenger seat. So will all the pretensioners and airbags fire regardless of a seatbelt connected signal in the event of a crash? This system is apparently far more basic than I had imagined!

Yes, the connection on the passenger belt is the pre-tensioner. And will need to be 'fooled'. Again, resisor, similar value.
'Usually' most systems will utilise a passenger occupancy sensor, but the older more basics will either use the pass seat belt signal, or just fire anyway.

After all, if the passenger isn't wearing their belt, there will be no signal but it still needs to fire.

Not all bags and belts fire in an impact anyway. Depends on impact area and surpassing threshold deceleration.
But in an EP3 there's only the 2 and the belts IIRC so yeah all would fire.

Cheers mate, that's really helpful. This will be a much less complicated job than I had first thought.

Update to clarify what exactly needs done. I've now removed the OEM seats and belt entirely.

The seat belt warning can be disabled by unplugging the connection under the driver's seat. It's as simple as that.

The seat belt pre-tensioners do need 2.2ohm resistors.
Disconnect the battery and leave the car for 10 mins. Unplug the yellow connection (picture above). The two pins need to be connected through a resistor. I used wire, basic connectors bent to shape and resistors from Maplin, all soldered, heat shrunk and taped together. It works just fine.