When to delete airbags on a "street car"

Considering doing airbag deletes on my 96 tercel that's primarily use is to drive to autoX and run.

I do not drive it much beyond when i have to work on it.

So...its like yes its 26yo technology that may or may not still work...but still could make a difference should something happen.  

Or hey loose weight...get a cool wheel. 

I still use a standard seatbelt which I had a few months ago replaced because it was frayed AF

I wouldn't delete them until there was an alternate safety system in place.  ie 5 or 6 point harness and a HANS.

Airbags weigh so very little you won't notice it, if that is your concern.  Maybe 5-10lb.  

I deleted mine from my Civic recently. Apparently it hasn't been connected the entire time I owned the car.

I am going to add a roll bar and harnesses though at some point.

For a car that is just driven to autocross and back, I wouldn't worry about it. I mean it isn't any worst then driving something from before airbags.

YOU could lose more weight than the airbag

a few pounds is all they are, 5 or so

Vacuum your car out, ditch the random things you keep in there (or even the rear speakers) and you'll be at what the safety system weighs

The weight you'd lose when deleting the airbag SRS could also be lost with a semi-strict exercise routine and mild dieting. 5-10 pounds. 

Car weight loss is most easily done with the meatbag in between the wheel and seat :)

If it is properly connected, keep it. I crashed my 94 300ZX a few years ago and the airbags deployed and saved my head from bouncing off the steering wheel. Would've also kept my passenger's head from bouncing off the dash, if I had one at the time of crash. 

My rule of thumb is, if it came with an airbag and you street drive it, keep it on. Insurance will not like it if you crash on the street and they find out that you didn't have an airbag.

I replaced the non-airbag wheel on my '88 MR2.  It was a 14.5" wheel and I went to a 13.5" wheel.  It made getting into the car easier, but...

I went with a cheap Grant wheel and the adaptor was sort of "universal" and as such, the wheel ended up being too close to the turn signal stalk.  This then required going to a double adaptor but this then was closer to my body than I wanted.  There was no simple middle ground or "proper distance."  

You likely have this:

Rav4 of 1999 offered a surprisingly nice wheel/airbag combo. It was a much better wheel that what a Rav4 deserved.  At least, this was my observation of my wife's former '99.  If you can get a JY version, I'll bet the airbag wiring is compatible.  

2000 Celica wheel too:

I deleted the ones in my 95 Silverado and 97 neon. 

I am not comfortable with a 25+ year old explosive device made by the lowest bidder staring me in the face. 

hybridmomentspass said:

YOU could lose more weight than the airbag

a few pounds is all they are, 5 or so

Vacuum your car out, ditch the random things you keep in there (or even the rear speakers) and you'll be at what the safety system weighs

It depends on the class. I am building for XSA and trying to hit 2000lbs. 5-10lbs is worth it for my build. I think by the time I removed the airbag, wiring, sensors, it was around 10lbs.

While I'm not convinced of the integrity of the airbag systems in cars approaching 30 years old, they are part of a system that is designed to work with the airbag in place.  In Miatas, for example, there is a stitched section of seatbelt that is designed to release for softer deceleration.  Without the airbag, you're taking a chance that the 'system' will be compromised to the point of allowing an injury in a minor crash.  Best to replace it all, but then you're talking harness/HANS, which isn't really a streetable solution.

That said, the entire airbag system is not insubstantial in most cars.  This was about 1/2 the airbag wiring that I removed from our NA Miata:

Combined with the mechanical components, it was easily 10lbs.

This car is occasionally (rarely) street driven (C&C, to get fuel, etc.) but I know with the cage and harness, it's a serious safety concern and drive accordingly.

In reply to malibuguy :

Sounds like you're getting closer and closer to a pure race car. Race cars don't use airbags and most classes want them deactivated or removed.  
    Is this the point you put it on a trailer and take it off the road?   Or do you have to wait until something breaks and leaves you stranded at the track?  I admit that's what happened to me. 
Lucky for me Bob Bodine  had his mega million dollar Ferrari GTO  there and was willing to put unload it and street drive it home. If I drove his  car and trailer home.  It's nice to have friends but from then on I put cars on trailers. 
   Hey no mufflers, no headlights, bumpers, etc. Now  you can really get serious!   

If this is a Takata air bag and you aren't 100% sure it was replaced I would get it out. 

frenchyd said:

In reply to malibuguy :

Sounds like you're getting closer and closer to a pure race car. Race cars don't use airbags and most classes want them deactivated or removed.  
    Is this the point you put it on a trailer and take it off the road?   Or do you have to wait until something breaks and leaves you stranded at the track?  I admit that's what happened to me. 
Lucky for me Bob Bodine  had his mega million dollar Ferrari GTO  there and was willing to put unload it and street drive it home. If I drove his  car and trailer home.  It's nice to have friends but from then on I put cars on trailers. 
   Hey no mufflers, no headlights, bumpers, etc. Now  you can really get serious!   

I cannot afford to get a trailer, and regardless the car needs to be street registered, tagged and insured for the class.

Yes I am fat and working on personal weight loss.  I am just trying to find places to lose weight short of exotic materials.  Even my radio was lighter then stock.

Guess Ill leave it all alone for now

20+ year old air bags saved my life twice in the last couple years.

The takata problem is not likely to rear its head in a 90's car. They used sodium azide as a propellant rather than the ammonium nitrate that takata used trying to save money. 

I've talked about it with people testing airbags as part of my job. The old 90's bag likely worst case is an underpowered deployment. It's rather unlikely you would be worse off with it in there. 

As someone who works closely with orthopedic trauma surgeons, let me try to convince you to leave the airbags unless you're going full race car conversion and plan to wear a helmet all the time. 

My car was in the "in between" stage for a while, had 6 point harnesses, roll bar, race seats, no airbags, HANS/helmet/gloves at the track. I would drive it a short distance to work maybe once every 3-4 months, of course without the HANS/helmet. Stopped at a light and had a guy plow into me, obviously on his phone, never attempted to slow down. I didn't have the harnesses super tight like on the track so I could reach stuff in the car. It was pretty low speed all things considered and didn't do much too much damage, but hurt like hell for a few weeks since my upper body accelerated forward just an inch or two before slamming into the should straps. If it were a much faster incident, or if it were an SUV instead of a sedan hitting me, I think I'd have been way, way worse off - my back from the sudden stopping via the loose shoulder straps, and my neck from lack of helmet/hans. Not worth it at all.

Stole this chart from trackhq/miataturbo, probably good to read up on. Compromising safety for 10 pounds or less seems so, so silly. Are you good enough in your 20+ year old car that you can even tell the difference? No offense meant, but while the pounds add up I couldn't even begin to notice 10 pounds difference on it's own and I'm not God's gift to driving by any means but have a decent stack of local club racing wins.

I really like this chart even if it's a bit heavy-handed. Everyone wants an easy/cheap way out, but it's really "all or nothing" in regards to safety systems. Anything between "full OEM" and "full race" is a compromise that will probably be OK, but just isn't worth it.

Air bags have been deleted from my NB Miata, but it's got a roll bar, 5 point harness and I'll have a hans device next time its out. Car also isn't my daily anymore and is a fair weather street car at best now.

If yours still does street duty often. I'd leave them.