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On Sat, 05 Aug 2006 01:59:51 GMT, Jennifer <notspam-sec4251@yahoo.com>
wrote:
[color=blue]
>Anyone suggest most workable way to reinstall Toyota 4 Runner
>airbags ?
>
>The two front airbags have been deployed in a hand me down 2004 4
>Runner. I cannot find an on-line price for replacement air bags.
>
>Is this a dealer only item ?
>
>Even so, any suggestions as to pricing and best way to go about it.[/color]

They are not a 'dealer-only' item, but the installer that buys them
needs special training and licensing to do it - he's buying some
serious explosives. Most dealers don't do enough airbag replacement
work to have someone trained and on-staff full time, so they farm it
out to a regional specialist.

The Sodium Azide based initiators are triggered off with blasting
caps and are considered an explosive, and you can easily kill yourself
while installing the new airbags if you don't follow all the safety
procedures to the letter.

This is one of the few procedures that you MUST leave to an expert -
unless you want to invest a whole lot of time money and effort to get
trained, get the tools, and become an expert.
[color=blue]
>It seems that in California one cannot register with the DMV a 4
>Runner without airbags installed. 'Not perfectly sure about this, but
>looking.[/color]

They don't want someone disabling the bags or replacing them with
chunks of foam and reselling the car as having a "good" airbag system
to an unsuspecting buyer - hence the law.

A lot of crooks fixed up and sold wrecked cars and jiggered the
airbags like that, and the driver got killed or hurt badly in the next
accident when the airbags didn't deploy - because they weren't there.
They wanted a way to hang the murder rap on the crook who sold the car
like that, so a law was born.

If you want to fix it and drive it, there would be no problem - but
if you don't take it to the wrecking yard, eventually you are going to
sell the car.

Most of the time, when the bags are deployed you also have to change
out all the triggering control boxes behind the grille and a bunch of
other stuff beside just the bags themselves - which is why many cars
over three or four years old get totaled out when the bags deploy. It
is too expensive to fix the bodywork damage AND replace all the
airbags and sensors, AND repair the interior and broken windshield
that were damaged by the airbags when they deployed.

Unless you want to spend a lot of money and effort fixing up the
car, it probably makes more sense to hand it down again - this time to
a junkyard.

--<< Bruce >>--