Airbags

[gti89]

dear experts

where can i buy srs airbags for prado 95? steering and the front airbags..

i contacted the toyota company but the prices are damn high.

thanks in advance

[Crosswind]

That's one thing you should never compromise on.
Either get them from the company, import them directly from Japan or buy them from a reputed source (MM perhaps?).
Someone's life depends on it.

[Komisiripala]

^^ what he said.

[Crosswind]

Haiyo...

This is the kind of advice you shouldn't give even to your enemy.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Supra_Natural

[VVTi]

.

I bet you re-use condoms... Edited March 28, 2014 by Supra_Natural

[Watchman]

t.

How do you plan to check if it works? If it doesn't; you might as well buy a pillow case and stuff it into your steering wheel.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Supra_Natural

[Crosswind]

I bet you re-use condoms...

or buy used condoms

[maheshw]

Is prado 95 ones came original with Driver & passenger SRS? if so best is to import the whole thing. are you going to replace or newly fix ?

[nano31]

I bet you re-use condoms...

or buy used condoms

Talking with own experience?

How do you plan to check if it works?

For my curiosity,how to check brand new one?

Could not expect much of price difference whatever the source, I just gave the cheapest option;

Just keeping my feet on the earth!

Edited March 25, 2014 by nano31

[Hoonigan]

There's no way around it. Airbags are expensive no matter where you look. And it's best to make sure that they get installed accurately with all the sensors checked to ensure that they WILL deploy if the need be. Don't take shortcuts like used parts or the garage next door.

[The Don]

First and foremost, you should be able to buy the airbags unit, not the entire steering rack.

To be perfectly honest I do not see the issue of buying a second hand steering wheel with the airbag as long as the unit is intact. Most vehicles of this genre are nearly 15 years old and nobody has changed their airbags so it won't be any worse than anybody else.

Airbags do have a finite life but I've not heard of them being routinely replaced.

But the issue is more the quality of the repair if an accident has caused air bags to deploy and the replacement of the sensors. That is probably the harder job.

[Hoonigan]

First and foremost, you should be able to buy the airbags unit, not the entire steering rack.

To be perfectly honest I do not see the issue of buying a second hand steering wheel with the airbag as long as the unit is intact. Most vehicles of this genre are nearly 15 years old and nobody has changed their airbags so it won't be any worse than anybody else.

Airbags do have a finite life but I've not heard of them being routinely replaced.

But the issue is more the quality of the repair if an accident has caused air bags to deploy and the replacement of the sensors. That is probably the harder job.

I guess the issue with a second hand unit is the uncertainty about the condition of the donor when it was removed. Where a unit out of the factory has a better guarantee of working properly. But yes, it is more of a precautionary choice to go for a brand new unit.

But then again, if the previous owners of the vehicles we are driving right now replaced the airbags with second hand units for whatever reason, we are none the wiser about it either.

[The Don]

I guess the issue with a second hand unit is the uncertainty about the condition of the donor when it was removed. Where a unit out of the factory has a better guarantee of working properly. But yes, it is more of a precautionary choice to go for a brand new unit.

But then again, if the previous owners of the vehicles we are driving right now replaced the airbags with second hand units for whatever reason, we are none the wiser about it either.

Hoonigan, I understand your point. But its not difficult to acertain whether the airbag has deployed or not. Usually when the airbags deploy seals around the unit break, and its virtually impossible to put everything back together the way it was.

Factory original for any part is always better than second hand, but in a country where break discs, calipers etc are replaced second hand, and some time ago entire panels which include crumple zones welded in to repair damaged vehicles, I hardly see a massive issue of using an intact second hand airbag or a complete steering wheel complete with airbag.

Mind you these parts are also used in the same way during conversions and upgrades like STI conversions. where used equipment is used including the airbags.

My major concern is if the airbag circuit is intact so will it deploy again during an accident.

[Watchman]

Hoonigan, I understand your point. But its not difficult to acertain whether the airbag has deployed or not. Usually when the airbags deploy seals around the unit break, and its virtually impossible to put everything back together the way it was.

Factory original for any part is always better than second hand, but in a country where break discs, calipers etc are replaced second hand, and some time ago entire panels which include crumple zones welded in to repair damaged vehicles, I hardly see a massive issue of using an intact second hand airbag or a complete steering wheel complete with airbag.

Mind you these parts are also used in the same way during conversions and upgrades like STI conversions. where used equipment is used including the airbags.

My major concern is if the airbag circuit is intact so will it deploy again during an accident.

This is the most critical thing that needs testing Brake disks, pads, suspension etc can all be tested by first driving slow and gradually increasing the force/stress on it. But with an airbag (and its related trigger mechanisms), its pretty much a black or white answer. There's no gray zone for testing if it works. So if you're gonna retrofit something onto your car and hope it saves your life when it really matter you might as well .spend on the real deal.

And if one is gonna count rupees and cents, may I bring out another point. The only time you'll 'use' the airbag is in the event of a major accident. And if the accident was serious enough to deploy the airbag, don't you think the price difference between a new airbag and a used one would be pretty insignificant compared to the rest of the accident repair?

And who knows, the extra $$$ you spend on the new airbag could be saved in medical bills or funeral expenses.

[Niranjan de Silva]

Well my question is how does one know when to change the airbags if the airbags have expiry dates?

[Rumesh88]

Well my question is how does one know when to change the airbags if the airbags have expiry dates?

Airbags do not carry expiry dates AFAIK but some manufacturers recommend a 10 year service life. They were introduced to the mass market products in late '80s and those bags are known to work reliably even after 25 years. Although the re-use of an airbag recovered from a scrapped vehicle (deliberately avoided the term "used airbag" for one cannot reuse an airbag once it is "used") is debatable, when you consider the reliability of the gadget it is not really a bad idea.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Rumesh88

[Hoonigan]

Hoonigan, I understand your point. But its not difficult to acertain whether the airbag has deployed or not. Usually when the airbags deploy seals around the unit break, and its virtually impossible to put everything back together the way it was.

My major concern is if the airbag circuit is intact so will it deploy again during an accident.

Don, this is exactly what I meant. By used, I didn't mean a deployed airbag put back together. I meant, for example, a complete steering wheel. Although the wheel and the unit is intact, testing if the mechanism is in decent enough shape is difficult.

And if I'm not mistaken, the newer airbags are triggered by an accelerometer located in the middle of the vehicle. So, there may be compatibility issues and an overall more complex system to put together to work as the factory intended it to.

[The Don]

This is the most critical thing that needs testing Brake disks, pads, suspension etc can all be tested by first driving slow and gradually increasing the force/stress on it. But with an airbag (and its related trigger mechanisms), its pretty much a black or white answer. There's no gray zone for testing if it works. So if you're gonna retrofit something onto your car and hope it saves your life when it really matter you might as well .spend on the real deal.

And if one is gonna count rupees and cents, may I bring out another point. The only time you'll 'use' the airbag is in the event of a major accident. And if the accident was serious enough to deploy the airbag, don't you think the price difference between a new airbag and a used one would be pretty insignificant compared to the rest of the accident repair?

And who knows, the extra $$$ you spend on the new airbag could be saved in medical bills or funeral expenses.

In most cases you can't just buy the airbag as in modern vehicles various trim items break while releasing the air bag, so you often have to buy entire units, like dash panels, trim panels, or steering wheel. So the cost can be considerable partcularly by Sri Lankan standard.

Airbags can deploy on fairly low speed colissions and everything depends on how you were hit.

And may I also point this out. Just because you replace the airbag brand spanking new, does not mean it will actually deploy in an accident, if the sensors that it rely on have not been replaced/ aligned/ repaired properly. Some of these brake triggering the circuit.

I have never heard of an intact airbag not deploying in an accident as long as all the other components involved in the circuit were intact, irrespective of how old the car is. As Rumesh pointed out they were first introduced in the early 90s accross most cars in Europe etc, though in Japan they only became common place in the late 90s (Japanese cars sold in Europe in the early 90s have airbags).

So I think the chances of an intact airbag unit not deploying because it is second hand or old is rather slim. What is more likely is in reparing the damaged panels, the rest of the airbag circuit has not been correctly repaired, so that is where the focus should lie.