Air Bag Disarm?

[ChiTDI]

Received an "Urgent Important Safety Recall" from Subaru.
Called the purchasing dealer for service and was told the first appointment available was July 9th !
I made the call April 9th.
Notification stated DO NOT drive with a passenger in the front passenger seat.
Can I disable the passenger airbag (fuse pull) safely ?
I'm not familiar with these systems and don't want to go where I shouldn't .
Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Dave Sherman]

Generally you should be able to unplug the inflator. The harnesses are designed so that when they are unplugged, they will safely short circuit the ignitor to minimize accidentally inflating it. Pulling the fuse may not be enough since the airbag controller stores a charge to fire the airbags in case the electrical system is compromised in an accident. Note that when it's unplugged, the controller will sense it's not connected and you'll have the airbag light on.

 

[exranger06]

Many modern cars will not deploy the passenger side airbag unless there is actually someone sitting in the passenger seat (there's a weight sensor in the seat). So you don't need to do anything to the airbag if you only drive alone. If you do drive with a passenger, I would absolutely NOT disable the airbag. First, because even though there's a chance it may shoot metal fragments out, most likely it WON'T, and it will deploy normally. I would much rather take my chances with one of these defective airbags in a crash than have no airbag at all. (I actually HAVE gotten into an accident with the "defective" airbags, before they even recalled them. They deployed normally.) Second, because you've just shifted responsibility/liability onto yourself if your passenger got injured in an accident. Someone got hurt because of the defective airbag? Let them sue Takata or the automaker. You didn't install the defective part. Someone got injured because YOU disabled the airbag? They're gonna sue YOU. Nope, I don't recommend it. If you're that concerned about it, make your passengers ride in the backseat until you get the recall done.

 

[dogememe]

Originally Posted by exranger06
Many modern cars will not deploy the passenger side airbag unless there is actually someone sitting in the passenger seat (there's a weight sensor in the seat). So you don't need to do anything to the airbag if you only drive alone. If you do drive with a passenger, I would absolutely NOT disable the airbag. First, because even though there's a chance it may shoot metal fragments out, most likely it WON'T, and it will deploy normally. I would much rather take my chances with one of these defective airbags in a crash than have no airbag at all. (I actually HAVE gotten into an accident with the "defective" airbags, before they even recalled them. They deployed normally.) Second, because you've just shifted responsibility/liability onto yourself if your passenger got injured in an accident. Someone got hurt because of the defective airbag? Let them sue Takata or the automaker. You didn't install the defective part. Someone got injured because YOU disabled the airbag? They're gonna sue YOU. Nope, I don't recommend it. If you're that concerned about it, make your passengers ride in the backseat until you get the recall done.

This 100%

 

[ChiTDI]

Yeah, this was my thinking and the family has gotten use to Driving Miss Daisy.
Appreciate your posts, thank you.