How to diconnect 28 yr old airbag…that worries me re safety of unit on Honda
Great will that affect anything else?
Yes. If you get into a wreck that would have deployed the airbag, you’ll get hurt more than you would otherwise.
4 Likes
Thanks for your help.
I can’t speak for that vehicle, for my Miata, when one of the controller boards for the airbag failed, it was causing my check engine light to blink. Removing the board completely, and removing a clip from the connector fixed the check engine light issue. I, of course, no longer have a functioning airbag as a result. It is the same vintage as your Honda.
I guess I’m just an old fuddy-duddy, but with a small, light car like a del Sol, or Miata, I would want all the crash protection I could get. and a tremendous amount of that comes from a functioning airbag.
2 Likes
Sorry but I have to know. Why are you contemplating disabling your airbag? If it’s because of those defective Takata airbags, any Honda dealer should be able to replace them free under recall. I had the airbags replaced in my Corolla a few years ago.
2 Likes
The 1993 Honda doesn’t have defective Takata airbags.
Tester
Which leaves open the question of “Why?”
1 Like
It doesn’t matter.
The OP asked how to do it.
Tester
1 Like
This vehicle predates the Takata airbag problem by almost a decade but I can understand the fear of becoming the next headless Honda driver. Takata airbags have caused 28 deaths and 400 injuries.
I am not positive if the article I read some time ago is valid but it claimed that the first Air Bags were meant to be replaced after 10 to 15 years . Now they might still work on this 1993 or they might activate when they shouldn’t so I don’t fault the person for wanting to disable it.
I might argue that it does matter if there’s a safety issue involved. After all, if someone asks us how to disable the brakes on a car, we’re probably going to want to make sure they aren’t planning to murder anyone before we tell them. 
2 Likes
If the ABS locked up the brakes on your vehicle where you couldn’t drive it, but I knew how to get it to unlock, you wouldn’t want me to tell you?
Tester
Disabling the brakes and turning off ABS are two different things.
1 Like
No it’s not.
You’re still tampering with a safety system.
So, with your logic, I’m not going to tell you how to unlock the brakes!
Tester
Then it’s a good thing I already know how to do it!
The difference, I thought, was clear. If you’re looking to turn off ABS because it’s malfunctioning, so that you can safely drive the car to a shop and get it fixed, that’s a very different story from wanting to disable the brakes. There is no reasonable scenario in which eliminating the car’s ability to stop is a good idea.
There are very few scenarios where disabling the airbag is a particularly good idea either (Takata issues notwithstanding). I’d question the need to answer someone asking “how do I permanently destroy my seat belt” too. Certainly with all three of those questions, we should at least try to ascertain whether OP is trying to fix their own car, or trying to pull a prank on someone else’s. I doubt you have any more interest than I in helping OP disable someone else’s safety systems.
That’s the difference between you and me.
I simply answer the OP’s question.
I don’t digress into a subject that the OP never asked like some on this board.
It’s their property.
And why what they want to do to their own property is none of my damn business.
Tester
1 Like
Valid outlook. But then so’s mine. Doesn’t mean either of us is wrong.
From my perspective a) it’s my damn business because these people are sharing the roads with other people, and I’m going to be annoyed if someone tells them how to do something dumb to their car, they do it, and then ram in to someone, and maybe even my car. B) I have the right to choose whether or not I want to help someone do something dumb, and I can’t exercise that right if I don’t find out whether or not they’re planning to do something dumb. And c) I’d personally rather not potentially help generate the headline “he disabled a safety feature and Car Talk taught him how!” 
2 Likes