DIY steering wheel airbag repair

In detail: do-it-yourself steering wheel airbag repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

The passive safety system in the form of airbags is triggered in the event of a strong impact of the car in the forehead or from the side against another object. Regardless of driving speed, the engagement of the SRS is also influenced by the collision angle, the stiffness of the collision object and the vehicle coverage. As a result, deployed airbags destroy the vehicle dashboard.

By the combination of the above factors, it becomes clear that an accident can cause minimal damage, and can have catastrophic consequences for your transport. Therefore, the choice of a repair method - independent or professional - will depend on the total amount of damage.

It will be better to restore the torpedo of a heavily damaged vehicle in a car repair shop. According to the most conservative estimates, such a service will cost from 5 to 10 thousand rubles. depending on the region. The cost will be influenced by the quality of the selected materials and the amount of restoration work, and the final amount may exceed 25 thousand rubles.

If, as a result of a traffic accident, the car is not badly damaged from the inside and is functioning quite stably, and you have enough manual labor skills and patience, then you can independently restore the torpedo after the airbags are deployed.

There are three main approaches to repairing a dashboard after an airbag has deployed:

Functional repairs to dashboards include mechanical restorations. The dashboard and steering wheel are installed in place, and new airbags are mounted under them. After that, the program resets the information about the actuation of the pillows;
Full repair of the dashboard of the cabin includes not only mechanical repairs, but also aesthetic ones. The console is dismantled, a complete hauling is carried out using the selected materials, a new SRS complex is inserted under the steering wheel and covers and reprogramming is carried out. This method makes it possible not only to recreate the transport security system, but also to change its internal appearance;
Rough repairs are suitable for cases where the car has received minimal damage and does not need serious restoration procedures. In this case, the holes where the pillows used to be are filled with polyurethane foam, and the covers are installed in their original place. This method is bad in that in the event of a new accident, the SRS complex will not work, because there will be nothing to work. By resorting to the third type of repair, you endanger not only your life, but also the lives of your passengers.

Video (click to play).

When choosing a material for a constriction, car owners, as a rule, choose between four main options - vinyl, eco-leather, alcantara and genuine leather. Vinyl is more commonly used for covers and is not a good choice for a console cover for purely aesthetic reasons. Eco-leather and alcantara generally have a low degree of melting, therefore, at elevated temperatures, they will instantly begin to "slip".

Genuine leather is the most suitable option if you decide to cover the console.

Another essential element will be glue. It is better to buy high-temperature glue. To dilute it, you need acetone and an activator. As a rule, diluted glue is enough for 5-6 hours, then it begins to harden, its adhesive ability deteriorates, and bubbles appear on the surface.

The third substance used in the repair is putty or primer, which is necessary to cover the surfaces to be cleaned.It can be selected at any auto store and most mid-range brands do their job well.

From tools, a hairdryer, brushes, brushes for applying glue, a degreaser, a plastic spatula, a knife, and threads can be useful.

Car dashboard repair is carried out according to the following instructions:

Dismantling the console. Carefully, without damaging the electronics, dismantle the front console and remove the old material from it, if any. Then rinse the panel thoroughly with detergent and a brush.
The new material will add an extra size to the torpedo, because of which the panel runs the risk of not replacing it, and the devices will not fit into the holes. To prevent this from happening, file the edges of the holes 1–3 mm, taking into account the thickness of the covering material.
Make patterns for the new panel. Remember to place the seams on the bends of the console. Also, do not forget about the seam allowance (8-10 mm).

Sew the material on the pattern and try it on the panel. Try to put the "dressed" torpedo in place. If everything fits perfectly and there is no empty space between the devices and the bends, then you can proceed to the fifth stage. If the panel does not fit in any place, then try to file the folds a little more. If voids appear between the panel and the devices, additional millimeters can be built up using silicone grease or thermoplastic.
All damages on the surface of the console are sanded and treated with a primer, and the places of fractures are cleaned, leveled and processed with putty.
Before pasting, the panel is treated with a degreaser and wiped with acetone or alcohol.
Next, gluing is done. They do it starting from the top of the console and moving towards the bottom. After applying the glue, the material is applied and carefully leveled with a rubber trowel. You can use a hair dryer to stretch the material.
Before the final installation of the console, the airbags are mounted, the program is reset.
Two days later, when the glue is finally set, the torpedo is installed in its original place.

It is important to remember that poor-quality treatment of fracture sites in the event of a repeated accident threatens to damage the face with spalling pieces of putty and plastic. Also, do not place any objects in place of the airbag covers - in a collision, they will also fly into the faces of the driver and passenger.

In this video, you will learn how to drag a torpedo with your skin.

Let's talk about how to properly replace the airbag, what pitfalls there can be when replacing it, and what parts, besides the airbag itself, fail additionally.

Airbags are considered an important safety item in a car. It is simply impossible to imagine a modern foreign car without such a security system, since most of the standards provide for a mandatory presence even in basic configurations. The security system is often referred to as AirBag or SRS. Some drivers think that airbags will deploy when the car is hit hard on the hood. But in reality this is not at all the case, they are triggered in a hard collision and at a speed of more than 30 km / h. It is at such a moment that the car receives a negative movement, which is recorded by special sensors.

The entire security system consists not only of a tissue ball, which is filled with compressed air, but also of a number of sensors, sensors, an on-board computer and a control unit. Therefore, replacing one pillow on the steering wheel will not work.

If you are weak in electronics, then I’ll say right away that you should not start this business yourself, you will not be able to do with just unscrewing the bolts and replacing it with a new part, you will have to rearrange the sensors, flash the control unit.

The on-board computer has its own nuances, and when the airbag is triggered, the on-board computer writes the error into memory. Therefore, it will also have to be replaced entirely, if not flashed.

Consider the replacement process itself, when the impact fell on the front or rear bumper, these are the situations that arise most often. To do this, we need to replace two pillows, the driver's on the steering wheel and the passenger.

First, disconnect the battery terminals. This is done not only in order to secure the work, but also when you change the pillow, the sensor at this time will be turned off and the on-board computer will perceive it as if the damaged one was not disconnected. Otherwise, it will give an error, and the on-board computer will write it into memory. The steering wheel cushion is easy to change, it is necessary to snap off the central part, disconnect the contacts and install a new one, collecting everything in the reverse order.

Disassembly should start with the steering wheel. It is on it that the most exposed parts, bolts and latches are located. Remove the steering wheel cover, and unscrew the airbag on the steering wheel, regardless of whether it worked or not. Under it is the mounting bolt of the steering wheel itself, by unscrewing it, we can remove the steering wheel. After removing the steering wheel, go to the bottom of the protection above the pedals, for this you will have to unscrew the latches around the perimeter and a few bolts under the steering wheel cover. Having removed the protection, you can easily reach both the on-board computer and the center console.

Now we get access to the center console, most of it is kept on latches from the inside, prying with a screwdriver, you can pull out the radio and everything that keeps on the front console, now you can easily remove the torpedo.

It often happens that the pillow damages the torpedo skin, so the entire panel will have to be changed completely, we are considering the case when only the pillow itself needs to be changed. It is worth removing the panel carefully, since you can damage the skin or fasteners, immediately tune in to the fact that there will be a lot of fasteners and latches in a foreign car to remove the panel. It is best to carry out such a procedure in a covered room or garage, since you cannot invest in a couple of hours, it sometimes takes several days, given that the damaged bumper will also need to be replaced. After removing the torpedo, we proceed to replace the airbag, since these models provided for the case of replacing the airbags without replacing the torpedo.

After disconnecting the wires, remove the airbag mechanism, install the new airbag mechanism in reverse order and connect the wires.

On average, a driver's pillow costs about $ 250 to $ 400, a passenger pillow costs from $ 300 to $ 400, it all depends on the year of manufacture of the car. Some services offer services for the repair and replacement of airbags, such work costs 3000? 7000 rubles for a passenger, and repair of a driver's airbag (steering wheel with a squib) - 5000? 12000 rubles.

Here is the price list of a Moscow auto studio with prices for AirBag repair services (prices as of 04/28/2015):

repair dashboard dashboard from 10,000 to 12,000 rubles
replacement of the squib in the torpedo from 4000 to 5000 rubles
repair of seat belts 1500 rubles
repair of the driver's airbag 3000 rubles
replacement of the driver's squib from 4000 to 5000 rubles
repair of the airbag control unit from 3000 to 5000 rubles

After replacing all sensors, deployed airbags and other damaged parts, you should not rush to assemble the torpedo back, since you still have to deal with the on-board computer, you will have two options for solving the problem:

The first is a complete replacement of the on-board computer with a new one. The cost of a new one will cost about $ 1000.

The second option is to flash new software, at a reputable service station, the cost of such a firmware can range from $ 100 to $ 200, but it does not guarantee that it will work even when there was no impact.

The cost of a complete car repair with the replacement of pillows and other damaged parts largely depends on the nature of the damage and usually starts at $ 1000.

If you decide to flash a computer at home, then for this you will need a laptop, special software exactly for the make and model of your car, a cord for connecting the laptop to the on-board computer and a good knowledge of using a computer. This is worth starting if you plan to repair and replace SRS pillows in the future, since the cost of one cord can start from $ 50, not to mention software or a laptop. The process of flashing itself is not worth describing, since it is unique for each car model.

The whole point is to replace the software in the block, in new foreign cars I would still advise you to completely replace the block, since the response sensor is disposable, even if you do the whole procedure correctly, you will not have the result you want. That is, the next time the pillows may not work. For more reliable operation and verification, I would advise you to first collect everything on old pillows with a fresh control unit and a reset error in the on-board computer. In this case, everything should work, as before, the AirBag indicator on the dashboard should not blink, but if something is wrong, the indicator will show an error in the operation of the airbags.

If the firmware was successful, then you can safely collect everything in the reverse order, you will definitely save money not small than what you would have to pay at the service center, but for this you will need to re-read a lot and tinker around the car.

The most difficult thing is the firmware of the on-board computer, especially in new cars, where it is in full control of the car.

Video with expert advice on how to replace airbags:

So we have a bummed steering wheel airbag. A new whole is expensive. Therefore, when restoring a car after an accident, many people prefer to simply heal the old one. This service is popular, from one to three pillows a week passes through our box. These are rudders and torpedoes and seats. Image - DIY steering wheel airbag repair

This is what the pillow usually looks like when it is brought to us.

The first step is to disassemble the pillow. We need to pull out the metal base with the pyro cartridge from it. If the actuated pillow itself has not yet been cut off, cut it off or its remnants so as not to fold them back later. If there is a badge, remove it. Further, by heating the plastic with a hairdryer, we give the protruding "petals" of the activated pillow a shape close to the original one. We need this for the convenience of further work.

Now you need to use super glue to fix the torn pieces together. It is better to do this in stages, starting from the corners. Then it will turn out neatly and smoothly. The more evenly it turns out to fit the petals to each other, the less then you have to putty.

It is NOT NECESSARY to fill the entire seam with glue at once. You won't be able to fit it all at once.

After gluing, I seal the place under the badge with molar tape so as not to damage or scratch the plastic inside the badge.

The next stage could be done both the first and the second and any before sanding the plastic. This is the selection of material for restoration. They can be genuine leather, leatherette, and PVC film. The main thing is to get as much as possible into the color and texture of the native plastic. In this case, I was approached by a piece of German automobile leatherette left over from some kind of torpedo.

Now we need to start strengthening the seams and the central part of the pillow, so that during further use they do not disperse or the putty does not lag behind along with our material. To do this, from the inside, the seams are sealed with a banal soldering iron. After that, notches (scratches) are made on the central part.

The pillow is already sealed and scratched.

The scratches are needed so that the epoxy has something to grab onto. We also glue the central part from the inside with something (in this case, it is electrical tape) so that the epoxy does not leak through the holes from the attachment of the badge to the front of the pillow.

Take a closer look. Scratches cover the entire surface, including solder seams.

Next, we cut out a piece of glass mat and fit it to the central part of the wrong side of the pillow. Having previously degreased the plastic of the pillow with acetone.

We dilute the epoxy resin and fill in glass mat, thoroughly saturating it and expelling all air bubbles with a metal stick or knitting needle. The mat can be impregnated with a brush. But I am too lazy to wash the brush, and the consumption of acetone increases significantly. The resin has nowhere to run from this part, so you can simply pour it here.

We fill the whole thing with epoxy and go home to sleep, otherwise it’s too late, for something we sat up at work

After the epoxy has dried, sand the entire surface of the pillow with a coarse sandpaper.

On the inside along the edges we make notches. They are necessary for gluing the edges of the material. You can make them with a coarse skin, but as a rule, you can't crawl anywhere with it, it's easier with a knife.

The same scratches as for epoxy setting.

We putty and skin, we putty and skin, we putty and skin. Professionals do it in one or two approaches. The first time I did it 5 or 6. This time I did it with three. It is necessary that the entire surface was perfectly flat to the touch, even without a hint of glued seams.

Next, we measure and cut off the required piece of material.

Cut off with a small margin. Just in case. It is better to trim later than to make a new one.

We mark and place on the material the cliché SRS AIRBAG. If you are making a pillow for yourself, and you do not have a cliche, you can certainly do without it. It is better to put it on the material, and not on the finished product. Since it happens that it does not work out. And in this case, only a piece of material will shrink, and not the whole work.

Now we smear the pillow and the material with glue, dry it until tack free and stick it starting with the inscription SRS AIRBAG, i.e. first, we center the inscription, fix it with strong compression of the surfaces to be glued, and only then pull the material to the sides. You can also glue on "Moment", but it is better to use something more special, for example KLEIBERIT C 152 or hundred and fourteen.

Gently cut in place and glue the ends of the material to the inside.

For a snug fit of the edges to all irregularities on the seamy side of the pillow, we use half of the scissors.

As a result, the outer edge should turn out to be even, for this it may be necessary to pull up the material in some places, gluing it from the inside.

With the final touch, glue the badge back in and collect all the insides of the pillow in place.

The metal center is riveted back to the plastic.

The place for the badge is cut out along the edges of the oval. The plastic in the badge remains original. Everything about everything takes an average of one working day.

Author; Ivan Zinoviev Angarsk, Irkutsk Region

Others, as a result of an accident, shot the driver's and passenger's airbags, plus belts.
There is no desire to sell the car, there is a desire to repair it.
The question arises in what way? (we do not take into account the question of the torpedo and overlays)

1. a number of offices offer to change pyro cartridges, iron out the available pillows, sew them up and fold them into place.

2. other offices say that it is necessary to take ready-made blocks of pillows with pyro cartridges and connect them.

3.the third generally consider it all a disastrous business and offer new pillows from some magic cars of the same brand and new pyro cartridges
In any case, everyone is talking about flashing the cps block.

What method of restoring pillows will be effective. that is, they will again become functionally suitable, and not just 35-40 thousand thrown into the wind

zs and what about the belts? some say we change the squibs and everything works, and the second say that the new squibs will not work (block and pull up)

PS: sort of like "bummed pillows" - disposable crap.

1. a number of offices offer to change the pyro cartridges, iron out the available pillows, sew them up and fold them into place.

2. other offices say that it is necessary to take ready-made blocks of pillows with pyro cartridges and connect them.

What method of restoring pillows will be effective. that is, they will again become functionally suitable, and not just 35-40 thousand thrown into the wind

zs and what about the belts? some say we change the squibs and everything works, and the second say that the new squibs will not work (block and pull up)

Safety is an important part, and airbags play a very important role in it. Here we will discuss how to replace them. You have to do this either because of a malfunction, or because the accident has already happened, the pillows are shot and now you need to put new ones.

Many drivers are confident that the airbags will deploy even in a light collision, but in fact they will only deploy in a hard collision at speeds above 30 km / h. The bottom line is that there are negative sensors that control the shot.

In general, the whole mechanism consists of a large number of sensors, so you cannot replace only the fabric, you will have to change some of the sensors.

If you are well versed in cars, and most importantly in electronics, then you can do this, but if you have little knowledge, then it is better to contact the service. The fact is that you will have to work with sensors and deal with firmware.

You also need to flash the on-board computer, which remembers the impact and stores it in its memory. In some models, the checkpoint goes into emergency mode, and some are stitched only in order to say in the secondary market that the car is not damaged.

We'll talk about replacing the front airbags, which are most often deployed in a front or rear impact. These types of accidents occur most often and therefore we will discuss this particular type of pillow.

Changing the steering wheel is not so difficult, but before that you need to disconnect the terminals from the battery. Firstly, this will ensure the safety of work, and secondly, the sensor will be turned off and the on-board computer will not think that the removal was performed.

Otherwise, the bortovik will write an error. Your task is to remove the central part of the steering column, disconnect all contacts and remove the pillows, and therefore install a new one in the reverse order.

Here everything is a little more complicated, the fact is that in most cars the pillow is located behind the dashboard. Most often, after a shot, the casing deteriorates. On some cars, the system is attached to the car's frame and you have to remove the dashboard to replace it.

The first thing to do is to remove the cover from the steering wheel and remove the pillows, even if it is in good condition. It is also necessary to unscrew the mounting bolt and remove the steering wheel itself. After that, you can see a few more bolts above the pedals, they also need to be unscrewed, this will give you the opportunity to get to the center console.

Next, you need to unlatch the latches with a screwdriver on the center console. This will help you remove the head unit and everything else. After disconnecting all this, you can remove the dash panel, but this must be done carefully.

If the panel was damaged, and it happens on some cars, then unfortunately you will have to change the panel. In this case, we will analyze only the replacement of the pillow, if the panel is intact. It is necessary to remove the panel carefully so as not to damage it, fasteners and the pillow itself. If you have a foreign car, then there will be a lot of fasteners, follow this.

It is advisable to do everything in a garage with lighting, since the procedure is not quick, sometimes you have to spend a couple of days. It is also worth remembering that after an accident you have damage to the body, which also needs to be corrected, but more on that later.

Remember, most likely the seat belts, windshield and some other car parts require repair.

Your task is to remove, disconnect all suitable wires and dismantle the mechanism itself. Then you need to put everything new, but in the reverse order. But it's worth remembering that it's not worth climbing if you don't understand automotive electronics.

All this will not be cheap, on average a pillow costs 15,000 rubles for both driver and passenger. Of course, if you have an old car or a very budget one, everything will cost much less.

Also, all the necessary work can be done in the service, the replacement procedure itself will cost about 5,000 rubles, also depending on the car.

So, you have installed everything, but it is not worth assembling the dashboard, because your task is still to work on the on-board computer. You can just buy a new one, it will cost you about 50,000 rubles, but it's a little expensive. You can go to services and flash an old computer, it will cost 5 times cheaper, but there is no guarantee that everything will be fine.

As a result, the cost of all procedures in total is quite high, if you do everything to a minimum, then everything will cost about 50,000 rubles, and if you do everything efficiently, it can easily go beyond 100,000.

In order to do this, you need to take a computer, a laptop will be much more convenient. You will also need to buy or somehow find software for your car. And you will also need a special cable.

It is better, of course, not to do this, since the cable costs about 3 thousand, the software is also not cheap. If you still have all this, then, of course, it will be cheaper to do it yourself, but if not, then better go to the service.

Your task is simply to replace the old program with a new one, but if you have a new car, then it would be much more correct to install a new bortovik. The fact is that the regulation sensor is disposable and it is not a fact that everything will be perfect when the old one is flashed. To check, you can connect the old pillows, and see if the error icon on the instrument panel disappears, if so, you can connect new ones.

If you do not check the system, as described above, then there is a possibility that when you connect new ones, they will immediately shoot and you will have to change them again, and this is all expensive.

In general, there are not so many of them, the cars are different, so the system for installing pillows and fixing the dash panel is different. Otherwise, the essence is about the same for everyone. For example, in the 2nd generation Ford Focus, you do not need to disconnect the battery, because you can remove the required fuse from the mounting block and wait 15 minutes.

In the event that everything went well, then your task is to install the dashboard back and collect everything else to its original state. Replacing yourself can save you a significant amount of money and time. There is nothing complicated in this, except for fiddling with the on-board computer.

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Electronic security systems are the backbone of any modern car. The health and life of people in the car depends on these systems. One of them is airbags. In some cases, they require dismantling and replacement, especially on the steering wheel; their principle of operation is very unusual and requires careful study. When does the need arise to remove them and is it worth doing it yourself?Dismantling of airbags is carried out for certain reasons:

The system is triggered due to a car hit in an accident;

End of service life - on average, it is ten years, after which the pyrotechnic cartridges fail;

Failure of the electronic component of the security system.

High-speed ejection and filling with gas of the pillows is carried out thanks to special equipment - a gas generator. This part is considered the most difficult in terms of design and technical components in the entire security system.The inflation rate of airbags is very high: they are ejected three times faster than it takes a person to blink.The principle of operation of airbags is very simple: they are deployed at the moment of impact when the speed exceeds 20 km / h.

When a car collides with an obstacle on the track, sensors located on all sides of the vehicle are triggered.

The electronic control unit processes the signals received from the sensors. The command to eject airbags occurs only under certain conditions - for example, in a head-on collision, a hard landing of a car, overcoming a high curb.

The execution signal is given by the control unit based on the data received from the sensors and the programmed algorithm;

The gas generator receives a signal from the ECU, which triggers the pyrotechnic charge.

The gas generator contains sodium acid, which burns out after the igniter is triggered, which results in the release of a large amount of nitrogen, which inflates the airbags.

The safety block was developed back in the middle of the last century. With the introduction of electronics, it has undergone some changes, but the principle of operation has practically not changed. Car manufacturers do not adhere to any standards, moreover, many of them use their own designs.

At first glance, this seems to mean a narrow specification of the constituent parts. In fact, the opposite is true. The main components of the block:

set of sensors;
airbags;
SRS unit;
wiring;
lamp on the instrument panel;
squib;
belt tensioners.

The general principle has remained unchanged for many years. And it looks like this.

On impact, sensors are triggered - there can be up to 10 or even 15 of them. They provide the SRS unit with information about the location and force of the impact.
The electronic unit processes this information. Considering the side of the impact and the number of passengers, it gives a signal to activate the cushion and seat belt.
The squib is triggered and the covers are knocked out by the airbags.
Bleeding air through a special valve or hole.

In addition to the points listed above, one point must be clarified. During the deployment of the airbags, Crash Data is recorded in the electronic unit. After that, it ceases to function.

As already stated, it is not enough just to put on another pillow. It won't function. For proper operation, the following activities will be required.

Replacement of shock sensors.

Re-flashing or installing a new SRS electronic unit.

Check and possible replacement of all block wiring.

Replacing the airbags that deployed on impact.

If it is not possible to pick up original components, then you should not despair. Almost every car service will be able to adapt elements of available manufacturers to the car. But there is nothing better than the original.If there is a breakdown of the electronic module, then when buying substitutes, you need to take into account the number of airbags in the car and the unit. They must match exactly.Removing and installing airbags is a traumatic occupation. It is important to follow all safety precautions. What can happen? It's all about the triggering of the squib.The speed at which the airbag takes off is approximately 200 km / h, and on some models even 300. It is not difficult to imagine the consequences of such a blow during installation or dismantling.What do you need to do to keep yourself safe?