Early Retirement Extreme Forums

hello IRS AI-algorithms

Did you perchance check whether your model is included in the Takata recall?

If it were me I'd probably just drive without it, assuming you live in a state that doesn't have annual inspections. Nobody had airbags prior to the early 1990s. I recall debates over whether they were really more effective than just getting everyone to wear seatbelts, and that seatbelt use might go down because people will think the airbag is all they need.

Airbags don't always deploy in an accident that totals the vehicle. Check junkyards. The workers at the yard may know someone who can remove the bags from a donor vehicle and install them in your car. If you go to his route be sure to watch the installation process. These junkyard mechanics can save you a lot of money but they are also the people most likely to know how to trick the sensor.

One friend was in a similar situation. He just drove to the car dealer and took an other car. But he weights 130kg and exchanged powder propeled projectiles with other people in an African electoral conflict.

Stahlmann wrote: ↑

Sun May 12, 2019 12:06 am

7. The intention of owning this car is to ride to the death...

Well, not having the airbag, I would think the likelihood of that happening has increased.

Air bags are the new car radios for thieves who don't want the entire car. It was most likely stolen and the seller didn't want to replace it. Or he removed it and sold it. As a previous poster pointed out, people used to drive in cars with engines in the trunk, eating hot dogs, without seat belts, their arms fully extended out the windows, children power vomiting all over the back of their heads, with a huge paper map sprawled out, covering the entire front windshield. It was like a death trap on wheels and no one gave a Chevrolet shit until Ralph Nader thought it over. At least that's how my family did it. And here I am. Fucked up beyond repair but alive nonetheless. And seat belts and air bags are great until you find yourself upside down, concussed and submerged in a body of water. In that situation, not having one could actually save your life.

Go to eBay. Buy a OBDII reader dongle. This is a small plug that plugs into a jack under your dash. Now download an app like torque to read codes on your phone.

Now you can read/clear and look up codes, without assistance and you have spent around $10.

Now go on YouTube, and get familiar with airbag service. Know how to remove power from the circuit. Some cars, you just pull the fuse, others you may remove the negative battery connector. I imagine it's possible that some car, somewhere, may need a capacitor drained, so look up the procedure for your car. It will be available as a manual for the factory service techs, and available in some form on the internet. Remember, you are playing with explosives, make no mistakes in your preparation. But this is a straight forward process that techs deal with daily.

Now go check your airbags. Replace as necessary. Buy used, that's the internet is for.

Or, you can spend the same amount of time and effort and more money, trying to get someone else to do it. Or, spend more time, and more money, trying to impose your ideas of a Just Universe on someone else, through courts, or go all vigilante, if you have that kind of time.

But overall, you would probably be best served by treating this as a learning opportunity, and just fixing it yourself, if any fixing is even necessary. It could be just oxidized contacts.

Good luck.

Riggerjack wrote: ↑

Fri May 17, 2019 12:54 pm

Go to eBay. Buy a OBDII reader dongle.

You can also go to an auto parts store and ask them to pull the code for free.

You can even read the code yourself for free! On my car you connect pins 4 and 13 with a paperclip (the pins are numbered left to right on the first row, then on the second row) then turn the key without starting. The various dashboard lights will flash in a pattern that corresponds to the code. Google "[vehicle make and model] obd2 codes". There's a way to reset them as well; on my car it's by tapping the brake pedal multiple times in rapid succession.