Air bag resistor info needed

[slomoshun]

Changing steering wheel after mot on my Rover 820 to a dished sport wheel.
As car as airbag which will no longer be in use i will fit a resistor the common way to bypass the air bag light.
What one will i need ?
Thanks in advance for information.
I know air bags are there for a reason but I'm not the first or last to do this conversion.

[Rich]

2-4 ohms should do it. Get a selection from maplin within that range and try it.

[slomoshun]

Thanks Rich for info

[slomoshun]

anyone know of an air bag list that tells you correct resistor to fit if changing to sport steering wheel doing away with airbag
thanks

[Rich]

Jan 27, 2015 21:05:31 GMT slomoshun said:

anyone know of an air bag list that tells you correct resistor to fit if changing to sport steering wheel doing away with airbag
thanks

..2-4 ohms. Like I said. I have this info from an auto-electrician. There is not a 'list' that I know of, it's comes from trial, error and experience.

[slomoshun]

thanks
2ohm being a minimum and 4 ohms a maximum onder if 3 ohms down the middle would be ok
trying to get it right first time so don't trip out the air bag light needing resetting at garage

[Rich]

3 ohm sounds fine but there is no promise it'll work straight up. Does the car have any other pyro-electric airbag Equipment or just the drivers squib?

[Rich]

Also, what year rover 800 is it as some had a proprietary airbag diagnostic connector that I doubt any garages still have.

[slomoshun]

passenger side as airbag thats it / mine is later mk2

[fuldatramp]

Do you have a multimeter? Unplug it and test across the terminals, it will tell you exactly what resistance it is in ohms. Then you can buy one the same, eBay have loads of choice

[slomoshun]

no multimeter but when you buy momo wheel they supply a generic resistor so assume they expect it to fit all which might not be the case
don't think many people change steering wheel on 820 as most are owned by anorak owners who would see it as a big no no but I'm different and want something a tad different
taken me few months to source a boss kit but thanks to 820 on here he put me in right direction

[Rich]

Jan 28, 2015 15:15:13 GMT fuldatramp said:

Do you have a multimeter? Unplug it and test across the terminals, it will tell you exactly what resistance it is in ohms. Then you can buy one the same, eBay have loads of choice

No. No no, don't ever do that. To test ohms, multimeters output power, which is what sets airbags off. It's admittedly unlikely, but I'd never risk that myself.

[fuldatramp]

Jan 29, 2015 8:33:37 GMT Rich said:

Jan 28, 2015 15:15:13 GMT fuldatramp said:

Do you have a multimeter? Unplug it and test across the terminals, it will tell you exactly what resistance it is in ohms. Then you can buy one the same, eBay have loads of choice

No. No no, don't ever do that. To test ohms, multimeters output power, which is what sets airbags off. It's admittedly unlikely, but I'd never risk that myself.

I had a couple of multimeters out today and decided to test to see what the output power was during testing for resistance, my fluke gave out 0.2V and 0.22mA giving a wattage of 0.00004 watts - an LED usually takes around 20mA or (0.044Watts), so a meter is low low power I googled how much power it would take to activate an airbag but didn't come up with anything conclusive, personally I think the multimeter is so low power voltage and current (which is restricted and fused) that it wouldn't set an airbag off especially when you consider that normal activation voltage will be 12v

[Rich]

Jan 30, 2015 17:17:31 GMT fuldatramp said:

Jan 29, 2015 8:33:37 GMT Rich said:

No. No no, don't ever do that. To test ohms, multimeters output power, which is what sets airbags off. It's admittedly unlikely, but I'd never risk that myself.

I had a couple of multimeters out today and decided to test to see what the output power was during testing for resistance, my fluke gave out 0.2V and 0.22mA giving a wattage of 0.00004 watts - an LED usually takes around 20mA or (0.044Watts), so a meter is low low power I googled how much power it would take to activate an airbag but didn't come up with anything conclusive, personally I think the multimeter is so low power voltage and current (which is restricted and fused) that it wouldn't set an airbag off especially when you consider that normal activation voltage will be 12v

Kudos for testing! Still, wouldn't want to risk it, but it looks even less likely that it could happen.

[slomoshun]

still considering what resistor / momo one is generic / wonder if thats a result of research on their part ?

[fuldatramp]

Jan 30, 2015 18:05:42 GMT Rich said:

Jan 30, 2015 17:17:31 GMT fuldatramp said:

I had a couple of multimeters out today and decided to test to see what the output power was during testing for resistance, my fluke gave out 0.2V and 0.22mA giving a wattage of 0.00004 watts - an LED usually takes around 20mA or (0.044Watts), so a meter is low low power I googled how much power it would take to activate an airbag but didn't come up with anything conclusive, personally I think the multimeter is so low power voltage and current (which is restricted and fused) that it wouldn't set an airbag off especially when you consider that normal activation voltage will be 12v

Kudos for testing! Still, wouldn't want to risk it, but it looks even less likely that it could happen.

[

Thinking about it, there must be a voltage/current running through it all the time (or at least at startup) to let the car know that the airbag is healthy and undeployed, otherwise you get the fault light up, (I would imagine after an airbag has deployed the circuit would go open curcuit and bring up your fault code/indication - the same as being unplugged)

So if your car is passing voltage/current through it you should be ok with your meter