Meriva airbags

The Bouncer

Hi just heard that the Meriva passenger airbag cannot be turned off except via an opel specific car seat containing a transponder that will disable the airbag when detected. Surely there must be some sort of manual override?? Otherwise there is no choice but to buy the opel dealer seat.....

Can anyone advise if this is the case or not

Thanks

B

Seth Brundle

Why would you want to turn it off? It may negate your insurance also if not declared!

bazz26

kbannon wrote:

Why would you want to turn it off? It may negate your insurance also if not declared!

I presume the OP is putting a baby chair in the front seat.

To the OP, the passenger air bag could possibly be disabled if done by an Opel garage as long as Opel's instructions are followed. However you will need to inform your insurance company of this. They will probably want a written signed report from the garage where the work is carried out specifing that it was done in accordance with the manufacturer's specific instructions. Your premium may rise too.

If indeed it is a baby seat you are fitting, I would fit it in the rear of the car.

The Bouncer

Hi Guys yeah it is for a child seat in the front. The rear facing seat has to be in the front for a small child when you are on your own in the car to be able to watch baby. I thought car manufacturers had to provide a manual override for front airbags??

crosstownk

A dealer should be able to de-activate the airbag for you. I've an 06 Zafira and it can be done by the dealer but I haven't bothered because I reckon junior is safer in the back. I'm not a fan of software deactivation simply because I've heard of tragedies with VW when the airbag was deactivated but still detonated in an accident killing the infant - I know of 2 cases some years back (1 in California and the other, I think, was in Germany). After that, VW recommended that the airbag was physically disconnected and a resistor put in it's place so the airbag control unit was 'fooled' into seeing an airbag.

EDIT : Just a thought but, what if the transponder went faulty - how would you know? I would assume that in the event of a transponder fault the airbag system would assume that no child seat was present and detonate the airbag in a crash with potentially fatal results for your precious little one.............

Henry Ford III

Yep. Junior will be safer in the back.

OldmanMondeo

The Bouncer wrote:

Hi Guys yeah it is for a child seat in the front. The rear facing seat has to be in the front for a small child when you are on your own in the car to be able to watch baby.

Go into Mother Care and purchase a convex mirror that will strap onto the rear head rest. You can then see Junior with your rear view mirror. These do work, I used one myself. Make sure you put the child on the nearside (Passenger) for safety. You will find that you will park on the left more than the right hand side of the road.

The Bouncer

Ok all thanks for the info. I have checked with other car makes and this seams to be the trend. Will be going into the back seat thanks for the mirror tip

Cheers B