Temporarily Defusing Airbags?

[kupy]

I'm considering doing one out of the five dangerous things you should let your children do: driving (Gever Tulley 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do | Video on TED.com). That is driving with my daughter on my lap in a big open lot far from anything. The claim is that this is both legal and an incredibly empowering and educational experience for kids. My dad did this with me when I was young and it was great for both. Nevertheless, me being a bit paranoid, I'd like to temporarily disable the airbags while we do this to ensure that the do not fire for absolutely any reason. I know this sounds counter intuitive and oxymoronic on many levels but bear with me.

I'm assuming.
a) It is safer to drive with a kid on your lap (in a big open lot far from anything) with the airbags disarmed.
b) there will be a fuse for the airbags.
c) removing that fuse will disable/disarm airbags.
d) reinstalling the fuse will re-enable/arm the airbags as if nothing happened.

Can anyone please confirm my assumptions. I would hate to damage the airbags due to this stunt.

[circa1986]

Your dad did this with you, which gave you such a love of driving that you ended up with a Honda Insight...

I don't see any benefit of doing this. If you want your kid to get into driving and cars at a young age, I would take them go karting or something like that.

As far as disabling the airbags, there should be a fuse for the airbags. Check your owners manual for a diagram of fuses.

[kjanracing]

If you pull the SRS fuse, you stand a chance of a fault being posted in the SRS control unit or another one and a warning light/lights on the instrument cluster. That's gonna mean a trip to the dealer or well equiped independant to get the faults cleared. The air bag isn't just going to go off on its own without you hitting something

[Cobb]

Although I can not endorse either behavior, unplugging the passenger side indicator below the radio will generate a fault that is easily fixed by plugging it back in. Not sure if the bags would deploy anyways. Might be better to pull down the glove box and disconnect the yellow wires from the module itself.


Sent from my Autoguide iPod touch app

[Southern Dad]

I'm actually glad I read this this thread. I used to do this with my daughter who is now 8. I actually did this just the other day with her 2 year old sister in my Lincoln Navigator... and big, open parking lot. I really hadn't thought of the airbag.