So my Mom drives a 2002 Ford Taurus that I believe has one of the Takata airbags that have been killing people. So far her car hasn't been recalled for the airbag, but I know this recall is being done piece meal as they can't do them all at once, and since the recall applies to the year right close to hers I suspect hers eventually will be recalled as well. Either way I don't want to take the chance, and here's why...

The explanation for why these things are going off is there's some defect in the manufacturing that when the air bag is exposed to humid conditions and lots of temp fluctuations, something in them weakens and there they go. Mom's Taurus has a windshield leak so, even though it's never smelled, there's always been a virtual puddle of water in driver's side floor board. So the inside of the car has always been humid, just like in the airbag explosion scenarios.

So, for the time being, until she gets into another car, I'd like to disconnect her airbag to be on the safe side. She is an amazingly vigilant driver, never even a speeding ticket, and the risk of her rear ending someone is virtually non-existent.

How would I go about disabling an airbag on a 2002 Ford Taurus?

Or, alternatively, how do I open the steering wheel column, or front of the steering wheel, which might be part of the disabling process itself, and identify if Mom's airbag is indeed one of the defective types?

 

Chevrolet had a problem with airbag deployment on their Colorado ZR2 pickup truck, when the truck was driven off road. Since it was an off road truck that ended up being a fairly common event. And when the airbags deployed it would do about $3500 damage to the interior of the vehicle, and Chevy was refusing to pay for repairs, even though typical off road use that caused the airbag to deploy was just driving slowly down a graded dirt road. Eventually Chevy recalled all of their ZR2 pickup trucks for a software change to decrease the sensitivity of their airbag system. But until the recall was done, which took about a year, some owners were installing a switch that bypassed the fuse to the airbag system. Then when they went off road they could just flip the switch to deactivate the system. A warning light on the dash would come on while the system was switched off, but would extinguish again when they were back on road and reactivated the system. Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

Well for one if you don't know what you are doing and asking on the net on how to disable a airbag please stay away from it before you hurt yourself or your mom.. I just did a quick search and their is no airbag recalls for the taurus or anything near that your it only went back to 04 surprising enough that veh seemed to have the least amount of recalls i have seen..LOL. You can run your vin on the below link or go to a local dealer and have them run your vin for pc of mind.. But please stay away from the airbag id hate for the next post i read that your head got pushed through the roof because to set off the airbag with your face in front of it...


https://owner.ford.com/service/frequ...r-recalls.html