How to disable passenger side Airbag?

[wolfie]

Does anyone know how to disable the passenger side airbag? I know it disengages automatically with a child in the seat but I have a friend who just had open heart surgery and need to disable it when I pick him up for dinner next week. I know what you are thinking, I shouldn't take him for a ride in my R8 if he is recovering from heart surgery... I promise to be nice!

[SDR8]

If you do not get a good answer here, I would ask your servicing dealer. I have not seen or heard anything about turning it off, at least for US cars. I understand that from a safety standpoint, they will not want people turning off the airbags but it would be nice to have the option for reasons like yours. Maybe there is a simple way to bypass the weight switch in that seat, then the system would not activate that side.

[harrison]

If you can make a platform to keep his weight off the seat you have one solution.

[R8 BND]

Front is disabled with a switch in the glovebox, but not sure if the sides disengage too....

[willyjp]

Does anyone know how to disable the passenger side airbag? I know it disengages automatically with a child in the seat but I have a friend who just had open heart surgery and need to disable it when I pick him up for dinner next week. I know what you are thinking, I shouldn't take him for a ride in my R8 if he is recovering from heart surgery... I promise to be nice!

is he SURE his surgeon recommends disabling airbags?

in the unlikely event of a frontal collision, the airbag/belt combo typically exerts a far less concentrated deceleration force to the chest/torso than belt (or dashboard!!) alone!

after facial & eye surgery, it is sometimes thought the belt alone might be preferable, because then nothing (hopefully) will impact the area of the surgery, but after chest surgery ("open heart", etc.) the airbag should usually be considered to offer a gentler "stop" for the chest than the alternatives; best option of course is: "don't collide with anything"

his surgeon should be the authority on that since he's the one who put the chest back together, but he should ask because "common sense" should NOT necessarily prevail!

[wolfie]

Thanks, but no luck so far. I checked the glovebox but apparently in the US model there is no kill switch for the airbag. The only items are a 12v outlet and a light, nothing else.

Anyone else have an idea? I will contact my dealer today but frankly I doubt they will know anymore locally. I guess they will have to contact techinical support.

I will let you all know what I learn.