air bags

Some mother-less a$$wipe stole both air bags from my 99 Accord last
week. Since the low-life retard probably could not pick the lock and was
not bold enough to break the glass, he punched a hole in the door's
sheetmetal, next to the lock. The Club was still on the steering wheel
when I saw the car next morning.
Unlucky for me, I dropped full coverage on the car on Jan 1,2005...Just
got too expensive in NYC.
Total price to repair will be over $2k, out of pocket! Really really sucks.

Question:
How are other urban dwellers preventing the theft of air bags?
Even though I have off street parking and a reserved spot, the parking
lot is easily accessible to anyone on foot. The location is well lit.
I have seen devices similar to "The Club", that prevent air bag theft,
but how good are these? Also, is there anyway to prevent the theft of
the passenger air bag?


Thanks in advance

 

I guess I can ask the body shop to look into these.
HOwever, will screws/bolts prevent the air bag from being replaced after
they deploy?

 

Well there are tamperproof screws/bolts that can be used in place of the
regular screws which may give some measure of protection.

 

Hey, I feel for ya. My sister lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada,
not exactly a high-crime area.

She had the bags in her '00 Civic stolen two months ago. They smashed a
window and were gone in about a minute with both bags. How the hell did
they get them out so fast? They did a lot of damage to the interior doing
it, too.

I've heard that some people (taxis also) have steel plates welded inside
the doors near the locks, to prevent thieves from punching through the door
skin. Don't know what to do about the window glass tho'.

Doesn't help you here, but I think the only way to prevent theft is to
bring the cost of the bags down so they're worthless to thieves. Either
that or chip the bags like a radio, so they're keyed to a specific VIN.

 

id probably go without, honestly. get the new covers to put on, and just
deal with it. or just get a drivers side bag.

 

Holy sh*t! I didn't realize there was such a market for airbags. Now
I'll always be wondering when I see them for sale on eBay.

Rudy

 

sucks.

Oh man, that sucks. I knew a friend that had an airbag stolen, and I
hear it's pretty common. Easy to steal, lots of money. You can get a
steering wheel lock that has some extra flanges to cover the air bag
area. Obviously, professional thieves will just cut that off, but every
little bit helps.

You can also not replace the airbag and put a sign in your window that
says, "airbag already stolen".

 

Last time I talked to my insurance agent, she told me stolen airbags are
now more common than stolen cars. Since they're small, expensive, in full
view, easily removed and not inside a residence, they're prime targets.

Canadian insurance companies take a dim view of airbags because they cause
such a high incidence of claimable minor injury (especially in collisions
that formerly would have resulted in no injuries at all), and because of
their theft rate.

You can disconnect or remove your airbags up here with no insurance or
legal permits or penalties. Garages will do a disconnect for about $40.

 

And because of their replacement cost, which can nearly double the price of
fixing damage from minor fender-benders.

 

Didn't you just answer your own question? Thieves don't "work neat" (the
voice of experience - I lost count on how many times my car was broken
into when I lived in NYC when it got up to 10-12 times, usually for the
radio - this was pre-airbag days for moi).

 

Heh, seems so, doesn't it?

And that's what resulted in OEM radios eventually becoming unique to a
specific vehicle unless a code was entered. Maybe they need to do the same
thing with air bags.

 

A friend's Civic was totalled after the airbags went off. The extra $3000
for bag replacement tipped the scales...

 

I wonder if the smart Honda engineers can come up with a way to prevent
air bag theft, or at least make it NOT worth while. Much like the OEM
radio, or perhaps etching the VIN on the air bag. I know this would add
cost to producing the car, but I am paying $1400 simply to purchase the
replacement air bags, not including the other damage and labor.

 

I have an idea: If the airbag or airbag well is tampered with,a small
spray canister explodes and sprays the LITERAL scent of SKUNK (you can
purchase this chemical) all over him.If this happened enough times to
the thief,he just MIGHT give up....LOL

 

Well you don't have to replace them. You could leave them out. They are
not required.

 

Yeah, but then the inside of your car reeks forever after. Ick.

 

I assume that a car will not pass inspection without the air bags in place.

 

In at least some of Canada, it would pass. In the US, not at all.

-- TeGGer®

 

air bags are not like brakes or tires. If the air bags don't work then it
is the occupants of the vehicle that will suffer. If other safety items
like brakes and tires, that are inspected, are not up to snuff then society
is in danger of being hurt or killed.

I am unaware of any laws requiring owners to replace air bags as needed. I
guess they would also need laws saying that if your SRS light comes on you
need to fix that also. As far as I know they don't. A call to the local
MVD would probably render a correct answer.

 

It wouldn't, but how are they going to know?