Should You Repair Air Bags? Washington DC

With the right training and tools, air-bag replacement can be done at your shop - bringing you more profits and more control over uncontrollable circumstances.

By Toby Chess
7/1/1999

A collision repair shop in Los Angeles was transporting a damaged vehicle to a dealer to install both air bags when the vehicle was involved in a serious accident. Luckily, there were no serious injuries, but the damage sustained to the vehicle was substantial. Why is this story important? The repair facility didn't have sufficient knowledge about the replacement and repair of the air-bag system so it had to sublet the work to a dealer. And, while it was smart of the technicians not to attempt to do work they weren't qualified to do, transporting a vehicle to another location for sublet work can often create uncontrollable hazards.

My point here is that with the right training and tools, air-bag replacement can be done at your shop by your shop technicians or by outside vendors who have the skill, equipment and expertise to do on-site repairs.

A Simple Test
I want you to take a short test. Ready? Blink your eyes. That process took about 0.3 seconds. By comparison, an air bag inflates in about 1/20 of a second - faster than the blink of an eye. To operate that quickly, you'd think such a system is extremely complicated. On the contrary, it's quite simple. The system is comprised of an air-bag sensor, an air bag, an SRS diagnostic unit, a clockspring and wires. The system is activated...