451 Passenger Airbag Disable

Mod Description

So you have a mini-me and a rear facing child seat and want to turn the passenger airbag off but didn't spec the option?

Mod Details

PremiumNo Difficulty Mod ID757 Creditevilution For Linkhttps://dev.evilution.co.uk/mod/451-passenger-airbag-disable.htm Copy to Clipboard

Important

Just to cover myself. You are playing with a system that controls an explosive device so if you do this and none of the airbags go off in a crash or your newborn is catapulted out the rear window, I’m not to be held responsible.

Warning

I did this on a 2007 fortwo, I can’t guarantee it’ll work on any other 451. So far, 2 people have tried this using the official switch and it hasn’t worked (air bag light on permanently no matter what position the switch is in). However, 2 people have bodged it in the same way I did and it worked fine. This doesn’t mean that bodging it will work though.

My suggestion is you don’t follow this guide and get it done properly at smart.

Finding The Connector

Take off the silver dash end trim on the passenger side. Underneath are a few Torx screws that hold the cover on. Remove the screws and remove the cover, you should now see this. Look in through the hole. If you have a left hand drive smart, just look up under the dash on the passenger side.

This is the connector you are looking for. Yellow housing with 2 wires. Brown and Green/Black.

Pull the connector out. Here’s a closer look for you to compare.

Once it has been pulled out you have a choice, fit a switch or bodge it.

Fit A Switch

Look at the plastic just to the right of the connector shown below you can see the cut out in the original panelling where the standard smart airbag off switch goes.

…and it’s very obvious looking at the fascia panel where the switch would go.

I recommend buying the switch from smart. Once it’s fitted, do NOT deactivate the airbags until you take the car to smart to have it coded. If you don’t it could cause issues with the airbag system not functioning.

Smart will probably also want you to fit the roof trim mounted light that tells you if the airbags are off.

Bodge It

Do not do this!

With the connector pulled out of the hole you can refit the fascia trim and the cover trim which leaves the yellow connector nestled nicely between the trim and the door rubber seal.

Get yourself a paperclip, unfold it and jam it in the only 2 holes that have connections in them.

Disabling The Airbag

With either of the above done, flick the switch or apply your paperclip and start the car.

The airbag light should go out and immediately come back on. This tells you that the passenger airbag is now deactivated. Turn the car off, flick the switch or remove the paperclip and start the car again. The airbag light will go out and stay out which indicates that the airbags are functioning.

What About The Roof Trim Warning Light?

If you spec the airbag off system, you get a light in the front roof trim that illuminates when the passenger airbag is deactivated. On cars without the airbag off switch, there is just black plastic blank in that position. I did try adding an LED as seen here.

However, even when wired up to the correct connection which was behind the roof trim…

…it didn’t function as it should have done. It just illuminated no matter if the airbag was on or off. I’ll put that experiment down as a fail but not having the light doesn’t affect the on/off modification.

Airbag Controller

Just for the sake of showing you, here is the position of the airbag controller.

and here is a nice close up shot so you can see the label and connections.