ITRCA

not sure if this question was answered or not,, but here goes.. a friend has a mugen steering wheel, and he wants to take off his oem steering wheel and put the mugy on. he lives in california. and it is not a track car. the question is, is it legal to drive without the airbag. does he have to put everything back to oem when he does a smog check? (not sure if the smog guys have a check list that they have to check off)

and i know the usual answers "well if the cop doesnt pull you over then your fine" or well just dont get into an accident"

whats the legality of it coming with air, and then taking the air out? legal or not?

thanks for the help

No Airbag in CA is a no-no.

No air-bag in us on car equipped with air-bag is big no-no, not just cali

ok great thanks for the information....

I think you could get away with it though. I don't believe that is a legal reason to pull you over. There is no way he could tell from driving by, and thus would be discriminating. So if you stay out of trouble, you have nothing to worrie about!

I know for a fact that in the US, there is no law saying that you must have an air bag, I'm not sure about california specifically, but it's considered to be a luxury, not a mandated law, seat belts are a different story. Any way, another thing you may want to consider, is that if you insurance company finds out you were in an accident, does an inspection, and finds out you don't have an airbag and never told them about it, they have reason to drop you, and not pay for your accident, and for an extra 20% increase in insurance to not have an airbag, it's not worth it. Think about that one....

Later,
Aj

You are correct, there is no law mandating the use of srs. However, there is a law about tampering with a srs equiped vehicle, it pretty much says..."You are f*@ked if caught tamering with the system," in general terms. However, they can not justify a pull over for that, because the don't know if it has srs. When pulled over though and they see the passenger srs, they might get a bright idea!

An srs system is regarded as a "passive restraint system"
it is illegal to tamper with a passive restraint system.

In cali its definitely a big no no, as long as you dont get pulled over. And it doesnt matter if you have a good driving record...mine is clean and I still get pulled over (maybe because I'm Asian?who knows. Oh well right? Cant do nothing about it..they can mess with you no matter what as long as your car is fixed up.) Main thing is if your friend is getting his car smog there should be a problem..all they usually check is gas pressure, aftermaket headers or air filter. Usually if we have an air filter we can still pass.

I just took off my stock steering wheel, but I replaced it with a JDM ITR steering wheel. Good thing that the JDM is a SRS unit . But if you're going through a smog inspection, they just looking underneath your hood.

About being pulled over, ever since I lowered my ITR and installed some goodies in it, I haven't been pulled over for modified exhaust, being low etc. But yet all my friend's tell me they get pulled over .

SagaTypeR wrote:I just took off my stock steering wheel, but I replaced it with a JDM ITR steering wheel. Good thing that the JDM is a SRS unit .

I just recently recieve my JDM Type R SRS steering wheel but I need your help on something. Where did you get the tool to take off the 5 star bolt off the back of the JDMsteering wheel? And was it difficult to take off the stock and put on the JDM one? If so explain, thanks!!

go to Sears ask for a torx screw set they will have some that you can use right there without buying ,,bring your wheel should only cost no more than $3.00 or you can buy it then return it to get money back....up to you. not sure on the other stuff.

For the screw, you need a T-30 Torx Screwdriver

It was easy to take off the USDM steering wheel, but you might have to put pressure on the torx screw to un-screw it. It's simply a
plug-and-play unit. But the only thing that surprised me was that the JDM Cable Reel is different that the USDM Cable Reel. Luckily the person I bought the JDM wheel from also supplied the JDM cable reel. But you can use the USDM one, but make sure your wheels are straight before you take off your steering wheel.
Good luck!

If you want, I can take pics on how-to take off a steering wheel