Disabling or removing the knee airbag, 2014 Focus.

[Laurence MacNeill]

(BEFORE YOU GIVE ME CRAP about disabling my knee airbag, PLEASE READ the entire post! Thank you.)

I just bought a new Ford Focus Titanium, and it comes with a knee-airbag (an airbag that goes off underneath the dashboard to protect the driver’s knees in the event of a crash).

This is not a good thing for me — I’m handicapped and require hand-controls to drive. Right now I have a temporary set of hand-controls installed, but the permanent ones that I need to install will be mounting on a cross-piece just underneath and behind the location of the knee airbag. If it goes off, its probably going to break the hand-controls, possibly resulting in flying metal shrapnel, or even causing the hand-controls to “floor” the accelerator, neither of which is a good thing.

So, I need to remove or disable the knee airbag in this car.

Removing the airbag is easy — just disconnect both battery terminals, wait 5 minutes for the capacitor to discharge, pop off the panel under the dash, unplug the airbag, remove a few screws and it’ll come right out.

The PROBLEM is that the airbag light will be on after I remove the knee airbag, because the computer is no longer getting a signal from that airbag (this is the same problem I would have if I installed a switch, by the way — the computer isn’t expecting that airbag to be switched on and off).

I need to fool the computer into thinking the airbag is still there. I’ve read that sticking a resistor across the terminals of the plug will accomplish this — however the value of the resistor varies from vehicle to vehicle. And I’m sure as hell not going to stick a Volt-Ohm Meter across the terminals of the airbag itself — that’s a good way to make it explode in my face. Which I’d like to avoid at all costs.

So, does anyone know the value of the resistor I need to use in a 2014 Ford Focus Titanium to trick the computer into thinking the airbag is still installed? I’d imagine it’d be the same as any Ford Focus from 2012 to 2014, but I’m not 100% certain of that.

Thanks for any help y’all can provide.

Topic

[EricTheCarGuy]

This is an interesting problem for sure. Keep us posted on how you decide to deal with it.

[Jonathan Stiver]

Messing with the airbag system can be a headache on newer cars. The resistor trick works fine on older cars but I’d be scared to tamper with new systems. My uncle bought a 13 Ford Escape from the salvage insurance auction. He had to replace nearly every SRS sensor, component, and the airbag module (for $500) because even the computer is one-time use. You made the right choice paying someone else to mess with it. If it was me… I guess I’d physically mount the knee airbag backwards or pointing away from the controls or protect the controls with a piece of sheet metal between them and the airbag.

[Laurence MacNeill]

[quote=”Raistian77″ post=85357]Guys, his hand controls pass within a few inches of the knee bolster.

You REALLY don’t want an airbag going off with shrapnel right in front of it.

BTW, I think his are the permanently designed units (the pic above is a portable unit) and they are setup really close to the bolster, if an airbag goes off right there it could drive the controls into him or jam up the accelerator.

edit
this is probably more like what he is getting installed

[/quote]

Thanks for those pictures, Raistian77 — I think with the ability to see what we’re talking about, more people will understand why I have to disable the knee airbag.

The first pic there is fairly close to the portable controls I have in my car right now — minus the strap that’s holding the pictured controls to the steering column. My portable controls more-or-less sit in your lap — far enough away from the knee airbag that I’m not worried about it. But the permanent ones will definitely be an inch or less from the area where the airbag deploys, and that’s definitely not a good thing.

I will take pics of the dashboard before-and-after the install of the permanent controls. I might also take it all apart after the professional install, just to see what they did — if I do that, I’ll definitely take lots of pics of that too. Maybe even a video. I’ll post a reply to this thread next week sometime, after all the work is done.

Thanks for all the replies.

[Laurence MacNeill]

[quote=”stiv625″ post=85584]Messing with the airbag system can be a headache on newer cars. The resistor trick works fine on older cars but I’d be scared to tamper with new systems.[/quote]

Yeah, I’ve heard that from more than one source — that the modern SRS computers can’t be fooled with just a resistor… But then others tell me that the resistor *will* work. I honestly don’t think anyone knows for sure — or the people that *do* know aren’t saying, because they don’t want that info to get out. Either way, I’m having a brand-new set of controls professionally installed on Wednesday the 22nd. (It’s just easier that way, especially since the Ford Mobility program will chip in $1,000 if I do it that way.)

But I’m seriously thinking about taking the whole thing apart after the pro’s install the new hand-controls, just to see how they dealt with fooling the computer into thinking the airbag is still in there and connected. Maybe it’ll just be a resistor that plugs into the connector that the airbag normally plugs into, or maybe it’s more sophisticated than that — I’m curious to see for myself when it’s done. I’ll be taking plenty of pics and posting them here, if I do decide to take it all apart and find out how it works.

[Kevin Criswell]

I think the new way is an simple on/off switch that will allow you to decide if the airbag is disabled.

[Laurence MacNeill]

Ok. As promised, here are some pics.

Here’s the original location of the knee airbag:

Here’s the lower dash-panel and airbag after removal from the vehicle:

Here’s a lower side-view of the hand-controls after installation:

Here’s a driver’s seat view of the hand-controls after installation:

Here’s a view of the hand-controls to the right of the steering wheel looking down towards the floor:

Here’s the airbag-plug with the ‘shunt’ (that’s what they called it) installed:

Here’s an end-view of the ‘shunt.’ As you can see it’s not just a simple resistor:

So, for that silly little ‘shunt,’ which you cannot get unless you’re licensed by the Feds apparently, I had to pay for a full install of a brand-new set of hand-controls. Admittedly, they look way nicer than my old set of controls that I installed in my ’09 Ford Flex Limited AWD (the vehicle I traded in to buy this new Focus.) And Ford Mobility will pony up $1,000 out of the $1,548.74 that I had to pay for the install. So, all in all, not too bad…

Thanks to everyone for your replies and suggestions.

Attachments:

• KneeAirbagOriginalLocation.jpg
• Airbagandlower-dashpanelafterremoval.jpg
• Hand-Controlsinstalled1.jpg
• Hand-ControlsInstalled2.jpg
• Airbagplugwithshunt.jpg
• End-viewofshunt.jpg
• Hand-ControlsInstalled32.jpg

[Kevin Criswell]

That is a nice set of controls, and very well installed.

Yeah it looks like a resistor only on your system would have not worked, if I am reading the wiring diagram right your airbags actually have a small processor that talks back to the SRS control module. This allows the SRS to actually change the deploy rate and force based on impact criteria.

[Laurence MacNeill]

[quote=”Raistian77″ post=86150]That is a nice set of controls, and very well installed.

Yeah it looks like a resistor only on your system would have not worked, if I am reading the wiring diagram right your airbags actually have a small processor that talks back to the SRS control module. This allows the SRS to actually change the deploy rate and force based on impact criteria.[/quote]

Yeah — they definitely did an excellent job. As I would expect, considering they’re professionals, and charge as much as they do. 🙂

[Anthony]

You can sell the controls you had originally and then be ahead of the game banana:

[Laurence MacNeill]

[quote=”tonyroc14″ post=86164]You can sell the controls you had originally and then be ahead of the game banana:[/quote]

You know — that’s actually not a bad idea… Doubt I’ll get $500+ for a 20-year-old set of hand-controls, but I’d bet someone would be willing to pay a hundred or two for ’em.

Thanks!

[EricTheCarGuy]

I didn’t think it would be as easy as shoving a resistor in there. Thanks SO much for keeping us up to date on this. I learned quite a bit. The next time this comes up I’ll be a little more prepared because of it.

Great idea on selling the old controls to make up a little cash.

[Laurence MacNeill]

[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=86275]I didn’t think it would be as easy as shoving a resistor in there. Thanks SO much for keeping us up to date on this. I learned quite a bit. The next time this comes up I’ll be a little more prepared because of it.

Great idea on selling the old controls to make up a little cash.[/quote]

Yeah, I figured I couldn’t possibly be the only person who has to deal with this — I think it’s good that it’ll be here on this site for people to find when they search for this kind of info.

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions.

[Author]

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