Are aftermarket steering wheels legal?

[Swifty1638]

I was wondering just this. I have been told in the past that this is illegal, due to the fact that any car with an airbag is required to retain that airbag..forever. By going aftermarket steering wheel, you lose that airbag, and it is illegal. Anyone wanna shed some light onto this subject? I am mighty confused here..

-A. Swift

[xplode]

theyre not usually safe because the stock is equipped with the airbag device.. i cant stress enuf that this is one thing i wouldnt mod.. could save your life..

[uncle_el]

Originally posted by xplode
theyre not usually safe because the stock is equipped with the airbag device.. i cant stress enuf that this is one thing i wouldnt mod.. could save your life..

agreed. i've always thought that if you want a change in steering wheel, go with one that retains an airbag... not sure that any aftermarket steering wheel does so. you could change to one from another generation accord or even prelude, and retain the safety factor.

one week on trauma service at the largest level 1 trauma center in the southeast reminded me that airbags save lives and prevent injuries.

[Wallace]

what if you dont have airbags (like me), is it legal?

also, the stearing wheel can't be below a diameter.

[SfAccord]

Re: Is aftermarket steering wheels legal?

Originally posted by Swifty1638
I was wondering just this. I have been told in the past that this is illegal, due to the fact that any car with an airbag is required to retain that airbag..forever. By going aftermarket steering wheel, you lose that airbag, and it is illegal. Anyone wanna shed some light onto this subject? I am mighty confused here..

-A. Swift

Most places that inspect could care less if u have an airbag or not. I understand the safety issue but thats what the locking seat-belt is for. When i got in a wreck i didnt even come close to the airbag, it ended up causing more probs having it than not. Thats my .02.

[Andrew]

In a small accident an airbag can be a nuisance, but there's no doubt about it: airbags do save lives. However, they are a poor supplement to a flawed restraint system.

We use chintzy 3 point, extendable belts that are supposed to lock up on impact and are required to pass silly government standards. What's the problem with that? Well, sometimes they don't like up. Sometimes 3 points isn't enough. Sometimes the easy-use buckles fail. Sometimes you submarine under the lap belt. Sometimes the belt fails altogether and you go head first into the steering wheel....

which is why the airbag came around. It expands before you split your noggin on that hard thing you steer with, and boy is it hard. Then people started getting hit from different angles, so manufacturers got airbag crazy: airbags for the passenger, airbags for the sides, airbags for the middle, airbags for the guys in the back seat, airbags just in case you hit your head while having sex in the back seat... you get the point. But why, oh why is the safety system flawed to begin with? Because it's a compromise.

The stock safety system is a compromise of easy ingress/egress and safety. The value is something like "I value getting in and out of my car quickly and easily a bit more than I value increasing my chances of living through a bad wreck." Fucked up,'eh? Some people realize this, race sanctioning bodies all realize this, and they require an extra margin of safety.

The extra margin of safety starts with harnesses. Some organizations let you use 4 points, some don't. You can buy better, 5 and 6 point belts keep you alive. Oh, but you can't just mount your should belts to the stock rear seatbelt locations, on a hard impact they'll compress your spine, that's not fun. So, next up is, at least, a 4 point bolt in cage. Other options do exist, and they're not all bad, but there are too many to go into now. Regardless, you need to mount the harness shoulder belts to a bar at roughly shoulder level to something solid (a harness bar on a cage). But the fun doesn't end there. What's the next thing that can fail, and holds you in place in every type of impact except for a sudden negative acceleration? A seat. Reclining seats can fail, stock seats have failed. I've never heard of, nor seen an aftermarket seat from a reputable company have a reclining mechanism fail, but we're out in left field now. In this setup your stock seat won't do. Now, after all this, the driver is held securely in place - terrific! But there's still an impediment to safety lurking: an airbag'd steering wheel. The airbag, the piece of equipment that was put in to make covenient life a little safer. If an airbag goes off in your face when you aren't moving (when you're held in place securely in an accident by the forementioned safety hardware) it'll hurt. It can cause powder burns, broken noses, cuts, etc. So, off it comes in favor of, usually, a slightly smaller wheel with no airbag.

To address the original question: if you have a vehicle with one stage deployment airbags (like the ones in 4th generation Accords) you can obtain a card from the DMV to be exempt from being required to use them. You sign a waiver, or something like that, saying something to the effect that you're scared of your Mideval Age 'bags and don't want to have to use them. However, I would strongly reccomend against doing this unless you're prepared to run the full gamut of safety modifications. Don't install a cage (for street driven cars 4 point cages kept behind the driver's seat are the only real option; cage tubing can hurt you if you hit your head on it) and you risk compressing your spine with poor harness mounting, install a 'bagless wheel without a harness and you risk going straight into it, causing severe head trauma.

and a side note: I wouldn't go to an inspection station that doesn't check airbags. As a matter of fact, I would report any station that is performing substandard safety checks. They're a danger to the vehicles' owners and can cause the owners to become a financial burden on the rest of us. If somebody driving a $1,000 car that couldn't afford decent insurance (or doesn't want to pay it: there's a Fuckwad roaming this site that thinks he shouldn't need to pay for decent coverage... just to show you that there are these people out there), or worse, doesn't have insurance at all, changes his steering wheel to look cool and his seatbelt fails in an accident, and he turns into a vegtable after nailing his head on his fancy Momo he'll end up in the hospital. Then guess who gets to pay for his medical ride? Yep, you got it, if nobody else in his family can, we, taxpayers, get to.

So please, be smart about what you do. If you don't do it for yourself, then do it for me and everybody else that already has a hard time covering the bills.


*Wallace, if you drive a vehicle that came without airbags then you're exempt*

[Swifty1638]

Well, since I do have a few sets of seats I can choose from (tenzo r, mom, sparco, recardo..) and I do want harnesses, will I need to go to a dmv or sumthin, to get the harnesses legalized? Or, will it not matter, cause when the cop pulls me over, I will get fucked anyways, even if I am safer. I do know that racing harnesses do need ot be shoulder length, so you can put them at a point on the back, behind and above the rear seats..only downside is no one can sit back there then..

-A. Swift

[Sho Nuff]

I guess im exempt from all of that as well.

But remember, if you don't wear a seatbelt and the bag goes off, your ass is still grass.

[Andrew]

Originally posted by Swifty1638
Well, since I do have a few sets of seats I can choose from (tenzo r, mom, sparco, recardo..) and I do want harnesses, will I need to go to a dmv or sumthin, to get the harnesses legalized? Or, will it not matter, cause when the cop pulls me over, I will get fucked anyways, even if I am safer. I do know that racing harnesses do need ot be shoulder length, so you can put them at a point on the back, behind and above the rear seats..only downside is no one can sit back there then..

-A. Swift

You'll need to do the research for your locality yourself.

I will tell you, though, that the only safe way to mount a harness is to a harness bar (preferably one welded to a cage) directly behind the driver's seat, at, or just below the point where the shoulder belts exit their holes in the back of the seat. The only time I can imagine that an Officer would give you a ticket for items safer than OEM is if he's pissed with you for something else (don't kit your vehicle out and then go street racing like a tard). I've heard one Officer quoted saying "why would I write a ticket for things that make the car safer than the way it came?"

[HenRoc]

Dude Ive hit my steering wheel so many times ( out of fustration) that you can see the out line of the Airbag Module.

[xplode]

Originally posted by fizzbob7
and studies show that 25% of the time, airbags do not go off period when they should......my ex hit a poll going 55mph in a new dodge truck and no airbag...seatbelt saved her life.....know an old co worker that can't breathe from his nose because a bumpy train track set his bag off and busted up his face.......they might be all fine and dandy, but i don't like them at all.......most good drivers get HIT, so a front end collision isn't likely with me anyway......most of the time the person with front end damage is at least partially to blame

Id rather have that 25% be the one time u need it tho fizz... bro those aftermarket steering wheels are so fucking ugly its unbelieveable.

[bagoon316]

i have a 92 so i am equipped with an airbag...and doin many studies in engineering on airbags and how they work i would rather hit my head on a hollow piece of plastic wrapped in leather than suffer burns on my face. Those airbags i believe get over 350 degrees because it needs heat to get the reaction of chemicals moving to get the airbag to deploy at such a fast rate. And steering wheels are usually hollow plastic tubes. Hit them with ur hand the move and bend slightly. i would rather take a bruise than a burn. And if you can prove you were wherein ur seatbelt and it fails thats a huge lawsuit anyways. Bottom both are goin to hurt regardless its ur preference if you want burns or bruises.