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I asked the same question up thread and didn't get a direct answer, though some of the comments since strongly imply there are airbags in the seats themselves.
Sogorman
Member
I have had the door panels on my late model S85 apart and can confirm that there are no airbags in the door itself. Only thought on the retention strap is that the airbags on the next-gen seats are either closer to the door panel or are shaped differently and could possibly dislodge the door panel in the event of an accident... just guessing.
Jgdixon
Active Member
FYI I think I was the first in Canada to get my next gens installed. There were problems getting the car to recognize the seats. I don't think the service center initially realized that they had to update the firmware. The driver's side finally worked but the passenger seat turned out to be the wrong seat. It was either for the U.S. Or Europe and they had to order another one. I drove for a few weeks with only one next gen seat lol.
Pretty sure there is an airbag in the seat itself. There are pins on the connector that supposedly are the pyrotechnics for the airbag (labeled as such on Tesla's wiring diagram). I plugged those off on my loose seats. lol.
If that's the case then I won't be buying them. Destroying my old seats is deal killer for me.. I figured it's just a module that is removed from inside the seat.
I'd get some clarification from Tesla on the whole thing. Trying to keep the airbags from the old seats seems pretty silly to me. Definitely not worth the effort for them.
For me (on my wife's car), literally they unbolted and disconnected the old seats and slid them into the trunk area without ever removing them from the car. Was quick and painless.
You can go any automakers parts counter, junkyards, or ebay and buy as many airbags as you want.
Only reason I see them keeping them is for profit, I highly doubt Tesla is going to throw perfectly good air bags in the garbage.
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
*shrugs*
Isn't that part of the airbag itself? I just checked on the seats I have in the basement... there is literally no way to get to the airbag. Just a couple of wires run from the harness up into the material and vanish. There is no way to remove any part of the airbag without destroying the seat. I highly doubt Tesla is actually doing anything like this and that Tampaukfan's service center contact is misinformed. (Doesn't seem too uncommon of a thing for service center folks to not be on the same page.)
Kind of defeats the purpose of retaining the old seats if you cant reuse them or resell them to someone who needs them.
Edit: According to the wiring diagram, applying power to these two wires will set off the airbag... and that's pretty much it.
Removing the seat skins is very labor intensive and would be required to remove the airbags. To get a generic example of that google "Katzkin install" and watch a few of the videos. If Tesla is required by local laws to remove/inert the airbags it would likely be cheaper to have to have them deploy the airbags and then take the seats to a local automotive upholstery shop for repairs. Also the airbag would need to be replaced with foam or something else and I don't think the service centers would have the parts or skills to do that.
There are countless air bags for sale from every automaker on ebay and you can go to the parts counter and buy one. I cant see there being a liability issue, if that was the case the sale of air bags would be restricted.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...+mercedes.TRS0&_nkw=air+bag+mercedes&_sacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...+mercedes.TRS0&_nkw=air+bag+mercedes&_sacat=0
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