Steering Wheel Airbag Issue

[Tank Guy]

A couple of months ago at right around midnight the horn in my 98 Ram 2500 started blaring and wouldn't stop. As you can well imagine this was alarming to me and my neighbors. To silence it I had to pull the horn control relay out. A thorough check with an ohm meter showed the relay was fine as was the wiring. It turns out that due to age and possibly heat exposure (it gets pretty darn hot inside with the windows rolled up) the airbag is warping and is actually compressing the horn switches that are built into the self contained airbag assembly. Has anyone else ever encountered a problem like this?

Used airbags of my truck's exact type are available through a number of different sources, but a new one isn't available anywhere. That doesn't surprise me considering the age of the truck, but a used airbag is going to be about the same age as my current one and I worry that it may very well have a similar fate in its near future. Any thoughts on resolving this are welcome.

 

[rzr6-4]

Remove the air bag and die in a crash like a real man. JK (kind of).

If you did actually want to have an airbag, just buy the new one. Is the new one potentially 20 years old? Yes, but you know for a fact that your current one is causing issues so you don't have much to loose. And 20 years of sitting in a warehouse isn't as bad as 20 years shaking around in the truck, getting to 130 F on a hot summer day and below freezing in the winter. Either remove and don't replace, or remove and roll the dice, not really a 3rd option.

 

[Tank Guy]

The only airbags available are used ones removed from junked vehicles, which is why I'm wondering if they are worth the trouble. As you suggested, half joking or not, I am considering removing the airbag altogether.

 

[rzr6-4]

The only airbags available are used ones removed from junked vehicles

Gotcha, when I first read your post I read it as like new-old stock, where the parts have been shipped across the country and resold a few different times and can't always be considered "new" but they they technically hadn't been installed before.

Getting one that is truly used isn't great, but for $20 might be worth a shot. $150, I'd probly just update my life insurance and call it a day. Depends how much the replacement is.

 

[Tank Guy]

Depends how much the replacement is.

200.00 from the outfit in the link below. They can be had for less on eBay, but then I'd have more concerns about condition.

1998 Dodge Ram 1500 7397 Airbag Steering Wheel

Fix it right, with an undeployed 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 7397 Airbag Steering Wheel from the world's largest used airbag distributor.

www.airbagcenter.com