Rexmanwolf

Hey Guys,
I own a 91 vert and wanted to know if anyone has or knows how to remove the Airbags out of the cars. I have the airbag steering wheel and its ugly because i live in Miami and the sun has done its number on it. I am afraid to take it out without the proper tools and knoowledge of how to. SO if anyone knows anything PLease let me know. ALso is there a handbook or manual only for Verts??

downwinddave

You need the Factory Service Manual.
Those FSMs hosted on the web do not cover the 91.
Buy one, it is worth it.

What is the vert market like in Florida?

My 91 is from there but shipping costs are prohibitive to bring it along when I move back.

Icemark

Before removing the 'vert airbag and SRS brain, you must discharge the system of any electrical charge.

Disconnect the battery for at least 10 minutes and tap the brake pedal a couple of times while the battery is disconnected.

Then (while the battery is still disconnected) you can unplug the SRS plug at the bottom of the steering wheel (usually Yellow- sometimes blue) and remove the SRS wheel at that time. I would also unplug the SRS brain at that time before reconnecting the battery.

Then sell the SRS brain and steering wheel to some sucker that doesn't know any better on Ebay.

Do not unplug either the SRS brain or the airbag/steering wheel with the battery still connected, unless you get lucky you can deploy the bag or burn up the internal fuse in the SRS brain (which is a pain to replace).

The 'vert information can be found in the online shop manuals as mentioned in the FAQ sticky at the top of the FC section. There are only minor differences between the 91 vert and the 89, mostly dealing with turn signals, high beams, and the SRS system. But everything else is the same.

Rexmanwolf

Thanks for the info. Im gonna see about doing it. Ok and The market for verts is big. Theres always a vert in the Sale sections but its funny u see so many in the Books for sale but never any on the streets. I have the nicest vert in florida so far because i haven't seen another one. Its either me or my friend Javier with his blue Civic SI paint job. So yeah. And is the factory service manual the one from Mazda or the haynes manuel?

Thanks Both for the info and thanks Icemark. Hopefully i won't kill myself trying to do it. What kind of steering wheel can i put on it after the removal?

Icemark

You should be able to put any FC wheel, or modify a Miata or FD wheel, or most aftermarket steering wheels will work fine.

Trav

Get the actual Mazda FSM. Don't bother w/ the Haynes. It's useless unless you're changing your oil -- and if you don't know how to do that, you shouldn't be touching the steering wheel.

The Haynes is okay if that's your only source of info, but they are so vague and generalized I typically find them more confusing than helpful.

The FSM will be the best money spent on your ride, guaranteed.

hypntyz7

I agree, dont even fool with opening the cover of the haynes. Get teh FSM, or download it from fc3s.org and print the relevant pages when you need them.

genII Drifter

I agree also, Haynes is a joke.

I couldn't find the FSM for s5 vert online so I'm just gonna buy one.

BTW Kevin, your vert is sweeeeet!!!

Rexmanwolf

K. So the FSM do they sell one for verts only??? IF so whats an estimated price?

JerryLH3

iTrader: (11)

Mazdaformance has the cheapest price I've seen - $55. Just buy the year that covers your car, 1991. They also have the notebook sized manual for $125.

JPA

love my vert, but never saw yours

hypntyz7

The FSM's cover all models for a year...NA coupe, T2 coupe, NA 'vert. Any 89-91 FSM has info on your car. Convertible-specific information is in the body/chassis section as well as wiring...everything else is just like a coupe, basically.

genII Drifter

My vert has a different fog light switch than it says in the manual, that's why I thought they were different.

hypntyz7

Must be aftermarket then. As far as I know, they call came with teh fogs in the same spot. The only thing that I do know changed was the cruise/tilt position and top controls on airbag models. Where is your foglight switch?

hypntyz7

IT could be that between 89, 90, and 91 they changed that stuff around just a hair, and an FSM from one year may not reflect the other changes. Im sure the FSM that is scanned online is specific to one of these years, so that may be why you couldnt find that little bit of specific information. Basically, 99% of the FSM covers the entire series of cars (89-91, or 86-88 respectively).

bingoboy

that price is insane. i got the little one at 7stock for 25 bucks.

genII Drifter

on the head light switch.

hypntyz7

Wow, no ****. Guess I learned something. What did they replace there...the headlight hold switch? Or defog?

Rexmanwolf

Hey guys how do i post some pics. well heres a pic of my car on a Meets pic. Thats my vert Lexus IS 300 grey paint job and same color rims. Got more work to be done like t2 swap. But im gonna find out about the book and see about the Airbag. In your guys opinion, Should i keep it or remove it.??

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...93213116fqFvru

genII Drifter

There is no separate switch for my fog lights, they are just supposed to come on with my headlights. I think I blew the switch though. If anyone know what wire runs the fog lights, Maybe I could get mine working too.

hypntyz7

I dont know what wire, but they are run off a relay. I dont like the fact that they wont come on with the parking lights, or that they go off with the bright lights. I rewired mine to a new relay, pulling power from the parking light power supply, so that now they can be on anytime the parking lights are, at my discretion. IT isnt too hard to do. Run a wire from your trigger source to the relay (in my case this goes from the ILL circuit into the fog switch, then out to the front of the car), ground the relay, run battery + power to the relay, find the fog wires (4 total) and run 2 of them together to the relay, and ground the other 2. Simple as that.

Trav

FWIW: I'm removing mine. Mine is a 91 which means it's quickly reaching the end of it's service life -- I also don't know the history of it -- does it work or not, etc. etc. Basically all of those unknowns and some other stuff I've read around here on airbags led me to remove it. That and I had some elec problems that were related to airbag fuses, etc. So just trying to simplify things, etc. Plus, I don't plan on keeping the stock wheel forever.

genII Drifter

I don't know **** about electronics, I'm learning. So it doesn't sound that simple.

Qs:
Does your light "beeb" still go off when your car is off and you r fog lights are on?
"Run a wire from your trigger source to the relay" How did you find out which wire was the"ill" wire?
Where did you pull the battery+ power from?
Does it matter which two you run to the relay?

These questions may sound stupid, and I apologize if they do, but I don't have another info source on car electronics.

Thanks

hypntyz7

ON most relays, stock or aftermarket, there is a diagram of some sort. There are 4 prongs on normal relays. Usually 2 on one side are shown with a little squiggly line in between (on the diagram), this represents the trigger side. When you apply 12vdc+ to one of the wires, and ground to the other, (which one doesnt matter) it closes the other half of the relay (which is normally open). On the diagram you will see the other 2 prongs are not connected, but have a "door" looking deal between them. This represents the open/close switching side. Here is where your load should be pulled through. You use the trigger side to instruct the relay to open and close, and you use the switch side to pull your heavy load/amperage through. The purpose of a relay is to allow low-amperage items (switches and such) to control high amperage items like lights, fans, etc.

With that out of the way, HEre are good sources for power supplies in the FC:

battery + : back side of the engine bay fusebox, take loose the 10mm bolt holding on the 80A main fuse (or 100A for s5s) and tap in there. This way your power supply wire is still fused off the block, and it also keeps wires off your battery terminals for simplicity and clean look.

ground : anywhere on the car bare metal. You want grounds to be as short as possible, while being unseen/clean.

ILL-take out the instrument cluster, there is a terminal on the circuit board with a screw there, where you can tap in. You can also tap into the wire on the radio wiring harness (use a DMM while turning the switch off and on to find it) or the lightbulb below the lighter. You do NOT want to pull any real amperage through here or you will burn out a headlight switch with a quickness. IN the engine bay I suppose you could tap into the wires feeding the headlight relay as well, but Ive never tried it.

12vdc+ switched : tap into one of the IG1/IG2 wires on the ignition switch itself, or find an empty fuse slot in the interior fusebox that has metal terminals exposed and tap into the power side of that using a male wire connector. IN the engine bay, by the leading coil, a switched output is on the green 6 pin plug, center wire adjacent to the "notch" on top. I use this for electric fans.


BTW, my foglights work with my parking lights when the fog switch is on. IF my parking lights are on, they are on...if I leave the parking lights on when I take out my key, the thing still beeps, whether or not my fogs are on. IN other words, I didnt change anything from stock, other than the fact that I have the option to run my fogs anytime the parking lights are on, as opposed to only when the lowbeam headlights are on.

Rexmanwolf

hey guys i don't have high beams on my 91 vert. But when the lights are off and i hit the high beams it shows their on but other wise if i hit it and the lights are on then nothing happens!! whats up with that?