Removing airbag steering wheel
A set of instructions on how to remove an air bag steering wheel, so here it goes:-
Firstly you must disconnect the negative lead of the battery and make sure it is held away from the negative terminal.
The air bag has a capacitor which will hold a charge for some time after you have connected the terminal and consequently can still go off without the battery connected.
Rumour has it that it will only stay live for 20 seconds, but I have always gone on 10 minutes before I disconnect the terminals within the steering wheel. (manual states 90 seconds for Gen 7 - but the longer the better/safer)
Each gen of celi may be different but generally the centre section of the steering wheel is held on by two bolts at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock, so you can see them by tilting your head under the steeering wheel and looking up.(Gen7 Celi & mk.2 MR2 were the same)
If you're doing this on a Gen 6, the bolts holding the centre-section of the steering wheel are hidden under two plastic bits on either side of the steering wheel. These can be popped off with a screwdriver.
If you have difficulty getting the steering wheel off once the bolts have been removed then you may need a set of pulley pullers to pull the steering wheel off the spline, else they can be very tough to remove if trying to pull off by hand.
Obviously tighten the bolts back up, if you need to go and buy a set!
On the gen 7 these are torx bolts or star bolts as they are sometimes referred to, so you will need a set of torx keys or torx heads for your socket set to remove them. Additonally on the gen 7 they are buggers to actually get out of the way once undone, I used a set of needle nosed pliers to grab the bolts and pull them free.
Once undone you can carefully retract the air bag section from the steering wheel until you see the plastic wiring connector, this can be safely disconnected as long as you dealt with the battery terminal as mentioned earlier. Place the airbag unit face-up when you put it down, if not and it somehow triggers, it's a damned fast projectile and if you are in the way it is going to *really* hurt. Face up the bag can only deploy with no danger.
To put it all back together is the reverse of removal, but remember not to reconnect negative battery terminal until after the air bag is reconnected and safely in place.
Remember these things contain explosive charges and should be treated with a great deal of respect, one of these going off prematurely could cause nasty injuries, so REMEMBER, Negative battery lead OFF ! ;)
