How to remove driver airbag?

[RobH]

I have a 2006 Mercury Grand Marquis, so it may not be the same as the Marauders. I am pretty sure that the engage switch for the cruise control is bad. I want to remove the airbag so that I can inspect and probably replace the switch. I have the 2006 Ford Shop Manual.

I followed the Shop Manual air bag disable procedure. Pull fuse 22 under the driver's dash, turn on the ignition, observe a steady SRS light for at least thirty seconds, turn off the ignition, disconnect battery, wait one minute (actually waited over a couple of hours while doing other stuff).

It says to insert a "small flat head screwdriver" into the access hole in the steering wheel rear cover, place the tip against the spring clip, push and lift the corner of the airbag. Repeat three times for the other three corners. I am guessing they mean a flat blade screwdriver.

I'll be darned if I can find anything inside by feel that seems like a clip...

What am I doing wrong? The illustration in the Shop Manual is not very helpful.

Does anyone have a photograph of what the inside of the airbag looks like or know of a you tube video or something that could give me an idea of what I am trying to do in where I can't see what is happening?

I searched in this forum and couldn't find anything. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Marauderjack]

Does this help??:confused:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKzNgrTik7c

[RobH]

Thank you. Maybe a "flat head screwdriver" is a screw driver with a flat portion perpendicular to the shaft. I've never seen or heard of one. I'll try the allen wrench. Thanks again.

[NATEHAWK]

The Marauder you just remove two bolts one on each side of the wheel.

[larryo340]

Thank you. Maybe a "flat head screwdriver" is a screw driver with a flat portion perpendicular to the shaft. I've never seen or heard of one. I'll try the allen wrench. Thanks again.

The '05 thru '11 Crown Vic and Marquis driver airbags are a real b!tch to remove, just when you've got one corner released and go to release the next one it locks back in :mad2: There's a knack to releasing them which I just can't grasp..hope you have better luck.
I think you're on the right track about the on/off switch. In my fathers '06 Marquis you have to repeatedly press the switch hard before it will engage.

[RobH]

The '05 thru '11 Crown Vic and Marquis driver airbags are a real b!tch to remove, just when you've got one corner released and go to release the next one it locks back in :mad2:

That's already happened to me. I'm going to try again, sticking some sort of wedge in after getting each corner loose. After switching to the allen wrench, I had three corners loose, and then, while working on the upper left, both bottom corners locked back in place. :shake:


...I think you're on the right track about the on/off switch. In my fathers '06 Marquis you have to repeatedly press the switch hard before it will engage.

Mine started out occasionally intermittent, then intermittent, then mostly didn't work, to didn't work at all. Hope the replacement switch is better quality. The first one only lasted about 60,000 miles before it starting malfunctioning. After another 10,000 miles or so of intermittent, it hasn't worked since.

[RobH]

Finally got the airbag out. Almost 2:00 AM here. Spent the last three hours on it. I know. :violin:

The engineer who designed it, the tech writer, and the illustrator are probably still laughing about the design and the shop manual description of how to remove the airbag. "Let's see those non factory mechanics figure this out." The factory mechnics also for at least the first time. Even seeing the insides, knowing what to do, and seeing where to put the screwdriver/allen wrench, it is still not easy to undo the latches.

While hypothesizing how it might be done, I had come up with a visualization of how it works in actuality, but was unable to get the visuallization to help. I spent probably 5-6 hours working on it over two days.

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures and then see if I can post them here.

Interestingly, the Ford Shop Manual describes removing the Speed Control Off/On switch on the left side of the steering wheel but is silent about removing/replacing the Set/Resume/+/- switch assembly on the right side of the steering wheel. Doing so is fairly straightforward, however.

[Marauderjack]

Glad ya got it Rob....good luck with the switch!!:beer: