Airbag and MOT

[Petec82]

Hey Guys

Been absent from the forums for a while as my car has been parked up for a couple of years due to kids and house moves etc but its good to be back.

My problem is this, a few years back I changed my MK3 wheel to an aftermarket one with no airbag. When doing this I also took away the warning light trim and replaced it with trim only showing the ABS light. After this my car passed MOT's no problem.

Now the time has come for me to get my car back on the road I hear that a missing airbag is a guaranteed fail MOT. Is this true? The reason I am so concerned is that I have no real hope of reconnecting the airbag. I wasn't neat when removing it, although I did keep it.

Hope you  can help.
Pete 

[madmanmart]

Mines been like that for years and I've never had a problem. Finding the right garage is key really, some can be very picky.

[itavaltalainen]

On mk3 you should be fine without airbag because the original type approval for the model (for mk3 this would be around 1991 !!!) did not include airbags (for this reason you can remove it in picky places, say germany and then they will make a note on your car papers that are roughly equivalent to V5)

Generally if the type approval included airbags right from the beginning of production (i.e. after when they became mandatory to fit to all new cars) then you would get issues not having one. Though the UK is quite relaxed (or does not give a sxxx in other words) and in a small garage you may still get away with it.

Strictly speaking this would probably be considered a mod by insurance due to it being safety equipment (though I can't be sure as there are some really strange, no pointless rules in this country - was allowed a 10" kitchen knife on ferry but my safety knife with much shorter blade was confiscated because it had a locking blade...). 

[VW BUSH]

Both airbag and abs lights can be made to come on and go off with a very simple circuit and bits from RS that amount to very little in cash.
Google airbag light defeat or abs light defeat.
Essentially you are just making the light go on then off after a couple of seconds so it looks like its armed on ignition.
All you need is the airbag lamp cluster, a 12v supply on ignition and the trick circuit.

[matty james]

as above ,my bros a sparky and he did that on my abs light 3 yrs ago,to get it through its mot . but it is simple to do yourself too.