|
My niece in Birmingham recently had her Golf broken into and the driver's air bag assembly was stolen . Nothing else was touched . On reporting the matter to the police she was informed that hers was the third V.W.airbag theft reported in 24 hours .The main dealer was able to repair the car without delay so there was obviously no parts shortage to explain such an odd theft .What's this all about? What possible use are the airbags put to? As far as I know they don't fail very often thus creating a black market demand and the removal is a hazardous and quite skilled job .Someone enlighten me please!
|
From what I've read (but then the internet can be full of carp), airbags can be stolen to order and fitted into cars that are being damaged repaired.
To some unscrupulous types this means that they charge the client for a new airbag and fit the stolen one.
Chris
|
|
There is a thriving market in used airbags to repair insurance salvage ('damaged repairables').
|
|
|
>>From what I've read (but then the internet can be full of carp), airbags can be stolen to order
>>and fitted into cars that are being damaged repaired.
Yep they are sometimes sourced like this for the dodgy people who bodge cars back together after heavy accident damage, normally with the vehicle to be sold on to an unsuspecting punter.
The other thing that is likely is that the good airbags may get sold on sites like ebay, as they are worth a reasonable sum of money and are fairly undetectable in their origin. Ie you wouldn't be able to find out easily if it was stolen property.
Lastly, at one time of day it was necessary to replace the airbag control module at the same time as replacing an airbag. That was because the modules were only able to cope with one activation and thus if the airbag had been deployed then the module was 'used' to. Now I don't know if technology has moved on (I would suspect it has) and maybe you don't need to replace the control module too these days. Even so if a car was repaired with a stolen airbag and the module that was unable to work was not replaced, the owner of the vehicle wouldn't find out until he/she crashed their car and found that the airbag didn't fire.
|
Take a look on eBay........
They'll sell you the whole steering wheel or the relevant seats with the airbags built in
|
|
Free enterprise at work,makes the world go round.
|
Just one reason why my cars are always parked with a disklok on them
.
|
|
A man in our area had all his seats stolen from his Scorpio (leather),bought some out of the local paper and was about 99% sure ,he'd got his own back.
|
A man in our area had all his seats stolen from his Scorpio (leather) bought some out of the local paper and was about 99% sure he'd got his own back.
If I were convinced of that, I would have to take some kind of revenge...couldn't let that ride..that sucks.
|
This has been a problem since airbags were first introduced in the early 90s. One large nut, a connector and you're away
|
Seen the same happen on a friends focus the other day.
I don't think it is limited to VW.
|
|
|
|
A man in our area had all his seats stolen from his Scorpio (leather) bought some out of the local paper and was about 99% sure he'd got his own back.
That's a bit like paying a ransom!
|
Yes, the cost a of a new airbag is enough for insurance companies to write an older car off. So there will always be salvage vehicles needing them.
|
Not airbags, but Jaguar bumpers.
Every dealer in the South East, was visited one night, about 6/7 years back, by someone with ONE spanner.
Thats all it took to remove the 4 bolts, securing the front & rear, complete assemblies.
There wasn't a single car, left on the used forecourts, which hadn't had their shiny bits stolen!!!
A profitable container load for some far off land - £1500/pair to replace, IIRC!!
VB
|
|
Would that have been the XJ6's? If I remember correctly they were held on by 13mm nuts and just slid off complete.
|
Yes, better theft protection means the scroats have moved into parts nicking big-time. There must be a lot of containerfuls heading off to foreign lands.
A local van dealer lost the front doors and seats out of half his new stock last week and a nearby Land-Rover main-dealer wondered why they couldn't get a new Disco on their forecourt to move - the whole transmission had gone missing overnight.
[Directly opposite is the local police station....]
|
|
Its also not unknown in these times for parts (in particular diesel catalytic converters) to be stolen off brand new light commercials sitting overnight in dealership yards. Think about it, the parts are brand new, dead easy to unbolt and generally the vehicles are just high enough to get underneath without resorting to jacks.
|
Found via Autotrader.
www.rsmotorcycles.co.uk/pages/CAR26.html
At least they left the airbag!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
