Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled?

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Sat 21 Jun 2025 00:03
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - Scoodle

Hi.

This is a 2014 car, with a value of less than £3k. The airbag light comes on intermittently, almost permanently now, and this has been diagnosed by a garage as being one of the side curtain bags.

Problem is, to trace the actual fault, and - if needed - to replace the bag is a significant task, and I've been warned it could be circa £1k, possibly more.

Ok, I can personally live without that one side 'bag! My other car is a 'kit', and has next-to-zero safety features...

So my Q is, can the faulty airbag be disabled electronically and legitimately by a garage, allowing all the others to function?

Thanks.

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Sat 21 Jun 2025 01:08
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - focussed
I think you know the answer to this question don't you?

The answer is no.
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Sat 21 Jun 2025 08:34
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - Lee Power

I cannot see how / why a side curtain airbag would go faulty as its all hidden behind the headliner?

Unless its water ingress / damage from a leaking sunroof then the components should really last the life of the car.

What was the error code?

Its more likely a side seat airbag - the connectors underneath the seat can get upset by movement of the seat.

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Sat 21 Jun 2025 08:34
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - elekie&a/c doctor
The majority of airbag faults can be attributed to bad connections at the component. A slightly high resistance in the contact can cause the light to illuminate. I’d get the garage to check this first . The roof bag can’t be disabled electronically.
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Sat 21 Jun 2025 22:41
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - Brit_in_Germany

Is it subject to the general C3 recall? See the motoring thread.

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Mon 23 Jun 2025 12:29
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - Gibbo_Wirral

Sadly, all airbags will fail due to age at some point. I think Haynes says their life is only ten years and then reliability cannot be guaranteed.

They can often be disabled with the Diagbox software or bypassed with resistors.

But in doing so you could be invalidating your insurance and getting into one heck of a mess if there's a accident involving serious injury or death and the investigators found the airbag had been tampered with electronically.

Edited by Gibbo_Wirral on 23/06/2025 at 12:29

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Mon 23 Jun 2025 15:22
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - Andrew-T

Sadly, all airbags will fail due to age at some point. I think Haynes says their life is only ten years and then reliability cannot be guaranteed.

IIRC the handbook for my 207SW recommends renewing airbags after 10 years, but I can't see many owners doing that after comparing the value of the car with the cost ? Same life as a cambelt ?

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Mon 23 Jun 2025 17:14
Citroen C3 Picasso - Can a faulty airbag be legitimately disabled? - bathtub tom

I had a car with a faulty passenger airbag warning. An (expensive) diagnosis indicated the connection under the passenger seat. Disconnecting the battery for a couple of hours, to make sure it didn't go 'pop' while working on it, I simply jumpered the wires around the plug. Perhaps I could've got away with working the plug in and out a few times, but five minutes with some wire and soldering iron cured it permanently.

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