Hi guys, does anyone know if, or how you can disable the passenger air bag on a E-350 ? I am a plumber/hvac guy who needs to pick up his daughter twice a week for mom...... we have to switch vehicles and,(not to fond of mom driving the diesel 350 if you know what i mean). that said i do not want to jepordise the safety of my little girl...... I never thought of it when i got the van. I have been Ford man my hole life...... my buddy just got a chevy van... it has a switch to turn off the air bag just like the Ford pick ups........why not the van?....any suggestions will be greatly appreciated thanks Tony

 

if your van is the same as the superduties, then yes you can do it. i had the same problem with driving my daughter and her friends around. for the superduties you have to buy the switch from ford. it only comes standard on regular cab trucks. the wiring is already behind the front dash panel next to the 12v power outlet. getting the switch and installing it is very easy, but you then have to take it to the dealer to have them program the computer to let it know the switch is there. works great, just use the vehicle key to turn the airbag on and off. all told the switch was about $72 and the dealer charged $90 (for literally 10 mins. work). this was on my '05 f-250 cc. good luck.

 

I guess the short answer is pull the fuse for the air bags.

The long answer is the law allows you to disable air bags in situations like this. The dealer should do this.

I am surprised the van does not have a disable switch like the regular cab and super cab trucks.

 

They only put the switch in there on the regular cab and super cab trucks because you have to put child safety seats up front in them, they won't fit in back. In the crew cab and in the van they assume you are going to put your kids in the back seat, so they don't bother adding the switch. As these guys said though, the wiring is there (at least on the trucks) so you can add the switch fairly easily.

 

thanks for the help I will look into it at Ford. Tony

 

I never bothered to pay attention, but don't they have the smart airbag? I know when I put stuff on the seats (05 Focus) if it is under a certain weight the air bag turns off or adjusts to passenger weight. Not that this would apply to Tony Poss issue, but just a question in general.

 

Nope, the Super Duty does not have sensors in the seat to turn the airbags on and off like some cars. Or at least the 99-07s don't, I'm not sure about the 08s.

 

according to the manual mine does have them any one know different?

 

I just read through my manual again and I don't see anything about sensors in the seats to shut off the airbags, what page are you looking at hotrod?