Hey Gang,
I kissed a guard-rail with my '98 XLT a while back and bent the front bumper (low speed impact, no air bags deployed). Got the old one off, bought a new one along with a valance and corner light.
The bumper mounting bracket on the driver's side is bent from the impact. Before I start beating on this thing with a lump hammer do I need to disable the air bags to avoid an inadvertant deployment? Will a battery disconnect do it?

Thanks,
Bubba

 

Disconnect the negative battery terminal and wait 30 seconds, and you're safe. There's no airbag sensors in the front bumper, so that's good too... I don't even think there's any down on the frame up there, I believe they're all in the front quarter panels, but I'm not sure....


Might wanna stop kissing guardrails too, you might catch some nasty disease...

 

Good advice on the battery disconnect.

Guardrails are pretty safe, at least you know where they've been.

 

But would you bring one home to meet Mama?

Thanks for the replies.

 

I thought the airbag sensor was changed to some sort of inertial(sp?) sensor and they did away with the body sensors. I anyone HAS REAL knowledge of this for 2002 model year reply or PM me please. Oh and the ford manual says to just remove ithe neg. terminal for 2 min to deplete the aux. power supply to the airbags.