Air bag

[jako999]

I have an SLK but I would say all models are the same, does anyone know to get the sensor in the passanger seat to think it has a child seat fitted as I refuse to spend loads of cash on a Merc seat when a normal seat is fine.
Many thanks Jako

 

[SLinKyjoe]

yes...buy a seat with a transponder in it.

or use a forward facing seat and put the seat right back.

I was quoted around £140 for a seat at merc dealers with a transponder...a similar seat in mothercare was about £98.

have banned children from the car.

dont be tempted to find the fuse....it will send all kinds of electronics bad apparenlty..

you could look on ebay for a seat with a transponder and pull the transponder out. or maybes a decent dealer may take pity on you and order a transponder for you which you leave in the glovebox.


i have noticed that merc dealers quote car seat prices with the isofix fixtures and the front seat doesnt have them. in the acessory brochure they do prices for non isofix seats....a lot cheaper.

 

[mlc]

Lets think this one through:-

Even the oldest SLK's are worth at least £12K, your child is priceless - and you are looking at a way that may or may not work to save £42 by doctoring the sensor.

May I respectfully suggest that a far cheaper and more foolproof method would be to sell the SLK and buy a car without a passenger airbag - I can recommend say a 20 year old Fiesta, no need to fiddle the airbags on that one.

Jokeing apart - is the safety of your child really not worth an extra £50?

Mark

 

[SLinKyjoe]

Lets think this one through:-

Even the oldest SLK's are worth at least £12K, your child is priceless - and you are looking at a way that may or may not work to save £42 by doctoring the sensor.

May I respectfully suggest that a far cheaper and more foolproof method would be to sell the SLK and buy a car without a passenger airbag - I can recommend say a 20 year old Fiesta, no need to fiddle the airbags on that one.

Jokeing apart - is the safety of your child really not worth an extra £50?

Mark

good way to put it....

 

[surreyian]

What was the overall verdict?

If its your first child then the extra is marginal so get the MB one. We are having our second and so have all the kit already so I just wanted to buy the transponder bit from MB whcih they wont sell seperately. on my BMW they just disabled the airbag. Aside from having to buy another seat (and I already have a perfectly good one) the one we have clips into a pram thingy so it helps when you can dont have to play musical baby seats.
Can I buy the seat and then just pull the transponder thing out? :-?

 

[jako999]

Thanks for the help

Thanks for all the help it looks like I wiil have to buy the seat it just seams such a waste as my doughter only goes in the car approx 2-3x a month she's normaly in my wifes car which the air bag is normal in and you just switch it of with the key. Thanks Jako

 

[pascal]

Well,

I see the point in not having a key to disable the airbag. I also see the point in not being allowed to buy the sensor separately.

Fact is, with the key, one may forget to turn it back on. A seperate sensor could be open to abuse.

An extra £42 is nothing. Less than the price of one tank of fuel, or a half of an average tyre.

£42 could mean the difference between minor bruising and plastic surgery (or worse)

PS. I was in the passenger seat of an alfa 156 a few year ago. The airbag was turned off. Even though we did not crash, if we did, do you not think the lack of bag would have made any sustained injuries a lot worse.

 

[jberks]

Well,

I see the point in not having a key to disable the airbag. I also see the point in not being allowed to buy the sensor separately.

Fact is, with the key, one may forget to turn it back on. A seperate sensor could be open to abuse.

An extra £42 is nothing. Less than the price of one tank of fuel, or a half of an average tyre.

£42 could mean the difference between minor bruising and plastic surgery (or worse)

PS. I was in the passenger seat of an alfa 156 a few year ago. The airbag was turned off. Even though we did not crash, if we did, do you not think the lack of bag would have made any sustained injuries a lot worse.

I had an A3 with a key lock to disable the passenger airbag and found it very useful when transporting kids around. There is a warning light that comes on, so you can't forget (as in the merc). Admittedly there may have been times I drove with it off and an adult up front, but that was our decision.

Its rather like the US and European view when building control systems on airliners. The europeans take the view that the computer always knows best (speaking as an IT consultant - bollocks ) , the US believe the pilot should always have an override. I'm with the US on this one.

 

[pascal]

Yes JB that was your choice. MB don't want you to sit in the passenger seat with airbag disabled, so they don't allow you make that choice.

Regards Boeing and Airbus. You'll find that all their modern planes are similar in what overriding is allowed. They basiclly do not allow the pilot to take a plane into a dangerous situation (ie stall, or dive) that would cause the aircraft to crash. Fact is boeing allows this override, may be more dangerous than safe.
Agreed that relying on software can dangerous, but these planes have several backup systems to avoid this. Pilot error, is the cause of most accidents (on the odd occasion, maybe not correctly), not malfuntions (which are mostly mechanical).
When that Airbus crashed at that airshow a few years back, some blamed not being able to lift the nose, being overridden by the computer, and that the parremeters were not tight enough. Fact is, the pilot was flying to slow, too close to the ground, and did not allow for the engines wind up time, so they sucked in debris from the tree tops. If he had full control he would have more than likely stalled the plane.
A lot of this hype about the Airbus is propagando derived from US patriotism, because Airbus developed better, safer planes, and are responsable for taking half of Boeings bussiness. For this reason, Boeing has copied many of the Airbus systems, from 'Glass Cockpit instruments' to computer controls.

We can look forward to even safer flight in the near future, and however daunting, computers will play a major roll in that safety.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

planes..now there is a good subject....the airbus system was designed to stop the pilot taking the plane beyond its designed parameters and therfore, in theroy, would not crash.

the A320 crash in 1988 at the paris airshow was a result of the pilot doing a landing approach with the intent on doing a fly passed and then a go round. however the software was in landing mode. so when he did the standard power on demand, the software said "nope! my old son, you dont do that landing!" and started to put the aircraft on the ground, which was trees. The pilot was, did, and had regained total control of the aircraft systems around 7 seconds after his inputs had been overruled by the software, unfortuntely he was hitting trees less than 2 seconds later and a plane with 120 people one does not react in 2 seconds...3 people died. The Airbus also use side joystick control, commonly known as fly by wire.

The latest Boeings 777 uses the same systems....exactly the same but different manufatcurers. but they keep the software to respond to pilot inputs first, then deicde whether he can, or indeed should, make the manouver he is requesting. They also kept the big old fashioned steering wheel (yoke). but if you rummage around under the floor of this device you will notice it is connected to a series of micro switches and soleniods and stuff that makes it move as tho they were connected to the wings.

and.....the biggest cause of aircraft accidents over since 2000 (53%)? CFIT!

Controlled flight Into Terrain.....which is a nice way of saying the pilot was busy flying the plane when the ground came up and hit it. so the human element is the weakest link.

and for boring reasons i have to add. Airbus is outselling boeing and has been for 2 years....and part of airbus is a company called DASA. we may know that as Daimler Aero and Space something or other...so we have mercs in space now too.

 

[EuroCLK320]

on the subject of statistics.. the biggest cause of computer help desk queries is the SMI apparently.

The SMI is the 'seat to mouse interface'.

Calibration of

SEAT --> CHIMP --> MOUSE

has always been the holy grail of software designers :mrgreen:

 

[pascal]

Airbus Salesman: So do you like our new A380?

BA Buyer: Looks great to me; How much?

Airbus Salesman: Well you want 10, and at £200M each, That'll be £2,000M.

BA Buyer: What about a Discount?

Airbus Salesman: That's my best price, But I can throw in the 10 dogs as part of the deal.

BA Buyer: What? Dogs? No pilots?

Airbus Salesman: Oh you will still need your pilots............To Feed The Dog.