Rebody MOT and a new/old interior

[Pond]

All I can tell you is my experience. I was not sure what to do when I built my first 250 California. I understood that the only way an MOT tester can fail the car is if the airbag light is illuminated and showing an fault, or does not illuminate at all, which also shows a fault. If it comes on with the ignition check, and then goes off, he has to assume that all is working correctly. He cannot test the airbags themselves, not would he be prepared to or even allowed to disassemble the car to check for an airbag presence. So the choice was do I not fit an airbag light, or do I fit a light that does what an airbag light does. I'd heard of one builder who had an MOT fail because "there was no airbag light, and Z3's have airbag lights so if its built on a Z3 it needs the light". So the car went back 2 days later with a fake airbag light and passed the MOT.

So I did the same and fitted a fake airbag light (in my case it was wired into the ABS light which came on and went off after a few seconds when the ignition was turned on. Obviously if you ever have a problem with the ABS then it will also appear to be an airbag problem, but I'd get the ABS fixed as this is far more important that the airbags. If I can't stop, I'll hit something hard and the airbags would be useful. If I can stop, I'd hope I never get into a situation where the airbags would have been required.
I am happy to take the small risk of not having airbags. I was driving cars in the 70's and 80's without any of this stuff.
I had the car for 4 years before selling it, and it passed the MOT without issues every time. The testers are usually so exited to test something different they don't even think about the airbags as long as the light shows a functioning system.

Currently building my second 250 California and this time I have bought a timer for the airbag light from eBay

Repair car led car SRS airbag abs light timer switch 1 to 10 sec delay off 12V | eBay

Tired of that pesky always-on airbag light?. Get rid of that persistent airbag light with our easy-to-use and effective LED airbag light repair kit. Buy now and drive worry-free! Connect the yellow wire to the positive of your airbag light, and the negative to ground.

www.ebay.co.uk

For me that is very useful, thanks!

 

[Brocky61]

Since we have dipped into this can of worms lets get into another aspect of airbag removal we haven't spoken about yet.
Lets talk passenger side first if your zed 3 came from the factory without a passenger airbag it has a different seatbelt fitted than ones with airbag fitted as with the airbag it has load limited seatbelt designed in conjunction with the pre tensioner system ( also inop once air bag removed) to take out excess slack then control the forward load to allow the person to meet the airbag at the right speed and moment.
The issue is this is also fitted to the drivers side seatbelt but unlike the passenger side there will be no rhd non limited belt for the offside as drivers airbag standard on a z3 .
The risk is obviously clattering head off wheel due to no srs systems.

Possible solution would be a offside seatbelt from a lhd car without a passenger airbag.
Real oem does list the part numbers for the seat belts with and without Force Limiters.
So for all you guys out the with no bag your seatbelt is no longer suitable.

View attachment 279803

Stephen.

Different part numbers for the right hand side on 3.0l though (Different price too!) :

 

[Stevo7682]

Different part numbers for the right hand side on 3.0l though (Different price too!) :
View attachment 280573

Interesting i thought that there would only be 2 options for each side one with force limiter and one without.
Stephen.