Question on steering wheel airbag removal.

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TheAirman

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 1, 2023
Messages
120
Location
Mc Donald, PA
I want to have some custom work done to my steering wheel which requires the removal of the air bag (which is not a easy task compared to other vehicles). I don't want to lose all my settings I worked so much on. Youtube video show people removing the bag without disconnecting anything. No 12v battery. No traction battery.

My question is if I just open the doors and let the car go to sleep, after all the lights go out, is it safe to remove the airbag?

What if I just disconnected the 12v negative terminal?

If I disconnect the 12V, and pull the main high voltage disconnect, what, if any setting are lost ?
 
You could back up your user profile to a USB flash drive using an iDrive command. This would protect your settings which you could restore using a different iDrive command. However, I've disconnected the HV disconnect prior to disconnecting the negative cable of the 12 V battery probably 7 times for periods of 3 to 9 months each time with no loss of settings other than the date and time. I always back up my user profiles to ensure against any settings loss, but I've never had to restore my settings from a backup.

I would disconnect the HV disconnect then the negative battery cable before working on the airbag to be safe which is recommended by BMW when working on airbags.
 
You could back up your user profile to a USB flash drive using an iDrive command. This would protect your settings which you could restore using a different iDrive command. However, I've disconnected the HV disconnect prior to disconnecting the negative cable of the 12 V battery probably 7 times for periods of 3 to 9 months each time with no loss of settings other than the date and time. I always back up my user profiles to ensure against any settings loss, but I've never had to restore my settings from a backup.

I would disconnect the HV disconnect then the negative battery cable before working on the airbag to be safe which is recommended by BMW when working on airbags.
Thanks for that. I don't mind resetting things like the date and time, it's setting up the favorite radio stations that bug me. All cars have a different procedure.

Next I have to try to remove that bag.
 
The only settings you lose are -as mentioned- Date & Time but those can get automatically reset and also any running "trip"measurements like trip odometer/milage/energy usage, basically anything that can be reset by pressing the button on the turn signal stalk. I was surprised to see all Profiles left intact on both a 2017 and 2019 when I changed 12v batteries.
 
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