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after market steering wheels,what have you got ?


buster

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone running standard seats with these? Love how some of these drift wheels look but no airbag worries me. Would it even pass an mot? Although not the hardest thing to swap out once a year I imagine 🤔

 

 

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Anyone running standard seats with these? Love how some of these drift wheels look but no airbag worries me. Would it even pass an mot? Although not the hardest thing to swap out once a year I imagine 🤔

No, they won't pass new MOT regs as you are not allowed to remove any OEM airbag at all, UNLESS the car is substantially modified for a different purpose eg a rally car, or track car. Your friendly MOT guy might consider a set of wheels and a new stereo as modified, or he may consider anything less than a fully stripped & caged car to be not modified enough. Always interpretation, but you'd be unlikely to win any appeal if the tester knocks you back.

 

In terms of danger, some would argue no airbag is actually safer as you're not putting an explosive device aimed at your face ;) I personally don't subscribe to either extreme of "REMOVING IT WILL KILL YOU!" nor "OF COURSE IT'S SAFER, MY MATE BROKE HIS NOSE WHEN HIS WENT OFF AT 5MPH!", but removing airbags in general has never worried me. I know the risks, I'm an adult, I'll make my own decisions regarding my own safety ta.

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Anyone running standard seats with these? Love how some of these drift wheels look but no airbag worries me. Would it even pass an mot? Although not the hardest thing to swap out once a year I imagine 🤔

 

 

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Also need to let insurance your running without airbags too, which no doubt they won't like !!

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Just tell them what steering wheel you're changing to, let them figure out if it's an airbag one or not.

 

Doubt very much that's gona cut it in the event of a crash, you've purposely removed the oem wheel where the air bag deploys from and installed an after market one which doesn't have air bags, whether the nonce on the end of the insurance phone line knows his stuff or not, it's your responsibility to tell them you've removed a safety device, not their responsibility to work It out.

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It would be absolutely fine. You've told them everything you needed to, which is that you've changed the steering wheel for something else. Take a photo and send it if you want. Completely down to them then, isn't it?

 

As you know I'm picky as hell when it comes to insurance companies, which is why I'd be very precise and tell them exactly what wheel I've changed it for. They then cannot say they did not realise it was one without an airbag, and will never have reason to cancel a claim because of it. It's precisely their responsibility to work out how it affects their risk, that's their job!

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Totally disagree, you are witholding a crucial fact on the safety of the driver in the car, if you had no fault accident and the other insurance company questioned why the air bag didn't go off and then to be told you replaced It with an aftermarket one with no air bag capability and did not inform your Insurance company of the safety device being nullified then you are in the $hit. Can't see why you think not telling your Insurance you've nullified the air bag capability of the car is not your fault, that's just bollox Ekona.

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It's not. It's common sense. I have told them, I told them very clearly.

 

What difference would it make to them anyway? It's cheaper to replace, and the only possible person who would be injured is me, and since car insurance doesn't cover my personal injury then it's of zero consequence to them.

 

Honestly :lol:

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Pmsl .........it'll make a huge difference, still can't see why you can't see this very obvious fact for some who is very picky and precise about dealing with mods and insurance.

 

Only fact that matters is you have witheld pertinent information to your insurance company, in other words you lied to them and NOT fully disclosed the mod.

 

IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to disclose all information and mods, not your Insurance company to decide about the implications of any mod you do. They are just admistrators, who can't see the mod and it's implications, you can and do know the implications and to not disclose this will render your insurance invalid.

 

The at fault drivers Insurance is going to care big time at the fact your driving illegally with null and void insurance and you ain't getting any compensation, and at the end of the day......your car was not legally entitled to be on the road due to non disclosure of a mod. Honestly.......it's that simple and they will laughing all the way to the bank.

 

Since when does car insurance not cover personal injury ?? Last time I checked, that's what insurance is for, so when you mess up, your insurance company pays up to the victim for car and personal injury !!!!!.............except when your driving an uninsured car when you've not declared your mods.

So by your thinking, the at fault drivers insurance will just pay up for your smashed in face even though you've removed the air bag which would save you from a smashed up face........think not bud.

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Is there such thing as an aftermarket wheel with an airbag that works with every car in the world, or any car for that matter? What about bucket seats. should you inform the insurer of the obvious, that they don't have airbags either? If I fit a BGW, should I inform the insurer that the car now has more rear downforce? When you fitted your decats, did you inform the insurer that they aren't road legal on your vehicle and will cause different emissions readings, or did you assume they would know that?

 

Of course you shouldn't, because it's obvious that aftermarket wheels and seats aren't going to work with an OEM SRS system and yes, it IS the insurers responsibility to calculate the risk of each and every mod, thats why when we declare them the price either changes or doesn't, depending on the calculated risk of the mod according to the insurer.

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Since when does car insurance not cover personal injury ?? Last time I checked, that's what insurance is for, so when you mess up, your insurance company pays up to the victim for car and personal injury !!!!!.............except when your driving an uninsured car when you've not declared your mods.

So by your thinking, the at fault drivers insurance will just pay up for your smashed in face even though you've removed the air bag which would save you from a smashed up face........think not bud.

Go check your policy: Unless you have it as an extra, your own personal injury is not covered at all. If the claim is against the other party, then nothing in my policy has any affect on the claim I make on theirs. My car could be completely illegal (no MOT, tax or insurance) and I could have no licence, and yet if they drive into me I'm still completely able to claim any and all damages from their insurer. If I crash in my own car and break my leg, my injury is not covered by my motor insurance as standard. You cannot exclude liability for negligence which results in injury or death: This is enshrined in statute. Your insurer may let you pay extra for X amount of cover, but a basic policy does not. Although in fairness some insurers do offer a small amount of cover as an incentive to take a policy out with them, they certainly don't have to.

 

As I've said previously, I have disclosed to my insurer that I have a different wheel (well, I did on the MR2 and MX5 when I had them). They knew what I'd done exactly. I have no idea at all what risk they allow into their policies, how they front load them, what they will allow before becoming uncomfortable with the risk and refusing to insure etc. How could I? I don't work for them. Legally I only have to inform them of the material facts, which in this case would be that I have replaced X steering wheel with Y steering wheel. As to how that affects their risk and my policy, that's up to them.

 

 

I can understand a certain level of confusion about what a material fact is, but I can promise you that as long as you inform them of what you've done and do not lie, then that's fine.

Edited by Ekona
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I love Jeff's wheel ðŸ˜

 

one of my old cars passed an MOT with no airbag, the tester just asked me to wire up a horn because it didn't haven't one either (but like people have said, the tester could have just said no to me). Also span across the motorway in the same car after being hit and no airbag meant I was able to get out quickly. Although I was run over a few seconds later when trying to go back to the car and get someone else out, but that's not the steering wheels fault 😂.

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I asked my insurance company when I disclosed all my mods on my car and as I was looking at an aftermarket wheel I told them that also, first thing the rep said was "is it air bagged" ?. No, I said, his answer, "well if you do fit an aftermarket wheel, let us know as your car comes with front air bags as standard".

That is all I need to know.

Kyle, I'm not saying there is bagged wheels on after market wheels, all I'm debating is the fact you need to tell your Insurance company about the mod, nothing else. It's been discussed a thousand times on here re informing insurance companies of modifications, the responsibility is yours to disclose all relevant information about the mods you do, so they can assess their risk on what this mod does, they can't assess the risk if you don't fully disclose the truth. How else are they going know whether it's bagged or not unless YOU tell them ?.

I'll go back to my earlier point .....no fault accident, none air bagged not declared to insurance company and the at fault drivers insurance co is going to wiggle out or at best seriously reduce your compensation for personal injury, because your Insurance company tells them you didn't inform us the air bag had been deleted as a result of fitting aftermarket wheel. It makes no sense to not disclose it, why wouldn't you ?.

We don't have a clue who is at the end of the phone, how good they are at their job, how much they know about aftermarket ad ons etc etc, it's a no brainer not to inform them. Ekona's point that I told them I've fitted an after market wheel and type, value etc is not sufficient information as not only have you changed the wheel as a known declared mod, what you haven't told them is that by doing so you've also altered / modded the air bag function, that Is an undeclared mod, unless they ask you and by which you have to tell them the bag is now not in place.

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Since when does car insurance not cover personal injury ?? Last time I checked, that's what insurance is for, so when you mess up, your insurance company pays up to the victim for car and personal injury !!!!!.............except when your driving an uninsured car when you've not declared your mods.

So by your thinking, the at fault drivers insurance will just pay up for your smashed in face even though you've removed the air bag which would save you from a smashed up face........think not bud.

Go check your policy: Unless you have it as an extra, your own personal injury is not covered at all. If the claim is against the other party, then nothing in my policy has any affect on the claim I make on theirs. My car could be completely illegal (no MOT, tax or insurance) and I could have no licence, and yet if they drive into me I'm still completely able to claim any and all damages from their insurer. If I crash in my own car and break my leg, my injury is not covered by my motor insurance as standard. You cannot exclude liability for negligence which results in injury or death: This is enshrined in statute. Your insurer may let you pay extra for X amount of cover, but a basic policy does not. Although in fairness some insurers do offer a small amount of cover as an incentive to take a policy out with them, they certainly don't have to.

 

As I've said previously, I have disclosed to my insurer that I have a different wheel (well, I did on the MR2 and MX5 when I had them). They knew what I'd done exactly. I have no idea at all what risk they allow into their policies, how they front load them, what they will allow before becoming uncomfortable with the risk and refusing to insure etc. How could I? I don't work for them. Legally I only have to inform them of the material facts, which in this case would be that I have replaced X steering wheel with Y steering wheel. As to how that affects their risk and my policy, that's up to them.

 

 

I can understand a certain level of confusion about what a material fact is, but I can promise you that as long as you inform them of what you've done and do not lie, then that's fine.

Dan, they don't ask you if you've lied to them they insist you declare any modifications from standard to the vehicle, lieing and non declaring are easily taken in different context, and It'll be their version that matters in the end.

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It'll be the version that is required by the contract, and if that contract is in dispute then what the court decides. If the contract states that you must tell them if you remove airbags, fine. If they specifically ask you on the phone if you've removed an airbag, fine. If the contract asks you to declare any modifications and you declare that you have removed an OEM wheel and replaced it with a Sparco Go-Faster 3000, then that also satisfies the requirements. There's no shades of grey about that, it's fact.

 

If you just say "Oh, er, it's a black one" or "Erm, a Sparco one" then yeah, ambiguity creeps in. However, if the insurer is happy with the answer you give them, then why give them extra details they don't need? Put it this way, in what way do you think I've lied or not declared? In what way would a court find in favour of the insurer?

 

 

Another example (and I know you'll hate this one!), on my current car I have detailed as modifications 'exhaust changes' and 'suspension changes'. Their wording, not mine: I told them what I'd done, but that was how they chose to write it on the policy. Makes sense to both parties.

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I'll stick with what my insurance told me about it if and when I change my wheel, then I know I'm 100% good. I do get what your saying Dan, I just don't agree about not fully declaring known mods and unknown mods. Called me picky, but I don't trust insurance company's not to wiggle from any claim. I just don't see the reason not to be tell them about the air bag being defunct, there is no reason not to, except you think it will put up your premium.

 

I don't "hate" about your exhaust, dont be childish, but there's a huge difference between that and no air bag.

 

Anyway, good debate, you advise on your take and I advise on mine, doubt the two will meet.

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