Let's talk 2006 Mountaineer Airbags

[Tsuki]

So, I'm in the process of rebuilding my 2006 Mountaineer Premier (Thread here about the vehicle itself: Just a crazy guy rebuilding a Mountaineer ), but I'm in a bit over my head on the airbags.

The steering wheel airbag and the passenger dashboard bag both deployed. I have two replacement airbags for it. I installed the driver's one already, but can't figure out how the heck to get the passenger one out of the dashboard. I have two questions:

1. How do you get the passenger one out?

2. I know that the control module will need to be replaced and reflashed, and I'll need two new crash sensors. That's work that I'm not qualified to do, so I'll be taking the vehicle in to my mechanic. Once I get the "new" airbags in, can I hook up the battery and drive it on my trailer to haul to him, or do I need to not hook up the new airbags at all? I really, really don't want to hook up the battery and have the airbags go off again. That would suck

 

[Scorpion8]

Did you remove the glove box door and look up from underneath? You may have to remove some heater components. Otherwise there appears to be the bolts across the top of the dash panel to remove the dash cover.

 

[Razorback50]

I did something similar about a year ago with a 2006 Mountaineer from Copart. Mine had a bit more frontal damage. I would say that if you can replace the bumper and the front airbags you can do the other stuff too. You should not need to alter the new RCM's AS-BUILT values if it has the same PN as the unit you are replacing. In addition to the stuff you mentioned needing replaced, you will probably also have to replace the seat belt pretensioners and the deployable steering column sensor. Your steering column probably will not be collapsed based on how minor your crash looks, but I would bet the sensor is tripped. Mine had the sensor tripped, but the column was ok. After replacing the column sensor, pretensioners, front airbags, frontal impact sensors, and RCM I had no more SRS codes. If you don't have forscan and an ELM 327 with a HS/MSCAN switch, I would recommend it. The diagnostic ability of it is better than every other somewhat affordable solution. If you would like I can scan and send you the applicable sections of the SRS portion from the Ford workshop manual.