The Haynes manual says that you should unplug the air bag cable connector before doing any work around the driver's seating position. It says there is a capacitor that is designed to fire the air bag even if the battery is disconnected. But according to the diagram, the cable connection really hard to get to--under the carpet at the trans tunnel.

A mechanic told me, no problem. All you have to do is to disconnect the battery 15 minutes before you want to work on the car. This will be enough time to discharge the capacitor and you can work on the dash or whatever, with no risk that something will set off the air bag.

Seems to me that a capacitor with enough kick to ignite what is in effect an explosive charge would take longer than 15 minutes to discharge. Does anyone have any inside-Volvo information on this? Is 15 minutes long enough? Or is there some other way to temporarily deactivate the air bag? What do Volvo dealer shops do when they want to work around the steering column?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Doug Harvey