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I'm pretty sure that the side impact airbag system in the 850 seats requires that the Volvo-designed trigger unit (about the size of a hockey puck if I remember correctly) come within so many milimeters of the receiver unit in the seat before the airbag will deploy. If you mount the 850 seat in your 240 without transfering the trigger unit from the door, there should be ZERO chance that the airbag could deploy.
If it were my car, I would definately take the extra time to transfer the hardware to make the side impact airbags functional. Even with the side impact beams in the doors of our 240s, the airbag does a LOT to reduce body trauma in a side impact collision. A couple of years ago, I saw some pictures on the 850 forum of a very bad accident where an 850 was hit hard in the passenger side door. The owner of the car said that his 12 year old son would probably not have survived if it hadn't been for the side impact airbag. If you have the ability to have functional side air bags, I wouldn't pass it up. It's an extra measure of safety, and it's the combination of many extra safety measures (on Volvos part) that encourage most of us to own these cars.
Back in the early to mid-90s, my father worked at Sparton Engineering (now Dura Automotive) in the airbag division. I was able to see some of the first prototype BMW side-impact airbags before they were equipped any US-market vehicles (the actual components were sitting on his desk). Pretty impressive stuff, and they definately make a significant reduction of trauma to a body in an accident. On a related note, I wrote a small post about front airbags awhile ago when the subject came up. While the triggering mechanism may be different, the side airbag itself has similar concepts and theory. If you're interested in reading it, follow this link: http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=648466
Even if you are going to leave the 850 airbags unused, it would still be worth picking up the service manual and reading through it. -just as a precaution for knowing what you're working with during removal and installation.
God bless and drive safe,
Fitz Fitzgerald.
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'87 Blue 240 Wagon, 255k miles.
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