A book came in the mail the other day from Nissan listing all the accessories I could buy for my new Xterra. Since I work in a questionable area in L.A., getting the air bag atni-theft bolts seemed like a good idea. I went to the parts desk at my local Nissan dealer and after about twenty minutes the bolts were brought out to me along with instuctions on how to install them. They have puzzle lock head like the one on your standard wheel lock. When I asked about the key which was needed to install them, I was told that the key was " a dealer only item, not sold to the general public." So, I asked "how do I put these in without the key?" "They have to be installed by the dealer at a cost of $150 dollars for the two." 150 dollars to install two $10 bolts. Of couse in the accessory book it didn't say intallation extra, or must be installed by dealer. Nissan made it seem that you could purchase the bolts and intall them yourself. If I would have known all this, I would not have even tried to buy them in the first place.

I didn't know that airbag theft was that rampant.

Isn't it just cheaper to NOT buy them and pay out your insurance deductible in the highly unlikely event that your airbag is stolen? I mean, most likely they'll steal your headrests and visors too. Maybe even your seatbelts if you're lucky.

This is L.A. They kill people for rims and tires. The point was that I was misled into thinking that you could install the bolts yourself. Why sell you a part that can be only intalled by a dealer and charge they you what ever they want? Another dealer told me it was over $200 for the install.

I don't know anything about how to steal an airbag, but wouldn't it be stolen by some shady mechanic, and you would never know about it until it was too late (i.e. a wreck)?

Are they bolts or screws? If they're screws, what kind of heads are on them? Ive got a set of security bits that I bought recently that looks like it covers every type of screw known to man.

I've seen a socket out there that may be just what you're looking for. It's body is a 1" deepwell socket and it's full of pins. When you put the socket over whatever you want to twist, the pins slide back and forth so as to conform with the head of the bolt. Supposedly it's good to something like 150 lbs of torque before the pins start to break. Dunno who makes it, but it's out there. It's called something like the universal socket.

Justin

Gator Grip Universal Socket

Go to a body shop. Think about it if you are in a wreck a body shop does all the work including the airbag replacement. I am sure that for 30-50 you will be on your way.

As the original poster stated "puzzle lock head like the one on your standard wheel lock" but about a third the size. I beleive the only people that have the "correct" keys are the dealers. Installing the driver side should be pretty simple w/ the correct key, installing the passenger side will take some effort to get to the mounting. Would probably be easiest/cheapest to have the dealer install just 1 bolt on the driver side.

I think you would notice, the airbag and middle chunk of steering wheel are all one piece.

air bag is #7

I really think 150.00 bucks ain't that bad considering if your air bags are stolen the cost to replace them would be well over 1500.00$