How hard is it to fix air bags that have deployed?

[NWFLBowhunter]

So, been searching for a gen3 manual for awhile now, have my eye on a couple on craigslist, but they are quite the drive away (6+ hours) and I don't trust people enough to drive that far. Local one popped up that I contacted today and he immediately told me the sending unit doesn't work, and the airbags deployed due to a bad sensor? He assured me it had never been wrecked, but I doubt that. He is supposed to send pictures tonight and I plan on looking at it tomorrow. My questions are, how likely is it that the sensor just went bad? Second question is, what am I looking at for a price to get this fixed?

 

[Brilliant]

Think about it, driving down the road and it randomly goes off, it would make you wreck. Thats not a failure mode of the system. Its unlikely its a failed sensor. Its likely it was in a wreck.

 

[mxer]

95% of the sellers on CL want to screw you over. It's shady as hell buying a 4runner at least in my experience.

 

[IBallEngineer]

So, been searching for a gen3 manual for awhile now, have my eye on a couple on craigslist, but they are quite the drive away (6+ hours) and I don't trust people enough to drive that far. Local one popped up that I contacted today and he immediately told me the sending unit doesn't work, and the airbags deployed due to a bad sensor? He assured me it had never been wrecked, but I doubt that. He is supposed to send pictures tonight and I plan on looking at it tomorrow. My questions are, how likely is it that the sensor just went bad? Second question is, what am I looking at for a price to get this fixed?

Each module could be 6 or 7 hundred, plus it may require a cable, or a control module. Easily $1500-$3000.

Stay

Away

 

[T4R2014]

I recall a guy on here having his airbags deploy after trying to pull out a tree stump. The "shock" caused by pulling the rope running out of slack caused the airbags to deploy.

The guy sounds awfully shady. If you can pick this thing up dirt cheap it may be worth it in parts alone. Otherwise, be prepared to walk away.

 

[NWFLBowhunter]

Yea I hate dealing with cl. The guy has put an aftermarket winch bumper on it also which also makes me think its had front end damage of some sort. It raised a red flag when he said a bad sensor cause them to deploy. I was just kinda hoping this was a common problem with offroading a runner. He's asking price on the higher end. Its just been a pain tracking down a manual. On to the next one I guess.

 

[BrianSD_42]

I Think if the airbags were deployed and NOT professionally fixed then it is a salvage title in most if not all states.

It sounds highly shady.

 

[gamefreakgc]

I've not experienced it on a 4Runner (and hope never to) but other Toyota's I've owned you have to replace the entire dash when it deployed because it destroys it when deployed on the passenger's side.

PS if airbags deployed on their own due to a "bad sensor" we'd all have recalls on our vehicles.

 

[turbo8]

The airbags do go off pretty easy. When the passenger side bag deploys it sorta messes up the area where it comes out of. It can be snapped back together.

I replaced my bags with ones from parted out 4runners from this site and yotatech. I spent about $200 for new bags. There are no airbag lights on my dash.