Hey,

I was away abroad for almost 6 months for work, when I got back my car was broken into and slept in by someone who broke the little corner glass and reached in opened the door (parked in unattended allotment behind my block of flats so nobody noticed due to tinted windows)

The bellend however decided to destroy the airbag with something, I'm guessing a knife. Its just all cut up and hanging out, almost looks deployed (but its not, just damaged to death.)

The battery is dead, like, not even clicking with booster cables, so its toast.

My question is this, if I decide to get a new battery in, will the car start right up, even with the airbag damaged or will it require coding or resetting? Do I need to find a replacement airbag before I even get started?

I have a tiny budget to get this sorted as the car is not even worth £400 so I just want to know if the car will require anything extra to get started? Do MK4 Mondeos have kill switches for airbags?

Its a shame as I owned the car for almost 8 years but I just can't afford spare cash atm so pondering if I should just scrap it and save the headache.

Many thanks!

(2012 Mondeo MK4, 2.0 tdci powershift euro 5 - mileage of the moon)

Believe it or not, it's safer to drive the car without the airbag fitted and the light on than with it damaged like that.

So:

Either source and fit a replacement airbag BEFORE you fit the new battery (and take the old battery off before you attempt to remove the airbag.

Or remove the airbag completely until you source a replacement, but you won't pass MOT without an airbag fitted

If the airbag warning light is on, it may self extinguish once the new airbag is fitted, if not you will need to get a generic OBD tool, on your phone with a cheap ELM327 dongle to clear the DTC for it.

Car will start and run with new battery whether the airbag is there or not, it's false deployment you need to be careful of.

If you need to leave a car for a long time again, make sure you set the deadlocks first. This prevents the inside door handle from working, so no-one can get in just by smashing the quarter glass, and they're unlikely to smash a large window for this purpose.

8 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

If you need to leave a car for a long time again, make sure you set the deadlocks first. This prevents the inside door handle from working, so no-one can get in just by smashing the quarter glass, and they're unlikely to smash a large window for this purpose.

9 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

Believe it or not, it's safer to drive the car without the airbag fitted and the light on than with it damaged like that.

So:

Either source and fit a replacement airbag BEFORE you fit the new battery (and take the old battery off before you attempt to remove the airbag.

Or remove the airbag completely until you source a replacement, but you won't pass MOT without an airbag fitted

If the airbag warning light is on, it may self extinguish once the new airbag is fitted, if not you will need to get a generic OBD tool, on your phone with a cheap ELM327 dongle to clear the DTC for it.

Car will start and run with new battery whether the airbag is there or not, it's false deployment you need to be careful of.

Many thanks Dave, that was a load of my mind. I will pick up a cheap battery from euro or something and slide it in and see how we get on. The car is overdue an MOT (was sorned) so that also needs doing after I sort the airbag out.

My only concern was if the car would start with the airbag in that state, which it appears it will thank god.

So battery, airbag, side window, MOT and a ***** good valet and we should be good to go!

@Tom why did I think that modern cars no longer have deadbolts? No idea where I heard that but silly me now I know and will defo do this next time around.

Many thanks fellas!