Do I have an airbag?

[Green1]

where is that hard shell in the middle going to go? I am seeing images from James Bond movies.

Amazingly enough, that's not actually much of an issue, the panel you see is designed to "tear" and become a hinged flap, it stays attached to the steering wheel and only the airbag hits you.

Don't let that be much consolation though, the airbag isn't really any softer than that "hard shell" you're worried about. it is capable of breaking bones without help from hard plastic. (this is more due to speed of deployment than firmness of the material, but at the speed it comes out, it hardly matters what it's made of)

[jessef]

Could you (or anyone with a non-airbag equipped L400) verify if the non-airbag steering wheels look identical (except for the "SRS Airbag" lettering?) (I suspect it does, but I haven't paid attention to the wheel of one without before)

The L400 NON-AIRBAG steering wheel looks completely different compared to the AIRBAG version.

AIRBAG wheel - central airbag, raised center piece, thumb horn buttons on either side

NON-AIRBAG wheel - central horn/flat center piece

They don't look alike at all

[Green1]

They don't look alike at all

I guess that answers it then, that must be an airbag...

[luckydad]

I wear eyeglasses and have often wondered what happens to my face (and eyes) when and if an airbag "explodes" on me?

phil

[loki]

I wear eyeglasses and have often wondered what happens to my face (and eyes) when and if an airbag "explodes" on me?

phil

your glasses get slammed against your face and you end up with a couple small cuts on your cheeks, nose, forehead type areas.

as for the wheel looking like an airbag wheel but not saying srs it seems like it's likely that the van had been in enough of an accident that the bag deployed ad was replaced, either with a wheel that looked the same but had not bag (unlikely imo) or was replaced with one with a bag that has the srs symbol in Japanese for some reason. Agian this is all just my opinion and not fact in any way.

[Green1]

staring hard enough at the picture I actually think I'm going to go with jfarsang's description earlier that it might just be the photo, and that it may in fact have the SRS stamp on it and only the picture is playing tricks on us (remember the original poster doesn't have any more than pictures to go on yet)