Camry Airbag In 2nd Gen

I have looked high and low and the only thing I can find is one thread where a Camry airbag was used on a Tacoma and that airbag turned out to be a counterfeit. In that thread, it fit but was counterfeit.

I just updated the audio controls on my steering wheel and tried to cut the existing cover down, but, I did a poor job. I cannot find just a cover (even on ebay). That being said, there is about a $200 difference between the airbags for a Tacoma and a Camry. Does anyone know if the Camry airbags are compatible? The 2005-2006 Camry bags look like they are the same.

 

Mid day bump. Hoping someone has some information on this.

 

Well, looks like I've stumped TW. I am going to go ahead and order one and try it out. Couldn't find a reliable place to get just the cover. I figure the worst case scenario is I get the airbag and it won't work and I can just change the cover to the bag I have now. I will update once my experimentation is done.

I have a hard time believing there could be that much difference in the airbags between the Camry and Tacoma. I would think that there would be as much in common as possible for economy of scale in a mass production environment. Heck, the clock spring for the audio controls is the same as the Prius as on the Tacoma. At any rate, I should have a definitive answer some time next week when the replacement airbag gets here.

 

OK. I can definitively say this this will work. Nothing blew up and no airbag light. The only caveats are:

1. The color is not the same (see pic). The Tacoma bag is black and the Camry bag is gray. Some plastic paint will take care of this. Either some SEM or Rustoleum plastic/vinyl black paint and it should be right as rain.

2. Pay close attention to the plugs for the airbags. The connections are transposed on the Camry airbag. This is not a big deal as all you have to do is make sure to plug the black plug from the spiral cable into the black plug on the airbag and the same for the orange plug to its corresponding plug.

The difference in price for a used airbag for a Tacoma and a Camry is around $200, so, from my perspective, this is a no brainer. Even factoring in $15 for paint, you are still $185 ahead.

 

Did you just match the years on this?

 

I looked at the year and the shape of the bag. They looked identical so I took the chance. I also looked at earlier model Tundra airbags, but some of those only have one airbag connection and so would not work even though the cover is the same shape and color as the Tacoma wheel. 2005-2006 Camry bags appear to work. Not sure about other years.