Oh okay, that makes sense then. Like I said that's the 02-03 and 07+ foreign market igniter which is part of the airbag assembly. The 04-06 are the ones that are intentionally modular.
There's no reason to do anything with yours as it is not one of the susceptible units, only (to everyone's knowledge at this time) are 04-06 the ones using the humidity-volatile accelerant.

If you wanted to remove it for the sake of weight, you would remove the entire bag assembly with it. Look at the base of it (while upside down, like your photo) and you'll see a series of loops and tabs. Gently pry the tabs out to release the entire airbag assembly.

 

 

 

Just checked mine and it says recall incomplete.

 

Dropped mine at Oakland Mitsu this morning. They did the first round with minimal headache (had to fish out my gauge wires and argue with them about trying to charge me extra because I had aftermarket parts). Will report back.

 

Update: turned out fine though I'm having a crappy time getting my stereo's vanity plate back on for some weird reason. Oh well. All my gauges work so that's nice.

 

dropped my car off at Madison, WI Mitsu 2 weeks ago, dash was put back in crooked on the driver side. the HVAC vent and knob was recessed in the dash. Tech didn't see it till i pointed it out. My car had to stay over night do to end of bus day. Next morning I got a call from the tech that was working on my car, he apologized stated the dash has been corrected. I went and picked up the car, the knob was it its place but the vent was still not flushed. I said f'it, took the car home and fixed it myself.

The subframe was inspected by the same tech, stated there was rust but still has structural rigidity and was not compromised. Tech stated he cleaned off the rust, sprayed some sort to a wax then sealant on it. My subframe was not replaced. I have yet had anytime to check out the subframe work, needless to say I am very nervous.

 

Since round two is in full effect, I thought I'd take some pictures of one of the more pathetic vehicles to give those of you with nice cars an idea what the dealer has to deal with sometimes.
I've never been one to ask someone to pay over top of a recall no matter how incompetent their work was, as I'm sure with the right lawyer there are legal implications possible. This was an example of one that had to be done in-car to compensate.
A brief run down: multiple car alarm components literally crammed into place. Dozens of feet of extra wiring looped around dash, crash bar, pretty much anywhere that would make adjacent work difficult if not impossible. Sheet metal screws going through everything. Multiple radio components in same scenario... Feet upon feet of wiring shoved anywhere it will fit. Excess wiring run back and forth in some instances like up the pillars to take up slack instead of just shortening. "Something" live/hot under the dash that shocked the crap out of me, appeared to be a knob of some sort with bare solder points just sticking out. Some jdm-yo dash lighting hard wired in without detachable connections, all same colored wiring, in some instances just wrapped wires in masking tape.
Basically, a **** show. Dash removal completely impossible without adding tons of time undoing/redoing someone else's "work". Even doing it in car essentially resulted in taking twice as long as normal to do. Last picture shows how far the dash needs to come out still even when doing the igniter in car... It's basically the same amount of work with regard to unbolting etc on a 'clean' vehicle, just with the added difficulty of doing the igniter work upside down and partially blind.
Anywho, enjoy.

 

^ More surprising than that is there are many people driving around in evo's like that. Some evo's are more beat than cars twice their age due to neglectful owners.

 

Wow. That's bad!

 

Now if only I could swap my airbag I took out and have the dealer just give me the newer one. They want me to bring the car in.
Fat chance.

 

 

On a side note regarding bulbs... it is SUPER common for the bulbs to fail during the recall (or any disturbance like this). The issue is the filaments fail like any other bulb (brake light etc) and many of them are subjected to worse conditions (lit any time the key is on for some cars etc). During removal in some cases the slightest jarring like tipping the cluster to unplug it etc will cause the weak filament to drop. I've probably replaced 20 check engine bulbs on these where the light had been on for the last 8 years straight and the slightest tap like setting the cluster down on the ground and its toast. It sucks, but if the person working on it is on top of things they can catch it while going back together and either toss them a bone or give them a price on the bulb no labor etc.

 

During the first recall, I pulled the dash myself and brought it to them. They replaced the airbag, I reinstalled the dash. I can't imagine that they would still allow this. Now i'm pissed because I thought that would be it.

 

I use to see **** like this all the time back in the day. You can blame sub par / shady aftermarket electronics shops and customers who just don't know any better. That alarm install is worthless, I could reach my hand up under that dash and rip the whole brain out before anyone around batted an eye at the siren. Better yet if it's wired for remote start I could be driving off with it about 30 seconds after that.

Edit: I use to install this type of stuff not steal cars