Two Airbag questions

[A Horse With No Name]

How often all of the bags will blow in a modern car when it is hit and how often just some of them will?

Just saw a vehicle that had been hit hard in the side, and only the side impact air bags had blown, not the fronts.

Also, what are the laws regarding used airbags? Does anyone know? I know in some states salvage yards are not allowed to sell them.

Chris

[SAmadei]

How often all of the bags will blow in a modern car when it is hit and how often just some of them will?

Just saw a vehicle that had been hit hard in the side, and only the side impact air bags had blown, not the fronts.

Also, what are the laws regarding used airbags? Does anyone know? I know in some states salvage yards are not allowed to sell them.

Interesting... AFAIK, the '90s GM cars have only one accelerometer sensor at the front of the car... trigger it and all the bags go off, unless a few are defective (or more likely, missing). I suppose with the new side bags and curtains, they're must be multiple sensors... as it makes no sense to needlessly batter the passengers.

As far as airbag laws... in NJ there are none, except you aren't supposed to break into cars to steal 'em. For a long time, airbag theft was a major problem, as the bags are expensive from the dealer. I imagine its still the case. In fact, selling airbags still seems to be big business for the local junkyards... when I bought a steering column recently, the airbag was worth twice as much as the rest of the column... I nearly took it out and gave it back to them, but I figured I should keep it as it was an integral part of the steering wheel material.

One thing to keep in mind is that airbags are classified as munitions, and so some junkyards might run afoul of those laws. Additionally, this severely limits shipping or transporting options.

[!!!TED!!!]

One thing to keep in mind is that airbags are classified as munitions, and so some junkyards might run afoul of those laws. Additionally, this severely limits shipping or transporting options.

[Blake Noble]

I'm not surprised about what SAmadei said about airbags being classified as munitions in some states. Get on YouTube, find the videos from David's Farm. There's a few videos on there of them using airbags to blow things up with. If a Ford airbag is explosive enough to decimate a stove and turn a fridge into a coffin, what does that tell you?

[A Horse With No Name]

My boss at work was in an accident where he was hit in the face with an airbag. He always drives with the steering wheel really low now, so if it goes it will hit him in the chest.

I often drink coffee while I drive, and I always used styrofoam cups when I am driving an airbag type car.

Could just see a metal cup going into your face and killing you if you got hit with a bag while you were taking a sip.

Chris

[Z-06]

My left arm and my face sustained 3rd degree burns from the airbags when my company's Ford Pickup went rolling. Those things are dangerous.

As for the intermittent release of the airbags, usually the front ones are activated by presence of a motion sensors just beneath the front bumper. So if in a side crash, if the sensor does not trigger the airbag will not activate. That is why sometimes during a rearended collision, the front airbags do not activate.

[fightingbee]

GM seemed to go from three front airbag sensors to the single in-the-module sensor in the mid 90's as they went to the "sensing and diagnostic module" (SDM) - the "black box" that GM had some press about its data recording abilities a few years back. The switch to dual airbags usually also included the change that type of system.

The old driver-only three sensor setup had an 'arming' sensor near the hood latch and two 'safing' sensors near the dash or console. the arming sensor and at least one safing sensor had to trip for deployment there.

The front bag deployment requires a forward deceleration of somewhere around 10g IIRC. it also has to happen within a certain angle to the front in order to trip the frontal sensor(s).

The side bags are tripped by sensors in the b-pillar or a rollover sensor. Some vehicles however also deploy the side curtains in a frontal crash to reduce the chance of an occupants head from striking the b-pillar hard as it they are thrown back toward the seat. The Saab 9-3 is one of those types I can think of offhand.

[Blake Noble]

I'm glad both of my cars do not have airbags. I'd rather be killed by some random part in my car rather than killed by some random part in my car intended to save my life.

The Firebird was in a left-side, front-end collision at 35-plus mph when a certain someone wrecked it. I wonder why the airbags didn't deploy?

[Justin Bimmer]

Airbags save far more lives than they cost. Steering wheels and dashboards from the 80s kill people and don't save people.

[FAPTurbo]

I'm glad both of my cars do not have airbags. I'd rather be killed by some random part in my car rather than killed by some random part in my car intended to save my life.

The Firebird was in a left-side, front-end collision at 35-plus mph when a certain someone wrecked it. I wonder why the airbags didn't deploy?

Um. Wat?

[fightingbee]

.

The Firebird was in a left-side, front-end collision at 35-plus mph when a certain someone wrecked it. I wonder why the airbags didn't deploy?

I'd say:

A) It was defective

B) It hit something soft enough to keep the deceleration just below the deployment threshold.

C) (after checking the SIR section in the '96 F-body service manual I have for my Camaro, just for ****s and grins) The impact was beyond 30° from the center line of the front.

Edited October 12, 2009 by fightingbee