AIR BAG TEST -CHECK THIS OUT!

Makes you wonder though, just how safe are airbags
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They work well enough in their intended application, ie it's better to have an explosive cushion go off in your face that to hit a dashboard at 50mph but they do rely on split second timing and reliable sensors. As you can imagine, if one went off accidentally or too early or too late the results could be disasterous. There have certainly been plenty of cases of people suffering broken noses and such and small children being killed as a result of airbags.
I think they are fairly reliable generally but I don't have much faith in the long term viability of a car fitted with them. (which is exactly what the manufacturers want anyway) The prospect of restoring a modern car in 30 years time is just not going to be possible.
 
Quite a few small women and short Asian drivers have fallen foul of early Air Bags broken necks....death etc I suppose they ironed this problem out.
Quite a few of my customers are Auto Electricians and many is the time that current or new new cars have Air Bag failures alarms which neccesitate the replacement of the out of spec bags and as the car ages the problem becomes more frequent making the vehicle have a built in obsolesence factor which will mean that in the comming years you probably will see very few of the current crop of cars survive to become long term classics.
Another problem will be accident damage to your current day classic, the cost of replacement of the bags will be more than the value of the car, even today accident damaged cars that require Air Bags get written off as the cost of the replacement bags is far more than the cost the car, some cars have 6 or more bags with current replacement costs over $10,000+. Most airbags have a lifetime after which they are meant to be replaced regardless of condition, I bet car manufactures smile about airbags.

Graeme
 
You can just pickup airbags from breakers same as any other part, nothing to be scared of, they're not going to go off without the trigger charge. I've got a couple of 800 steering wheel bags kicking around here somewhere....

Most are supposed to have a life of 10 years. The best thing to do at that point is remove the lot, bin it, and replace the covers, probably safer to have no airbags than to have really old ones.

I have seen footage of some fairly serious accidents where the bags haven't even gone off, they've really de-sensitized the systems these days to prevent false firing I wonder how effective they really are. I prefer to just keep a "windbag" in the passenger seat :LOL:
 
Hi, Some years ago we had an auto electrician in to re-arm the airbags after repairs
to a car with minor accident damage. He did this all ok with the laptop on the bonnet
because he said that previously he had once done this sitting in the drivers seat. He
had plugged the laptop in and when he switched it on, all four airbags fired. His ears
were ringing for quite a while, so since then he always does it from outside the car.

Not sure I entirely trust them, we are talking about an explosive charge after all. The
other area of concern are seat belt tensioners although they are usable afterwards,
not sure insurance companies would agree. Too much technology on modern cars for
me. Colin
 
The best thing to do at that point is remove the lot, bin it, and replace the covers, probably safer to have no airbags than to have really old ones.
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In NZ you would never get a WOF like that. If the car had airbags fitted originally, then they must be present and working. That means no aftermarket steering wheels too.
 
Interesting, although I'm not quite sure how they determine they are working without setting them off ! Dashboard light isn't really enough (like ABS systems).
 
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