Ok, I heard that the 90-92 air bags are much more powerful than the newer cars. Is this true? Anyone have one go off?

Also, since our cars are getting old; does an airbag last for a designated time period? What exactly does the airbag diagnostic look for?

When air bags go off they look for a deceleration, I believe. Can an acceleration also trigger this?

 

yes they are more powerful, like getting kicked in the face i've heard. i've never heard of an 'expiration date' but dont know for sure.

there's no car in the world that can accelerate fast enough to set off the airbag. hehe here's what i learned in physics: if you hit a car the collision lasts for let's say .1 second and if you hit it at 40mph (17.9m/s) then the acceleration is change in speed/time which is -400m/s^2

now if you accelerate from 0 to 40mph and it takes 5 seconds the acceleration is only 3.6m/s^2, BIG difference

 

I saw a fresh 92 RS in the local salvage yard a few weeks ago when I was looking for a new instrument cluster for my car because the speedo died, it looked like the driver had rear ended someone at about 25-30 MPH, the airbag deployed as it should have, so I would say they still work
The owner of the yard said the woman who was driving it was only slightly injured. I took the cluster out of it and gave it a new home in my car, now I only have 110,000 miles instead of 160,000!!!

 

i've been hit with an air bag, not in a thirdgen, in a grand am. it isn't any fun. lot of noise and smoke, or dust, friction burns on my left arm and my left arm hit my face. all in all i'd rather had it than not.

 

Well, I was thinking that a rear end collison might set it off, not actually the car accelerating. But, I have heard of vettes hitting large bumps and having deployment. I would assume the chemicals in the bag to decay after a while. Also, does the airbag diagnostic just check the electronics and sensors? I would assume so as I cannot think of anything left to check.

 

i'm not sure but i dont think the chemicals are in the bag, i think there's a cartridge behind it with what's essentially the ingredients to a small explosive (why people sometimes have burns on their face) so as long as it's sealed i dont think it'll decay.

 

Went to Maple Grove the end Sept.,ran a couple 11.40s then cracked the bottle for the last pass. I was about 10 or so feet off the line and BANG. The bang was hard enough to trigger the airbag,front-end slams back down. Watched the whole thing,didn`t get a scratch as I was planted in the seat taking off. I thought the car was on fire before I realized it was powder from the bag!


I think the front u-joint broke,which broke the tailshaft housing in two,somehow binding everything up and breaking the bellhousing in two pcs about 4" back from the bellhousing bolts.Ouch. There is a healthy dent in the trans tunnel from the DS(go DS loop,no exhaust or floor damage)whacking it,which probably tripped the passenger compartment sensor.(mounted on tunnel)The other sensor is in front of the rad.They are wired in paralell in the ground side of the"deployment loop"and are sensitive to velocity changes

the SIR dash lite has flashed its test procedure the same way since I bought the car new.It doesn`t "expire" so to speak,you will know when there is a problem in the system(SIR lite stays on)as it stores trouble codes.Airbag assem. costs $450,my steering wheel`s leather is worn through at 12 o`clock so i need another one of those at $350 new,hello after market.


An Ultrabell,new DS with 1350s coming,bring on the mid 1.30 60`s! Pulled a 1.39 the week before

 

well yes the older Air bags in say a 91 or 92 F body would hit you alot harder than the newer ones. the ones in those years were first generation air bags and the only thing they took into account was that the car was wrecked so they deployed. however on the newer ones which are the second generation air bags take alot more into account. the newer ones look at how hard the crash is, where the car was hit, if anyone was sitting in the seat during the crash and some even know the approximate weight of the person. since they look at alot more factors they can be deployed in stages depending on the variables listed, for example they will actually deploy with less force on one side of the car when it was hit in a certain way.

 

I have never had the displeasure of having an air bag in the face. However, I work as a Paramedic and have seen many airbags of different brands of cars break teeth. I do think that the newer air bag technology is much better than the old tech. different ways of inflating the bags adn material. Air bags always seem to put small abrasions onthe face but the do save lives! I've seen nasty head on MVA's and people walk away ( because of the air bags) which without airbags would be DEAD! Hard air bag or not, they can save your life!

 

I have a video on the computer at work of a guy in an LT1 car launching at the track. He broke the tailshaft of his transmission and when it hit the tranny tunnel it deployed the airbags. Dumass GM had to put the sensor right above the transmission