Airbag System Compromised?

[PCMarine]

Hey guys,

I was involved in a wreck about nine months ago which only deployed the driver's seat side airbag (since it wasn't quite a front end collision). The car in question is a 2000 Ford Taurus, with the side airbag option (obviously). I got the damaged repaired, but had the shop leave the airbag situation alone... since they would have to replace the seat, brackets, seatbelt, sensors, etc. and it would have cost upwards of $1,000 extra.

Now my question, will the rest of the airbags still operate in a collision despite the one side airbag already deployed... or will the airbags fail to operate since the system is already "tripped."

Also, if I were to just pick up a used seat (with airbag) at a junkyard and swapped out the old one, would the airbag system reset and turn off the airbag light? Or would I have to replace the sensors and what not as well?

Thanks

 

[PCMarine]

bump

 

[jagec]

I'm a DIY kind of guy, but airbags are where I draw the line. The explosives they use to deploy them are very touchy. You can choose to drive it without airbags (my car doesn't have airbags from the factory...), but if I were you I wouldn't try wiring in new airbags myself.

 

[ValValline]

Fix it right. Cheaping out can get you or someone you know/love killed.

SRS systems are too important to rig or DIY.

 

[Zenmervolt]

If you can find a complete seat with the appropriate connectors and you replace the seat in its entirety, it's definitely something that can be a DIY job. I don't know where the sensors are located though, and it's possible that simply replacing the seat will not be enough. Since the airbag is mounted in the seat, if you have a complete new seat, all you'll have to do is bolt the new seat into the car and plug it into the harness. There should be a plastic molex plug for the airbag, similar to the plug for power seat adjustments.

Do wear a grounding strap and disconnect the battery before removing the seat and replacing it however. I have heard anecdotal stories about SRS systems being sensitive to static discharge through the wiring, so you'll want to avoid that.

ZV

 

[exdeath]

The others probably didn't deploy if the car has weight sensors in the seats that disabled them for younger passengers. Most likely the ones that didn't deploy are fine, at least the airbags themselves.

But I don't know how complicated the electronics have come in recent years, if there is a special computer with storage or a "deployment" table that marks which ones are used that might need to be reset. It's possible there may be a computer that has to have an "inspection flag" reset for the whole system to be allowed to operate again? Or if it just unconditionally fires the active ones every time (ie: all the ones with enough weight in the corresponding seats when you started the car receive a signal whenever there is a powerful enough frontal impact, even if there isn't physically an airbag connected?). I don't know myself, just some things that make sense to consider.

It's just triggered by an accelerometer; a large impulse on the negative z axis (pointing behind the car). There isn't really anything else you can do in a car other than a high speed impact that will cause the kind of deceleration that sets off air bags.

 

[bruceb]

Did the repair shop replace the Driver's side air bag ?
If not they should have and your insurance company
should pay for it. And as others have said, most cars
have a sensor to detect weight in the seat over a certain
amount so the bag will only deploy if that seat is occupied.
If the other air bag did not deploy, then it most likely is in
fine shape and provided the repair shop checked the front
end impact sensor, which triggers the air bags, it will still be fine.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Did the repair shop replace the Driver's side air bag ?
If not they should have and your insurance company
should pay for it. And as others have said, most cars
have a sensor to detect weight in the seat over a certain
amount so the bag will only deploy if that seat is occupied.
If the other air bag did not deploy, then it most likely is in
fine shape and provided the repair shop checked the front
end impact sensor, which triggers the air bags, it will still be fine.

He's talking about the side airbag that is mounted in the seat, not the airbag in the steering wheel.

Side impact airbags detect side impact, not frontal, and many times have the accelerometer in the seat itself (if the airbag is mounted in the seat as the OP's is), with a simple molex plug used to connect it into the rest of the vehicle's electrical system. I am not familiar enough with the OP's system to state for certain that the impact sensor is in the seat, but it seems likely. The sensors for the seat-mounted airbags in my Volvo are integrated into the seat itself and it seems likely that Ford uses a similar system, but I cannot guarantee that.

ZV