Air Bag Deploys At WrongTime.

Vic Smith · 2011-05-21T15:51:45+00:00

Wife and son went shopping yesterday.Took his '95 Bonneville. Car looks and drives like new.They get in car after shopping.He starts car, and they get ready to head home.About 30 seconds after starting, car still in park, nobody around,passenger air bag goes off.Wife was bending over picking up her bottled tea from the floor.She got a bruised chin and light burns on face and neck.Lucky.Son was just stunned by the explosion.Passenger side windshield busted, and dash-wide trim piece along thewindshield needs replacing.Guy is coming out tomorrow to replace the windshield, about $200.The kid will get a new trim piece at the boneyard.He keeps tools in the trunk and pulled the steering wheel bag rightthere before they came home. Didn't trust it any more.He thinks on that car both airbags should always go off together.He says the airbag light was coming on intermittently for a month orso until about half a year ago, then stopped when the bulb burnedout..You need a Tech 2 to pull the code, but he read that the airbagtrouble default is "don't deploy," so he didn't worry about it.Now he's going to have to talk to the GM dealerships mechs near hiswork and get a Tech 2 read, because he fiance won't have it any otherway. He would just pull the airbags if he had it his way.BTW, the GM shop manual only covers wiring schematics, and says to consult an "airbag professional" for everything airbag.Guess they keep that in-shop.Anyway, an airbag going off like this is pure bullshit.If he comes up with an answer from the GM mechs I'll follow up.--Vic

May 21, 2011 23 Replies

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hls 15 years ago

My last post on the subject in this thread at least.

I noted my FIL kept the air bag switch in his pickup on "Off". I just thought he was being old-fogeyish.

Then, my stock advisor's daughter was injured in an auto accident where the bag DID activate.. She required surgery, including plastic surgery, to repair the injury that the bag caused.

I still think that they save lives, but there is no doubt they can be dangerous in their own right.

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Roger Blake 15 years ago

It is not clear to me that they save lives when the occupants are properly belted in. Air bags were originally introduced because so many people were not buckling their seat belts, thus passive restraints were mandated.

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jim beam 15 years ago

i think they work for chicks that insist on sitting hunched right up over the wheel. even with a belt on, impact causes the head to strike the steering wheel pretty hard.

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