Airbag

The fact that the light was on after the repair indicates something was / is wrong. From hmaservice.com: "With the ignition switch in ON or START, battery voltage is applied to the SRS control module from fuse 5 to the SRS indicator in the instrument cluster from fuse 4. When the ignition switch is turned ON, the SRS indicator in the instrument cluster will flash six times. If the SRS indicator does not flash six times, stays on or comes on while driving, the SRS is not working properly." They should have been able to retrieve whether or not the the SRS module tried to deploy the driver side airbag during the crash. If it tried, and it didn't go, it could have a defective squib (like an electric primer). Assuming you had the repairs to the SRS system done at the dealer after the crash - whether or not the body work was done there - then you should be able to talk to Hyundai an explain your concerns about the fact that the SRS light was still on after you picked the vehicle up, and what the dealer said about not knowing whether there's an issue or not. They have a table that says what to replace given what went off. That should tell them if it should ever be possible for the passenger airbag to go off without the driver airbag.

Were you wearing your seat belt as is recommended when driving a car? If so, that's probably the reason your air bag didn't go off.

The Tiburon doesn't have a sensor in the seat, so it assumes the front seats are occupied. If the crash reaches the criteria-- Hyundai does not specify to the dealers what these criteria are-- for deploying an air bag if the occupant is unbelted, it'll deploy the air bag for the unbelted passenger. Presumably, since there was no one in your passenger seat, the seat belt wasn't buckled, and that's why the passenger air bag deployed.

If the crash reaches the criteria for deploying an air bag to protect a belted occupant, which would be a more severe crash than one which would only need to protect unbelted occupants, the system will deploy air bags to protect both belted and unbelted occupants.

All the sensors for the air bag system which are used in a frontal collision are located in the air bag computer, which is near the center of the vehicle. The primary thing the air bag computer does is to measure your rate of deceleration in a crash. If the rate of deceleration is too low, one or more air bags may not fire as the computer may deem it's not necessary.

The fact that your air bag lamp is on after the repairs suggests that your air bag system wasn't repaired properly after the collision. Have you had the vehicle checked at the dealer to determine the problem with the air bag system? If not, you should do so immediately. While the warning lamp is on, you should expect that your air bags will not operate at all.

Thanks to both of you for the replies!! Much appreciated!

I always wear my seatbelt, so yes I was wearing my seatbelt at the time of the collision. I however do find it interesting that through the SRS module you can determine whether or not the driver airbag did try and deploy, since the dealership told me they had no equipment or means to determine such a thing. I also find it interesting that the dealership didnt seem to know how the airbag system in the vehicle worked enough to even tell me that it doesnt neccesarily deploy if a seatbelt is latched, but will always deploy if it is unbelted. By the sounds of it that is something the service manager in a dealerhsip should know! I'm sure they'll enjoy hearing from me now lol.

The airbag light is still on because a tensioner in the seat belt broke during the collision. Needless to say I have very little trust left in that dealership, and was quite pleased to hear that the body shop would replace that for me instead.

Even if you have the body shop fix what's believed to be the current problem, it would still be a good idea to have someone connected to Hyundai check the SRS system with a scan tool - the right one - to make sure that there's no other issues. If you don't like the dealer that you have had issues with, this is something that would be worth driving to a different dealer to have verified. If you look at hmaservice.com, there is a myriad of codes this thing stores to tell what it's been up to, and what inputs it thinks it has seen.

I don't recall the exact features of your car's computer, but some will record deployments. I believe your car records whether each air bag deployed and how many times each seat belt pretensioner has deployed, but am not sure. If you have the same control module in your car that you did at the time of deployment, the dealer should be able to retrieve some crash information from it. If it shows that the driver air bag deployed, then it attempted to deploy that air bag. If it shows the driver air bag did not deploy, then it did not attempt to deploy the driver air bag.

Your seat belt pretensioner is not broken, it has deployed. The reason it did so was to tighten the belt to hold you in your seat during the collision. Since you had an air bag and seat belt pretensioner fire, you should have had the following done to repair your air bag system:

-- replace passenger air bag

-- replace air bag harness

-- replace driver seat belt

-- replace air bag computer and mounting bolts

-- possibly additional repairs depending on what occurred with the air bag system during the collision.

The scary thing about this is that it sounds like the SRS repair was done by the body shop. He might be able to tell us differently, but the fact that they're willing to touch the pretensioner leads me to that conclusion. As you are probably aware, there's a big market for previously installed (I'd say used, but no-one wants those) airbags, etc. when there should be none. In most cases that an airbag deploys due to crash, there is insurance company involvement. I'm sure that they want nothing to do with SRS parts from an unknown source - we're not talking about fender panels here.... If that's the case - and it looks like it because of the half-assed repair where they didn't completely repair it - they probably never read the codes, and probably never replaced all the recommended parts. The PAB blew, so we'll replace that, or maybe even just fixing/replacing the dash where it blew out from. Hey, the light is still on, so who knows what it's complaining about. Could be that it fired the DAB, and opened the squib, but the charge didn't ignite - yet, so they didn't replace the DAB.

He really needs to not let the body shop touch it. He needs to have it diagnosed by a dealer, and let them figure out where to go. This isn't a timing belt, or misfiring engine where anyone with generic experience can try to fix it, at the absolute risk of causing mechanical damage if they really screw up.

File an updated claim with the insurance Co. Your generic code reader will not read SRS codes. Needs to be done by a dealer

the problem isn't what the bodyshop did or didn't do with the car. The airbag system was always supposed to be taken back to the dealers to be looked at. This we did and found out whats wrong with it...sorta. The problem is (and i apologize for this) the service people at the dealerships where I am are incompetent.

The dealership insists they don't have the equipment to determine what happened during the crash. They insist they don't have the equipment to determine if the airbag did or did not try and deploy on the driver side. Their exact words "we have no way of determining if the airbag did try and deploy. Hyundai doesn't give us access to that module so we can't tell you". I'd be happy to let the dealer diagnose the problem, but they insist they can't do it. They don't even seem to know how the airbag system in the Tiburon works! I had to ask everyone here to find out!

The bodyshop however can do the repairs, and they are far easier to deal with and more competent. The only thing that needs to be done still is the pretensioner. I'm not quite sure what you mean by replacing the airbag computer... I'm trying to remember if that was already done. We personally know the people at the bodyshop, so in no way am I concerned that they replaced the airbag with a previously installed. The reason they worked on that system in the first place was because the insurance company told them to. Insurance companies don't like splitting claims across several people for repairs, and if they did, I;'d owe another $500 to someone and frankly that dealership doesn't deserve another penny from anyone on this planet. When you watch 3 people before you leave the service department at a dealership (in about a 20 minute span) asking to speak with the owner of the dealership because they are angry and upset, you know something has gone seriously wrong with the service department.

As for taking it to another dealership, we could... but its owned by the same people and the service there (I've asked around) is equally bad. This isn't the first time we've had problems with the dealers, and as you can tell...I'm kinda just fed up. So where does that leave me? With the body shop...

Bob wrote:

How far is a good dealer?

The dealership *can* read your air bag trouble codes or they don't have all their required tooling.

The dealership *cannot* tell you with certainty whether your air bag should have deployed. The dealership employs mechanics and technicians, not engineers and scientists. The dealership can only retrieve the information from the air bag computer that the scan tool will access. At the very least, this will include trouble codes and whether a crash event requiring at least one air bag deployment took place.

Hyundai does not release specific information about the logic their air bag system uses to determine whether to deploy the air bags. In fact, the information I've given you about how the system works is based primarily on the inputs seen by the air bag computer and a logical analysis as to how the air bag computer would probably use this information.

If you really want information on exactly when air bags are supposed to deploy, you'll probably need to sue Hyundai to get it.

What is the body shop intending to do to fix your air bag system? What trouble codes are stored in the air bag system? If your body shop cannot answer these questions, they need to not be working on your air bag system. For a list of what components are required to be replaced under which circumstances, I'll direct you to technical service bulletin

01-90-013. You can see it at You'll need to register for a free account, and the site requires Internet Explorer.

As Hyundaitech says in a later post, sign up for an account at hmaservice.com. Print the relevant service instructions, and go back. In particular, the idea that they can't tell you if driver airbag should have deployed (which needs to be translated to: if it deployed to according to the codes stored in the module, it should have deployed) is crap. The correct question to them is "did the SRSCM log a Crash Record for the Driver Side Airbag" If didn't deploy and the module said it did, then something is wrong with the driver airbag, or the module (which HAS to be replaced if ANY airbag deploys anyway). As Hyundaitech has said, there is no way to say if an airbag should have gone off for a given accident. The algorithms used to make that determination are not given to anyone. BUT... If the module says it has a crash record for the DAB, and it didn't deploy, then something went wrong.

Here's a few of the codes that a dealer CAN retrieve.

B1650 Crash Record (Replace SRE-HMC) 13

B1651 Crash Record Driver Side Airbag 13

B1652 Crash Record Passenger Side Airbag 13

B1658 Seat Belt Pretensioner deployed Six Times 13

B1660 Crash Record Driver Airbag 13

B1661 ECU Mismatching (Replace SRE-HMC) 13

B1662 Driver Seat Belt pretensioner Deployment Command 13

B1663 Crash Recorded Passenger Airbag 13

Also, note the following:

Crash Recorded, Crash Recorded LH/RH Side Air Bag (codes B1650, B1651, B1652, b1660, B1663)

These codes indicate that the SRSCM deployed the air bags indicated. These codes cannot be reset, as the module can only deploy an airbag one time. The module will need to be replaced.The seat belts worn during the collision, the wire harness, and the deployed air bags must also be replaced.