Toyota black box

Art, thanks for that story. Very interesting. You wouldn't happen to know if those black boxes are found in Tercels as far back as 1995?

The "Black Box" is generally the ECM. Most of the data in the car is held in the ECM.

The '95 Tercel had an OBDII compliant ECM, and therefore may very well have this sort of information.

Interesting to note; even though the '95 Tercel and other Toyota models had an OBDII compliant ECM, states refuse to use them for Emissions testing, since the cut-on date for OBDII was 1996.

Just another indication that Toyota was ahead of their time...

I'll bet that we will not hear any more about the story for several reasons:

It is impossible for the ECU to record the cause of the tear in the air bag. The only possible causes for the tear would be:

The air bag snagged on the dashboard cover as it was being deployed although I have never ever heard of happening in any vehicle from any manufacturer;

There is something aftermarket mounted on or in the dashboard that interfered with the airbag deployment;

The child seat somewhow tore the bag;

Resue tools somehow tore the bag.

AFAIK, the ECU does not record the absence of a problem. If there was a problem with a squib or sensor then the aur bag warning light should have been illuminated and then the problem would have been that the air bad did not deploy, not that the air bag got torn somehow.

It is possible that what the customer thinks is a tear is actually a vent because air bags have vents, and neither the customer or his lawyer are aware of this.

The ECU probably will not provide the customer with any information he could use to deflect the blame from himself for allowing a child seat to be mounted in the front seat despite all the warnings from the automaker and child seat maker and for causing the accident himself.

The OBD ECU is not like the flight data recorder in a plane. I don't think it records stuff like vehicle speed, engine RPM, acceleration and deceleration, steering wheel angle, etc. on an ongoing basis.

Actually ALL SRS (Supplemental Restraint System) bags are vented. Unlike what one sees on TV or in the movies, the bags are not designed to stay inflated. They inflate and deflate in less than a second. The bag is designed to 'supplement' the shoulder belt of a properly belted passenger during the split second where ones body strikes the belt, to help reduce the terminal speed at which ones organs strike ones skeleton. .

mike hunt

GM has used data recorders for many years to record emissions information. The loop recorded around ten seconds of information and was turned off with the ignition. . Later when SRS was added they used the SRS deployment system as well, to stop the recorder, so that information was not lost. For some time GM and Ford have had a notice, of the fact information is recorded, in the owners manual

mike hunt

LOL! Maybe some people need un-vented air bags so they can bounce between the seat and the air bag like a ping pong ball - knock some sense into them. They won't be able to complain about getting burnt by the gases escaping from the vent -

Some have a tendency to confuse the powder, used to keep the folded bag from sticking to itself, with smoke. The expansion gas, that is created by mixing two chemicals is actually not visible to the eye..

mike hunt

Yup,

I'm sure you've seen the same complaints I have - They see talcum dust and think smoke and they think the "rug burn" on their face was caused by the exploding air bag instead of contact with the air bag fabric. I've checked out cars where people thought the air bag didn't deploy completely because they don't remember striking the air bag and it is only the size of the steering wheel instead of the size of the front of t

The passenger bag is generally larger than the drivers side bag. Two different chemicals are use for each bag so that they both inflate at the same speed. I should remember each, but memory fails me at the moment.

mike hunt

I thought air bags were inflated by electrically igniting sodium azide?