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My partner had a minor acciedent the other day,
She had mentioned all she could do was brake and wait for the bang and the air bags going off.
But alas no airbag was inflated.
I am thinking that the impact was not severe enough,but my partner seems to think that there may be a fault, as others are telling here that they should of gone off no matter how minor the acciedent was.
How can I tell if they working correctly or do we wait for a more substanstal acciedent? this may be to late. Interested in your veiws about this.
Best news was nobody has been hurt and the GT is in hospitable waiting on surgury

Airbags do not just go off

I have seen more severe accidents were airbags have not deployed
and lesser ones with them deployed
Why??

the Airbag sensor was not impacted
PLAIN AND SIMPLE
nothing wrong with the airbags or the car just the sensor was not hit

You are right and she is wrong. But dont let her know!

if you want to tell if they are working get a hammer and hit the sensor
and they will deploy and then you pay for new bags and sensor

Nowhere near hard enough for airbag deployment (maybe in American Galants where airbag settings are different, because people still find it hard to wear seatbelts there).

*** Looking for a really good relevant video........ FOUND! ***

http://www.streetfire.net/video/059-fifth-gear-airbag-misuse-test-germany_173745.htm

Air bags are not designed to go go off in all accident types, as it looks like the accident was slightly to the drivers side - from my readings, they will tend to go off more when its a direct front hit across the sensors.

Have you seen the airbag light on in the dash while driving?
If it comes one while driving normally - it indicates a fault in the system and they will not deploy in an accident.

If you have access to the car still - go over to it, turn the key over to IGN, and watch the lights come on - and then they should go off, if the airbag one does - no fault and the system is working correctly.

Glad to hear that your other half got out of it safe though - that is of course the main thing :)

To be honest that doesn't look like too bad of a hit. You need to be doing a fair speed before they will deploy, think it's around 30/40 km/h? If you ran up the back of a car doing 40 you'd see a much bigger mess.

Not severe enough to set off the air bags, by the looks, just as well as it adds to the cost of the repairs. If your car is insured, the repairer will check that the air bag sensors are operating correctly, so there is no need to worry.

In a serious crash, the engine and gearbox gets shoved backwards and deflected downwards by a crash barrier in the dashboard, the seat belts will lock up, then the webbing will tear - deliberately, to protect from broken bones - as the airbags go off. So really, the air bags are a last resort to save the passengers, usually the car is a writeoff at this stage.

Look up "Mitsubishi crash test" on youtube to see the sequence.

Max is on the money. The airbags are a Supplementary Restraint System (SRS) and will not necessarily deploy in any collision. At a guess, the impact was not severe enough to deploy the airbags.

Not severe enough to set off the air bags, by the looks, just as well as it adds to the cost of the repairs. If your car is insured, the repairer will check that the air bag sensors are operating correctly, so there is no need to worry.

In a serious crash, the engine and gearbox gets shoved backwards and deflected downwards by a crash barrier in the dashboard, the seat belts will lock up, then the webbing will tear - deliberately, to protect from broken bones - as the airbags go off. So really, the air bags are a last resort to save the passengers, usually the car is a writeoff at this stage.

Look up "Mitsubishi crash test" on youtube to see the sequence.


Since is a 380, lets get some of the above right

If the accident is severe enough in a Magna or 380 for the engine to get shoved back through the fire wall, airbags will not save you

The Dash has nothing to do with where the engine ends up:nuts: the design of the firewall, combined with things like the K frame etc will cause the engine to hopefully deflect down, being a person who has purchased more wrecks than most here have had cars, I have seen some severe engine damage, worst I have seen so far is a small dent on the fire wall

Seatbelts, they will only tear if they are faulty, up to TJ there is a section that will let go where the webing is stiched over itself, in the TL onwards the belts are pre tensioned, they have an explosive that will bring the person back into the seat away from the bags. In the 380 the column is designed to sheer and drop back into the dash as the driver hits the bag as the belts fire and bring the driver back again. This all happens in nano seconds lol

As for the OP, I would say that the impact was fairly low speed, believe me, you dont want bags to go off in a light hit as the bags them selves often do more damage to the person than the crash

The sensors for the airbags are on the front, one each side of the radiator vertically, they have a yellow connector.

I have a wreck here where the airbags should have gone off but the wiring loom to the air bag trigger module was the first thing to get cut and the sensor didnt fire.

Have often thought about taking a pic and sending to mitsibishi...but no system is perfect, it's impossible to cover every situation.

I have to agree with Mal, you dont want them to go off in a light acco such as this. Having been a crash test dummy at one stage I can attest that an airbag going off in your face is not pleasant. NOTE TO EVERYONE, IF THEY DO GO OFF HOLD YOUR BLOODY BREATH AND DON'T BREATH THAT WHITE DUST OR YOU WILL BE COUGHING AND HEAVING FOR AGES!! My acco was a head on and in that instance hitting an air bag beats the heck out of tank slapping the steering wheel. and Mal you probably only see the wrecks that are worth salvaging eh? Some of the serious accos the force of impact is that high that it literally tears the car apart and that includes the engine. Imagine the force required to rip an engine out and toss it over 100 metres or rip the heads off it. No airbag will save you in something like that as you, like the car, will probably be ripped apart too. Sobering thoughts for those considering going hard on the road.

i wonder why the air bags went off in this car with minimal damage :

http://www.pickles.com.au/damaged/vehicle/CP-07-06-Mitsubishi-380-DB-Series-2-VR-X-Sedan-5-Seats-4-Doors/itemid-1-802016889/lotid-0

You need to take your mind set away from the amount of damage and look at how the SRS system works

The car has to be travelling above a certain speed and then a shockwave has to hit the sensors at a particular angle, with the car above, is very poss hit something low like a barrier and there may be large amounts of damage under the car and even if not, just the way it hit was enough to set off the sensors

Yep, a low hit directly to the solid bits of the underbody - bypassing the crumple zone of a full frontal impact - can set the airbags off at low speed. So if you have airbags on a lowered car, be careful of speed bumps, ok? lol

In this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39grA9zWvOc a car drives over something and the airbags go off. It was posted on AMC before I think, but couldn't find it in the search.