Air Bags and new front bumper?

[hammersley]

If you put a new front end bumper on - do you negate the front airbag sensors? Is the sensor affected, or is it behind the bumper? For example does the sensor assume a certain degree of damage, i. e. crumpling, before it activates? If you puyt on a HD front bumper, do you harm the effects of the airbag?

 

[illflem]

On 12 valves the sensors are under the batteries, I'll bet new rigs are the same. No need to worry when adding a new bumper. The sensors are activated by rapid deceleration (inertia shift) and don't need to be crumpled or pushed on to activate. Sort of the same principal as the seat belt cam, if you pull on the belt slowly it moves, try and move it fast it locks. When airbags were first introduced the sensors responded to pressure on the bumper, this was abandoned due to minor parking accidents setting off the airbag.

 

[Straight6Jeff]

The airbag sensors on the 98. 5 and up are inside the cab, on the transmission hump. That plastic cover thing with the two screws in it holing the plastic shroud is the inertia sensor for the airbags. I've wacked a couple of things with my reunel (deer and a toyota, not necessarily in that order). Neither one was sufficient enough to deploy the airbags.

 

[ZEEEW]

The sensor on the hump is one of 3, the other two are one on each side in the front end. If a sensor detects enough of a change in velocity between any 2 sensors it fires the bag, at least I think thats how it works, so it would have to flex if not bend the frame?

Not sure about that though.

At any rate I was assured that my Prozap would not alter my airbag system.



Eric

 

[illflem]

Originally posted by ZEEEW

I think thats how it works, so it would have to flex if not bend the frame?

Eric the frame doesn't need to flex or bend to deploy the airbags. Much of the later development on airbags was done with what they call non-destructive means, they put the vehicle on tracks and brought it to instant stops without running into a wall. Get a lot more tests out of a rig that way. The reason for three sensors is to detect the direction of the impact, the bags are only supposed to deploy in a head on.



I had to take a three day airbag safety and repair course a few years back and was amazed as to what went into their development and the rules you must follow when working around them. What also amazed me was that more mechanics are killed and injured by accidentally deploying airbags than people seriously injured by them in accidents. Most mechanic accidents result in a broken neck. Anyone who messes with their underdash wiring who doesn't know exactly what they're doing without first disconnecting the batteries and waiting a few minutes for the alternate power source to discharge is downright stupid or has a death wish. Just probing with a light or voltmeter into the wrong set of wires can set one off. Most airbag wiring is bright yellow for this reason.



Another misconception that many people have is that airbags are filled by a compressed gas cylinder. They are actually filled by a small explosive charge.

 

[Scot]

There is some incredible footage where several firefighters are extricating a person from a car. They put the tool against transmission hump and in the process crushed the airbag sensor mounted by the floor shifter. The airbag fired and threw one of the guys away like a rag doll. He spent some time off recovering from his injuries. It seems like others working were also injured, just not as bad.



Looking at it from the front lines, the percentage of people we see who are injured by airbags is probably close to 1 in 3. Many times, those are their only injuries. Most would not have so much as a broken fingernail if the bag had not gone off.



Based on what I have seen, I will NOT own a vehicle with working airbags. Yea, ask Uncle Sugar permission to disconnect them.



JMHO

 

[illflem]

One of the rules I learned in the class I took on airbags was to take caution as to where a removed steering wheel with airbag is stored. They showed a video of a removed steering wheel with column, the column pointing straight up, steering wheel on the floor. When the airbag went off the whole thing became a missile and went about 30 ft up and though a metal roof.



I have mixed feeling about airbags, my daughter escaped serious injury when someone pulled out in front of her, she was going 60 and pushed the BMW about 200 feet, pretty good for her little Honda ehh? Airbag deployed and she walked away. Then again I know even more people who have had them deploy needlessly and get hurt. It's best if you are aware that you have an airbag and hold your arms accordingly. Think I'll keep mine intact.

 

[Todd G]

I don't think airbags are there to prevent you from gettting hurt. They are there to prevent you from getting killed.

 

[ZEEEW]

Well, I've been wrong before Just glad it didnt go off from that deer that helped pay for the Prozap!

There are some airbags fired by burning sodium azide, and some from compressed gasses. Even "fluid fuel". Built them for a while. There are air curtains in the works now, come down from the roof where the side windows are, knee bolster bags, even prototypes that deploy airbags in front of the bumper, using sensors to determine if you are going to have an impending crash.

 

[Dave MacArthur]

Scot-

Very interesting considering your line of work. What types of injuries do you see that are caused by the airbag? Do you think those people might have had more serious injuries because of striking the steering wheel? Are they mostly arm injuries from having their hands inside the rim of the wheel?



Thanks for the info,

Dave

 

[Expat]

Driver's airbag switch

Does anyone here have any ideas on how to install a switch to allow airbags to be disabled? (All theoretical, of course. ) My 2001. 5 has a keyed switch for the passenger airbag, and I'd like to install a switch for the driver's airbag as well.



I'm actually a fan of airbags, but there are times when it is better not to have them, and I'd like to have the freedom of choice. Before anyone gets worked up about the legality of this, I don't live in the US.



My office has several armored cars (all 6. 5 TD Chevies, unfortunately), and I'm pretty sure the airbags in all those vehicles have been removed in case we have to ram a roadblock or another vehicle. I don't want to remove mine. I want to be able to use the airbags 99. 9 percent of the time but be able to turn them off on the rare occasion when it would clearly be beneficial.



I realize that any replies are purely theoretical since it is almost certainly highly illegal to disable airbags in the US. Anything I do, I do voluntarily and purely at my own risk as a knowledgeable and consenting adult. In this and all other things, I am solely responsible for the consequences of my own actions.



BTW, I presume law enforcement agencies in the US disable airbags in their vehicles, don't they?

 

[hammersley]

Maybe an urban legend

I had heard that some bad-guys were hitting police cars from behind - just to engage the bags --- don't know if true or just another UL... ...

 

[illflem]

Expat, here's some info http://dodgeram.org/tech/tsb/1999/08-37-99.htm I 'm sure it would be easy to wire in a switch, just look at the wiring diagram for your truck and do it the same way the pass side is done.

 

[Scot]

Dave,

Actually, most of what I have seen has been relatively minor compared to what I have read about.



Lee's old commercial showing the airbag deploying are misleading at best. In reality, that sucker is coming at you at approximately 200 mph. I am told it sounds like a firearm going off. Anything between it and you will be striking you.



What I have seen are radius/ulna (forearm) and wrist fractures from non airbag approved grip on the steering wheel. Abrasions are quite common and almost the norm. I recall an elderly woman who got in a very minor accident in a Crown Vic. Imagine taking a steel football and hitting the headlight hard enough to break the headlight and area around it but not damage the hood, fender or core support. She had bleeding weeping abrasions from her hands to almost her shoulders. Without the airbag, she would not have even been sore IMHO.



As to what you can read about, contact lenses fused to eyeball, glasses shattered into eyes, internal decapitations...