MemRheins

Hey guys, im just wondering something here... Car has a 5 star safety which is great...and i know from experence the seatbelt has saved my life... however I was wondering for those of us who have unfortinutly been in an accident, If your airbags went off... I know mine didnt, and some other accidents ive read about, they havent gone off...

Dan Martin

They won't go off unless you're in an extremely bad crash. I know 21_in_az's car was found to have a defective airbag though.

It's pretty bad when they do go off. Many people get friction burns and bruises from the impact of the bag.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

I had the airbags in my Integra go off when that car was totalled. The airbags probably saved my head from smashing up against the steering wheel as the force of the impact was pretty violent.

MemRheins

lol CG, i ment in The TSX... yeah Im just wondering about a few of the accidents Ive read about, 21 in Az's is defenutly the worse, but my own accident a year ago, the light went off even and they had to reset the SRS system but the airbag never went off... Some of the other accidents ive seen looked pritty bad and the airbag didnt seem to go off either....even that one that was on e-bay that rolled on the guy...

MemRheins

bump

MemRheins

Hey guys i need some serious bumpage on this thread... I need to find a couple of cases in which the airbags properly worked....otherwise my parents are gonna make me sell it for an accord, which even though i turned my TSX into an accord, i dont wanna get rid of it for anything less then a Sports car....please find me some times when the airbags have worked

TinkyWinky

Call the National Institute of Highway Safety and crap.... ask them if their airbags deployed when they tested the TSX. If they say no, I'm selling mine ASAP.

sauceman

They never went off in mine. But then again I wasn't in an accident.

It is said they deploy at 300kph. They might not weight much, but they are activated by a blasting gun powder, so basically, you're having a small grenade blast in your face about 14-18" from you.

Gotta hurt.

xizor

In my accident they didn't go off (thank God). Ran over a stump at ~5mph, broke my bumper, demolished my radiator and the lower part of the frame, but in no way were the passengers in danger.

Eeyore

Wait a second, maybe I don't follow, but I'm thinking that the SRS system is probably similar if not exactly the same internally on a TSX as it is on a 04-05 Accord. New Accords come with side airbags and side curtain airbags as options.

I'm sure that the airbags on the TSX are not defective generally speaking, we would have heard about that by now. When airbags do go off, it costs thousands of dollars to fix them. I'm sure car companies have put some logic into the system to keep the bags from going off, unless they really need to. Yes, this means that they aren't going to go off in every crash, even some where YOU (or your parents) think they should. The TSX has 8 airbags, I'd say its a fairly safe car.

There are wrecked cars of all types on eBay all the time, keep checking and I'm sure a smashed to sh*t TSX will show up.

gfxdave99

I know it sounds silly but you might want to add a choice of I havent been in an accident cuz i was about to vote no and then i realized you ment have your airbags gone off when you hit shit...

MemRheins

Well personally I said the same thing abou the accord airbags...go figure... From experence and from reading about 21 in az's accident, I know of two surefire cses in which the SRS system did not work... and still havent seen a case in which it worked

sauceman

That's because the airbags working is expected. So it's not gonna happen too often that someone will say, "My airbags worked!!"

On the opposite, if they didn't work, like it happenned with AZ, they'd be sure to post about it here.

MemRheins

Problem is there are more threads when someone carshes a TSX and they say the Airbags didnt go off...compaired to I crashed the TSX, but the airbags went off and im okay...type things esp consitering that my own experence is the first one

VeniceBeachTSX

Airbags are only supposed to go off in very limited circumstances. Front airbags will deploy in a FRONTAL collision (not a rollover or side impact) of at least 15mph, though it does vary somewhat, depending on how long it takes for the car to come to a stop. Side airbags will deploy in side collisions, again only in pretty violent ones.

If you're rear-ended, your car flips, you hit at lower speed, etc., then the airbags are not supposed to go off.

Keep in mind that usually if it's a bad enough accident for the airbags to blow, it's almost certainly a totalled car. Combine the amount of damage that would be caused naturally, and add in the cost of replacing the airbags and it's just not worth repairing. Which is a nice way of saying that anybody whose airbags deployed probably isn't on this forum anymore (unless they moved from their totalled TSX to a new one).

The Accord airbags won't deploy any more frequently than a TSX's, nor will anybody else's.

VeniceBeachTSX

Look for totaled vehicles, not here.

It is extremely unlikely that the airbags would go off in a situation that didn't result in an outright total. They are meant as a last line of defense for extreme situations, not as a device that goes off frequently. Most cars will go through their normal lifetimes, including the normal amount of minor to moderate accidents and never have one go off.

slo007

Or maybe not... {rip}

Eeyore

This is basically what I was trying to say with my long winded post above.

Eeyore

Yo Mem, check this out:

http://www.epinions.com/content_113065823876

You've got to read almost the whole thing to get to part about where the airbags WORKED.

xizor

when someone posts that they slammed their face into the steering wheel its a problem (not sure what extent of injuires 21 had). i don't think anyone that's been in a regular accident here has been hurt, so why conclude the air bags didn't properly go off?

VeniceBeachTSX

Somehow, it seems that some people have developed this weird notion that the airbags are supposed to go off in any collision of any significance. This is absolutely untrue. Airbags are designed so that they will go off only in those conditions where the deployment of the airbag will cause less damage to you physically than you were likley to suffer if the airbag did not deploy.

Let me explain.

The airbag is a bag that is inflated with a class D propellant, basically an explosive. When it blows up, it will hit you in the chest, face and upper abdomen. The effect is not all that different from that which you were experienced if you were punched in the face, and chest multiple times all at once. At the very least, you're going to have some bruises and black and blue marks. It is not fun.

Not only that, but around the front edges of the airbag there are openings to allow the hot gases to escape quickly rather than continuing to inflate the bag until it tears. If you're sitting in a normal position with your hands on the steering wheel you will likely have burns on your forearms. If you're in shorts, you'll have some on the top of your thighs as well.

And that's just the front bags. The side ones are also capable of hurting you.

[Note, the airbag makers are constantly improving their products and they are far less likely to hurt you than they were 10 years ago, but the fact is that they're still kind of like cheotherapy. In certain circumstances they prevent more damage than they cause.]

You'll also experience over a thousand bucks apiece to replace the airbags.

Bottom line is it's not a pleasant experience and it's a very expensive one that tends to cause cars with deployed airbags to be totalled much more often than cars with overall similar levels of damage on which airbags did not deploy.

Obviously, all the above is surely better than smashing your head into the steering wheel, windshield or side window, but thre are real perils to the system as well, so it's not going to go off in a situation that is unlikely to cause injury to a properly-belted person. Multiple sensors have to agree that you're in real trouble before the relateively extreme measure of airbag deployment takes place.

And the conditions under which airbags must deploy are pretty standardized. If somebody's parents are under the impression that an Accord or any other vehicle would have reacted differently, then they need a crash course (no pun intended) in airbag realities.

VTECaddict

sauceman

So then if an airbag blows on a small accident with no or minor body damage, those airbags could then be considered faulty, since they should not have blasted.

Eeyore

VERY well said, Venice.

VTECaddict

yes. if there was no or very minor body damage, then the deploying airbag will do more harm than good. it should have known not to deploy, so the system would be considered faulty.

SOCAL_CGTSX

my passenger side went off, besides the one in the dash. overall I dont think the crash was that bad I ended up wrecking the front right suspension including a smashed rim and cracked bumper because the side of the car didnt have any damage.

03CoupeV6

It is impossible to tell by looking at a car whether or not the airbags should have or should not have deployed. However, if the person is unharmed without the aid of the airbag, what would have been the purpose?

And I believe some here over-exaggerate the effects of deploying airbags. I had a 1997 Nissan Altima (old-school, full force airbags) that I totalled when I skidded off the road into a ravine. I would not have been hurt regardless, but the airbags did deploy. They were deflated, of course, before I realized what had happened -- but other than an intense warmth (not burn) on my chest that disappeared when I climbed out into the wet night air, the airbag force wasn't overbearing. I had a seatbelt burn mark, but no marks from the airbag whatsoever. It was loud, though, I remember it sounded like a shotgun was fired inside the cabin... and the powder was everywhere.

If you are a small person and sit really close to the wheel, the airbag may hurt a little more, but overall it's a nice alternative to the windshield, wheel, or dashboard.

Bass Mechanic

i had an accident where my car went over a curb at about 15 mph or more i cant recall exactly. my bags did not deply but my seatbelt pretentioner did.
after the belt was replaced they also had to install a new SRS unit as the light was still on after the repairs.
apparently the system is designed that way. if any of it activates you have to replace the SRS unit and the affected belt or bag.