A friend of mine told me that if he ever got a car with airbags, the first thing he'd do is rip them out, because he said they can go off if your brake hard with ABS.. is this possible? I know this isnt strictly Prius related, but this is the only car forum I belong to, and you all seem to know a lot about this stuff in general
Well, Victor, that was my initial response, but I went looking on the web for some info to back it up. You know, like a bunch of websites who debunk myths. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything yet. You know, you could have said that in German and it would have been a lot funnier.
Yeh, I have been searching too... I told my friend on msn that i havent found any evidence to back up what he says and he said: it has been a problem in other cars in the past Roger says: it's impossible, unless the sensors were faulty Friend says: or something like the battery comes loose and hits the front grill hard enough - where the sensor is nothing is impossible Roger says: that doesn't trigger them they use acellerometers friend says: what about in the 90s?
Well, I can only add I have used ABS many times in full breaking (on skid pans and the real road) and the airbags in all the cars Ive had that have had them have never deployed them. ABS does not stop a car quick enough to cause a trigger. Also, you need to hit an object within a certain angular limit from head on, and above certain speed. Same with side and curtain airbags. You have to be hit in the correct place and speed. You are more likley to get a false trigger by driving over a foot drop than be ABS breaking. As for the 90's, well things have changed. Maybe the very first airbags had problems. I guess you could look at any technology and say Im not having it because xx years ago there wa a problem. Hell, my mother would have been killed in the 60's if she had been using a seat belt as her car was hit in the side and the damage went acrros 1/2 of the drivers seat. She managed to "duck" over to the passenger side. So maybe I should rip out my seat belts?????
try it and find out... that is one of the first things i tested after the 500 mile break-in for the brakes. i wanted to see if the anti lock system really worked. i would advise you to test yours also.
While there have been cases when airbags have caused injuries, the evidence is clear that statistically they help a lot more than hurt. It's not a sure thing, but all you can do is play the odds. Removing them is foolish.
Roger, I'm sure your friend has lots of good advice, but I don't think this is one of those times. If hitting brakes that keep the wheels from locking up causing a skid, could cause the airbags to deploy if you hit them hard, what would happen in a car without ABS? ABS will actually stop the car a little slower (assuming no slippery road) than brakes that allow you to leave a flat spot in your tire. I think the initial nose dive would be the same regardless of ABS. If your airbags would deploy with a hard ABS stop, so will his without ABS.
yeah, All good points, and thanks for your input He is a little strange that way. he's the type that says he would rip the air con out too, because he has never had air con and so doesn't need it. -" I've been driving for 10 years and never had air-con so why start now" When it is hot and he's in my prius and I have the air-con running, he puts his window down.. :?
There is a power window lock-out switch on your door armrest Tell him you can hear his magnificient conversation better with the windows closed. ;-)
"A friend of mine told me that if he ever got a car with airbags..." Roger, please don't take this the wrong way, but your friend is an idiot. I'm sure he doesn't wear seatbelts either because: A friend told me... I heard... I read... I saw on the Internet... that if you get in an accident you could get trapped in the car instead of being thrown clear to safety. BTW, should this friend ever make good his boast, I believe that in time he will assist in proving that Darwin was right.
heh, Yeah, i think his comments may be motivated by him thinking that he will never be able to afford a car with airbags, or air-con, so he'll rubbish them instead to feel better about it. I just thought I'd ask about the abs thing in case there was some truth to his claim. Mind you, if he ever does get a car with air-con, I'm gonna make sure he rips it out!
roger: despite the negative comments of this post, your friend does have some options. tell him to buy a small pickup with standard cab and hire a driver. in a pickup because there is no back seats to put children in, there is a switch that disables the passenger side airbag. (cant disable the drivers side though) this is the only legal situation where front airbag is not required since small children run the risk of death during airbag deployment. you should warn him though that if the cost of hiring a driver doesnt do him in, the hosipital bills will. his insurance will still be voided since you must be 35 lbs or less and in a backwards facing carseat to qualify for the exemption in most states.
heh, the cost of the driver might put him off... but hospital services (and any medical services) are free here..
>A friend of mine told me that if he ever got a car with airbags, > the first thing he'd do is rip them out, because he said they >can go off if your brake hard with ABS.. is this possible?... I can't speak for every airbag in the world. I can give you some background on the Pri. You have a pair of sensors out front under the hood. One on the left and one on the right. You have a third sensor in the car under the center of the dash directly above the floor. This third unit also has a small "brain" and it controls your airbags. What the SRS (Supplemental Restraint System) system is looking for are occasions when the different sensors are measuring different G forces, as they would if something were crushing in the front of your car. If all the sensors show roughly the same accel/decell then you are either speeding up or slowing down the entire car, which the SRS doesn't care about. The ABS may have opinions about it, but the SRS doesn't care. Someone in this thread mentioned a car in which the battery broke loose and crashed into a sensor, setting off the airbags. In a Pri the batteries are all back in the trunk. Even if you somehow broke them loose they can't reach the front airbag sensors. If your friend ever decides to pull the SRS bits out of a Pri you can tell him I'll take them. I think they are reliable and useful.
I sadly had the chance to check out your friends theory. Full fledged panic stop, ABS full on just missed a SUV that ran a red light, talking on the phone. She just looked at me and drove off. No air bags. I have heard of them going off in a fairly minor crash though. I also heard of some one having one go off hitting the wall of a parking garage at low speed. Don't know about that. I did have my fuel pump cut off switch go off doing that. The air bags did not go and there was no damage to the car or the wall but the car would not start. Took a call to a tow truck and felt like a idiot when he pulled up the carpet in the front and hit the swich.
A friend of mine had his airbags go off, when his daughter tried parking the Nissan minivan into the driveway. She hit the wall of the garage at low speed. Accident related damage was minimal at the bumper. Most damage was airbags (of course) and the windshield that cracked under the force of the passenger airbag. I was reading a pamphlet about airbags Toyota handed us at a class. Airbags can deploy at low speeds, but probably only if you hit a sturdy barricade, like a concrete wall. ABS, though it would have a short stop, would not have anywhere the forces from a crash.
