air bag

[strangelove]

Got in an accident a few weeks ago traveling 40 mph, had the right of way when the other driver drove through her stop sign. On coming traffic to my left so I had nowhere to go, had just enough time to begin breaking when Bang!!! I slammed straight on. Front end smashed. My question is about the air bag which did not deploy. Does anyone know how and when an airbag is supposed to deploy, and if so why did it fail in my case? Like I said I hit head on and was beginning to decelerate. Thanks ahead of time to anyone who replies.

[Punch]

it should have went off, plus the sides also if you have them. sometthing not right at all, did you get injured? becuase an exploding air bag will cause damage to your face.

Punch

[strangelove]

Hey Punch

Besides the bruise from the seatbelt and a sore neck for a few days I'm doing fine. Can't say that much for my baby, wen't to the auto shop at the wrong time and saw my PT up on a rack with all the front body components off, no front wheels, strange cut and weld points, just a bad site if you love PT's

Any ways I'm not sure what went wrong with the airbags, I even have side curtain airbags. None of them deployed during the accident.

Could this be a warrenty issue and should I follow up on it?

[skylight]

sorry to hear of your misfortune, strange. good to see you back in the forum. keep your chin up, it'll be back in shape soon. There's a force minimum for the bags, I believe, you may want to research it tho.

here's my first GT back in December 02... no airbags either, but there was no frontend damage. I was going about 50 around a sneaky curve in rain at night, rear end slipped out, fish-tailed around into a telelphone pole. no injuries. totalled.

[MX-5]

The side airbags will ONLY deploy during a side inpact. They use completely different crash sensors.

The front airbags will only deploy in a life threatening collision.
Here's the info from page 8O-2 of the service manual.

OPERATION
FRONT AIRBAG SYSTEM
The front airbag system electrical circuits are continuously
monitored by a microprocessor and software
contained within the Occupant Restraint
Controller (ORC). The ORC also contains impact
sensing elements, which are monitored by the ORC
to determine when an impact occurs that is severe
enough to require front airbag system protection.
When a frontal impact is severe enough, the ORC
initiates the inflator units of both front airbags to
deploy.

[Punch]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/autom...ler_airbag.htm

[CREWZIN]

Punch,

After reading all that...I sure wouldn't go out and buy a Dodge Ram. Hopefully Strangelove's accident was just a fluke with the air-bags in his PT not going off. I was working for the Sheriff's office until a couple of months ago and I did attend an accident with a PT. The air-bags did deploy in that one where the front end of the PT hit a stop sign runner broadside.

[strangelove]

Thanks Everyone for all the good advice, consumer reports link, and thanks for the welcome back Jody. My poor PT has been in the shop for two months since the accident and it really put a damper on visiting the forum. But good news!!! I get to pick up my PT tommarrow [] Hopefully the shop did a good job repairing it, it's not like they didn't have enough time or anything, sshessh Reading up on everyones posts has got me in the after market mood. Before I was hesitent to modify the car too much, didn't want to affect the resale value. But now the flood gates are open; so hello coilovers, hello strut bar and stabalizer bar. Got to beef up the steering just in case right. I'll report back about how my ride is[8)]