1999 Peugot 306 estate belonging to our neighbour.
6 year old son was sent to collect sweets from the glovebox of the unlocked car, next thing that happens is a big bang as the Passenger side Airbag explodes. Result 2 broken bones in left wrist as he is apparently pushed upwards into windscreen. As a result of his young age, his version of events must be treated with caution, but there is no reason to believe that his version is not correct. ?All I did was to open the glovebox normally? This version has been repeated consistently to different adults. We can only be grateful that consequences were not more severe.
This will undoubtably result in litigation, has any one else suffered a similar event? The car had been parked overnight, but was not locked and the alarm was not set.
This obviously raises a host of interesting questions, but lets start with whether the trigger is enabled when ignition is off?
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Sounds unbelievable and truly shocking.I just hope your son makes a speedy recovery.Whatever happened needs to be investigated urgently and results dealt with.Again i am shocked and if there are other instances of this happening the manufacturers responsible must be called to account.
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Peter,
I hate working anywhere near airbag/s in case of the million to one accidental trigger.
Currently I look after exactly the same car with a faulty airbag system, the light stays on. The extent of my investigation is to find out that the light will attempt to go out if the passenger airbag cut-out switch is flicked on/off. Needless to say I have done this standing outside the car prepared for accidental activation.
I've advised customer to go to Peugeot for a proper diagnostic, too much at staketo fidle without the full info to hand.
Assuming your mail address to be correct you will find I've mailed you about this.
David
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I've got driver and passenger airbags on my car which given a choice, I would rather do without. I know they can prevent serious injury in a collision, but I feel that whilst I can minimise the risk of an accident by the way I drive, I hate the thought of being the victim of something that happens that is out of my control. Whenever my eye catches the airbag logos on the dash and the steering wheel, I get a nervous twinge.
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I would sooner drive sensibly in a strong car (wearing seatbelts of course) and forego airbags. I don't have great confidence in their reliability not to 'blow' at the wrong time and I understand that they need to be replaced at X yearly intervals at presumably high cost.
Pleased to say that my 1992 car doesn't have airbags, though it does have a hole for an 'airbag warning' light in the back of the instrument panel.
Some time back I stumbled across an old British patent for airbags. Unfortunately for the inventor, the patent expired several years before airbags came into our cars so he got nothing for his trouble.
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Airbags stay live all the while when connected to the battery. If they need to be worked on, the battery must be disconnected for at least 15 mins (with all the problems that can come with it) as they store charge themselves. They should then be stored face up on the ground, so if they activate themselves, they blow the right way, rather than blowing their mounting upwards. The wiring for airbags is always yellow, and is often attached to the rear or top of the glovebox, therefore you need to be real careful if delving around behind there, in case it gets disturbed and triggered.
It is possible that the opening and closing could disturb already vulnerable wiring, causing the bag to ignite. Basically, they are designed to default to ignite, rather than to safe, for obvious reasons. Heaven knows what you do on cars with 8 of them.
Therefore, if working anywhere near the steering wheel, column, dash and glovebox, take care. If in doubt, disconnect the battery and keep your head down! Or let it go off at the dealers.
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Obviously an airbag trigger mechanism should disarm when a car is parked. But that isn't necessarily going to stop the airbag detonator going off for inexplicable reasons. I've always fought on the side of passenger airbags on the grounds that they obviously save thousands more lives than they take. But I had not thought of the potential danger to mechanics working on the car. In our increasingly litigious society we have an issue here.
HJ
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On another thread Randolph Lee gives us a link to a brilliant USA HJ type site. What should I see in the current news column but the issue of whether Nissan should buy back a 1996 car that had suffered accidental airbag deployment.
Have a look at cartalk.cars.com/Columns/latest.html
David
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Why do you make a point about the car being unlocked ?- dont see the relevance
I believe the triggers are always live. Heard a story about somebody who fell on the front of a parked Clio which set the airbag off.
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A motoring programme (Bumper to Bumper, with Tim Harvey) on local ITV last night had NCAP footage of a car going side on into a lamp post. The point of the demonstration was to show the effectiveness of side airbags. Believe me you would change your minds if you watched this footage - side airbags save lives, no question.
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More about the USA "HJ" site.
This site is large and rambling but I've just stumbled into a fascinating series of pages on everything about airbags...like never drive at 10 to 2 again if you don't want your arms broken, and never try and blow a steering wheel horn button just before crashing or the airbag will break your arm then punch it into your face!
Look at
www.cars.com/carsapp/national/?szc=36117&srv=parse...l
I have no idear if the info is well researched or not but the site makes gripping reading.....and they advise 5000 mile oil changes.
David
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Also, don't forget the seat belt retraction devices (pre-tensioners) fitted in the B Pillar behind the front doors, which take up the slack in the belt in the event of an impact. These are also effectively small 'explosive devices' to be treated with care if working near them. Believe it or not, the charges within them have to be stored in accordance with the explosives Act of 1878 - Or so I read, and please don't ask me any more about that!
Not to mention the hazard of gas struts for hatchbacks etc, which are also to be treated with care due to the very nature of their construction.
Not that I'd be one to enter a degree of pessimism into the debate!
KB.
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In this months trade tools special offers there is an airbag storage box for £125+vat.
It is welded steel with a wood lining and bolts to the floor.
I wonder if they have fully tested it though because the locking hasp looks like the one on my shed.
David
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KB -- Funny you should mention gas struts being hazardous. I have just replaced those supporting the opening glass panel on the tailgate of my car because they had become completely ineffective. For interest, I tried to compress each of the old ones that I had taken off by holding one end against the floor and leaning on the other, but it took all the effort I could muster to even start it closing. I couldn't move the new ones at all so I put one in the large vice on my workbench and the effort required to start it closing was remarkably high. There must be an awful lot of pressure in gas struts, even when duff.
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The problem comes when they get heated up when your car catches fire and they sort of, well..... explode.
KB.
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