On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 6:17 AM, Douglas McKinnie <d.mckinnie@usa.net> wrote:
> I'm pondering this half with my engineer's hat (is possible/this going to
> be
> dangerous?) and half with my psychologists hat --
> "everyone knows that car's with airbags are safer, and this car now has an
> airbag, so therefore it is safer"
I taught design, function, and repairs on airbag systems for 15 years.
Personally I would be very reluctant to try and retrofit an airbag system
(any airbag system) into a car that was not designed for it.
I mean just starting with the wheel, is the diameter of the shaft and the
spline count the same? What effects would an airbag deployment have on the
column, and other interior pieces around the column? Is it a tethered bag
or an untethered bag? How big is the bag?
And finally the two biggies 1. How will you know the effects in a crash
without a crash test? 2. How do you know the car is safer?
>
> For the latter, all I really need is a convincing pillow on the
> steering-wheel
> with a nice "airbag" or "Restraint-system" logo. Whether it is functional
> is
> immaterial. Have any of you tested your air-bags to see if the actually
> work?
> Then why are you convinced they will?
>
Well I don't know about your car, but yeah I can be pretty damn close to
100% sure my bags will go off when needed. The normal condition of the
warning light is on, the SRS system will only turn it off is all is OK.. The
entire system checks itself 4X second. If a fault is recorded for 40 or
more of these checks, the SRS light is turned on. In addition a plain text
message is displayed that there is an SRS fault.
So unless the accident occurs <10 seconds after the fault occurs, the system
will work as advertised. So yeah I am convinced.
Rick
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