Air Bag Deployment

[knothead]

I was a dealership last week and in a conversation with a technical rep. from Toyota and a mechanic, we started talking about air bags in older off road vehicles (10 or more years old). It was their opinion that if deployed in a older vehicle with a dashboard or steering column that has become brittle because of age or sun it could be like exploding shards of glass. Needless to say I became a little concerned because mine is 12 years old. Anyone ever heard that before?

 

[the great him]

push on your dash with your finger... does the dash crack or is it still semi soft and cushioned...?

 

[BlackCat914]

Lol. So the concern is the airbag deployment and not the actual front end impact?

 

[the great him]

no the concern is brittle dash parts flying at you when airbags deploy, like sharp parts, similar to glass, but yeah, id me more worried about the affect of the airbag itself and it breaking your wrists, or the impact itself... but yeah...

 

[knothead]

no the concern is brittle dash parts flying at you when airbags deploy, like sharp parts, similar to glass, but yeah, id me more worried about the affect of the airbag itself and it breaking your wrists, or the impact itself... but yeah...

Thanks Kid. My concerns exactly. I have had an air bag in my face and is not any fun. It would be even less fun if it was full of shards from the dash. I wonder if I could just replace the section of the dash that splits open for the bag to deploy. But, I believe it is molded into the dash.

 

[Offroad_Medic]

After having worked on many horrible accident seems with to talked vehicles and injured occupants I can say the last thing anyone was worried about were the glass junks on their person. The airbag itself will cause injuries no matter what. Even if there are broken pieces of dash in your skin that will not likely be any big issue..... Unless it's in your eye and then it's kind of a big deal.

That being said I have never seen the dash shatter and splinter on any if the older vehicles I have worked on with deployed airbags. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[the great him]

what im saying is that yeah whom ever you were talking to about that is suffering from paranoia unduly. there is imo no cause for concern in that area. even if the dash became brittle enough to do that, the particles of the dash would not have enough mass to do any damage of consequence.

what you should be more worried about is your head to be banged around off of A and B pillars, or your wrists being broken by the impact force of the airbag itself deploying and your death grip on the wheel(number one injury from airbag deployments -number two is slight surface burns on fore arms and face, and then fallowed with neck injuries and facial injuries... while i dont have a link to the study i am referring to a quick google search will confirm that all of these injuries are common to air bag deployment, and there as been no mention of the dash breaking apart and causing additional injury.

again if you can push in on your dash with your finger and or hand and not crack the dash then you dont have to worry about your dash. i have an old 85 truck and its dash is cracking in some spots, but its not brittle, i can still push in on it without it breaking apart. and that truck is 12yr older than my 4runner. the fear is unwarranted

 

[Ronin1082]

I'm actually having my airbags disconnected. I always have. Don't need a bag blowing up in my face. I always wear my seat belt and I would rather take my chances with that than having an airbag blow in my face. I know what they do. I drive a tow truck for a living and am a volunteer FF. That's just me though.