I was in an accident last week where my (the driver's side) airbag should have deployed, however only the passenger's side airbag deployed, shattering the windshield in an obviously poorly engineered fashion.

However this made me wonder about other accident pictures I have seen. And for the life of me I can not find a single crossfire accident picture where the driver's airbag deployed. I think it's a myth that we even have one.

I noticed that there's one guy on here that looks like the same thing happened to him as well but here are a couple of examples...

My car (Weak example):


A car for sale (Good example):


In my car, I could understand if neither airbag deployed, but just the passenger's side is ridiculous. The car I found for sale (pictured above) that appears to have the driver's airbag intact in another photo leads me to believe that if our cars do have driver's airbags, they just don't work.

 

Just my thoughts on airbag deployment...It may be that your Crossfire did not experience enough of a force or sufficient anticipated severity of impact to deploy. The SDM (sensing diagnostic module--may be called something different by MB) evaluates information from the vehicle sensors and accelerometers. It has to decide to deploy or not deploy an airbag, ideally making this decision in 15-50 milliseconds. It looks for the change of Delta-V (change in velocity with respect to time -generally in relation to the X-Axis of the vehicle). If it determines the event is not severe enough, it will not deploy the seat belt pre-tensioners (if equipped) or (certain) airbags. Also, the system does not necessarily need to deploy all the airbags, only the ones it deems appropriate. If the principle direction of force (PDOF in relation to the X-Axis of the vehicle) of the crash is not head-on, often only one bag will deploy.

Every vehicle manufactured since 1997 has the capability of recording some part of the air bag event information in the "event data recorder". Depending on the manufacturer (I'm not sure about MB or Chrysler), it may record up to 5 seconds before the crash. It may record seat belt use, speed, brake lights on/off, percent of acceleration, engine speed, change of Delta V, etc. Even in a crash without any airbag deployment,the event may show as a non-deployment event on the SDM. The SDM system was designed as a diagnostic for the airbags to see how they react. Manufacturers will download the information from crash tests and real world collisions in order to study them. Most vehicles can have this information downloaded via the Diagnostic Link Connector (DLC) or by connecting directly to the "event data recorder". Problem is, most of the time, the software to download the SDM is usually only available to the manufacturer and chances are that they won't retrieve the info for you in case there was a failure to the system. I assume the reason is that it would open up liabilities to them.

 

The fact that the passenger airbag shattered the windshield that is not poor design, that is common on about 70% of cars because of the door swinging open and shattering the windshield. I have seen this on everything from a Miata to a Toyota Solara and MB's.

The fact that the passenger airbag only deployed is up to the sensor and whether it determines if the severity of the impact was enough to blow the bag. Also the crossfire is equipped with a crash buckle sensor in which if the seatbelt is not fastened for that seat the airbag will deploy with more force or deploy in lower speed accidents to really ensure that person is protected since they were not belted. Also if you had your belt on, the computer probably decided that the accident was not huge and that the passenger seatbelt was not fastened whereas the driver was fastened, so it decided to deploy the passenger bag instead to insure that person was protected as well.

See airbags are real tricky. I once had a horrible head on collision offset to the drivers side with my brand new GTi and the airbags didn't deploy but the ETR's did. Go figure. That's why its safe to always wear your seatbelt cause you never know if the bag will indeed deploy or not. And if you read the fine print with bags it always states that it's a supplemental feature to the seatbelt and that it's designed to deploy in CERTAIN impacts not ALL impacts even though it may appear to be a bad wreck.

 

Now this is really crazy if they put all that firmware into the micro for controlling the air bag, the car has a seat sensor to know when a person is in a seat or not. This is how the seat belt alarm works, if you are in the seat and do not buckle the alarm goes off.

If no one is in the seat the computer knows, so why let the airbag deploy, the car has all kinds of hidden logic, looks like they missed this one.

 

I know the seat has an occupancy sensor but there are times where you might have a heavy bag on the seat and it senses that its a person the weight requirement is not much to activate the sensor to ready status on the passenger seat. Also the computer detects which passenger will be more in need of a bag in such a wreck as this one and it will trigger that bag only rather than triggering all bags. It’s got a mind of its own, you really can't predict when the bag will deploy and which one will deploy, therefore just be cautious and wear your seatbelt. These are 2nd generation SMART AIRBAGS. They are smart for a reason they have various sensors in addition to the regular sensors to determine what is really needed or not.

Either that or the airbag had a malfunction and it was not serviced. See when sensors are responsible for things like this you can't always count on something occurring exactly as one predicts.

Accidents vary and point of impacts vary. The point of impacts that Chrysler might have done to test the car can and are different from the real accident out in the street therefore the airbag will trigger differently, not at all, or partially (like in this car only the passenger one).

 

The firmware is programmed to err on the side of caution. If it's uncertain that the seat is occupied or not, the airbag will fire, just in case. I'm at work right now but I will try and post the relavent portion of the service manual if anyone is interested.

 

it works, trust me, mine smacked me in the face really hard two years ago...

 

Just because something is common, does not mean it is good or even acceptable design. But, then again, maybe I'm just pissed because I had to pull chips of windshield glass from my arms and face. I'm just glad I wear glasses.

 

I'd rather have the airbag break the windshield than my passenger's head break it.

 

Seems like the side airbag may deploy on the passenger side even when the car is hit on the drivers side because your head whips back to the window after the initial hit. I'd also much rather hit an airbag that broke the window than break it with mine, or someone else's head.

 

Again the airbag door smashing the windshield is not poor design. The dashboards of any car have a lot to do with their overall design. Dashboards are not designed solely for the purpose of having an airbag deploy from the front (FACE) of the dash rather than the top.

Look at the 350z passenger-side dashboard. It slopes down and the passenger airbag is on top. When it deploys the door swings open and will hit the windshield of the car just like in the XFire. I guess engineers felt it was a small price to pay for having a nicer downward sloping dash. Otherwise they would've had to have gone with a high-sill dash to have the bag open from the front rather than the top. And that wouldn't have been in tune with the rest of the cars design.

And in the end the bag deploying from the top of the dash is going to be as effective as the one coming from the front (FACE) and both cars will probably be write-off's if the bags deployed anyways. So who cares about a windshield when you have a completely busted front end?

 

I'm more interested in that data recorder and how to disable the damn thing. Who needs the manufacturer and the courts peering into your driving habits?

 

And the answer is...(drum roll)

The Insurance Companies!

 

I guess I knew that. The real question is does anyone know how to disable the thing?

 

The passengers side airbag? Open up your passengers side (not sure on LHD cars) and insert your key into the slot that says passenger air bag and select off or on.

EdiT: NM, didn't read it through.

 

I just wrecked mine on 3-1-09 and both front airbags deplyed. I have pictures of the front end of my car on my post "another one bit the dust" Is yours this bad??

 

Injure or kill your passenger and you will have more than a broken windshield to worry about. Your insurance company may not want to pay for someone killed or maimed because you turn off the air bag. These are to be turned of for child seats not on a whim.

 

mine went off when my 05 was totaled. I feel very confident about our car's safety features.

 

Just totalled my 2nd crossfire... Neither were my fault but both head on. Both times only the passenger airbag came out.

 

I hope your OK, I'm assuming a few bumps an bruises. What years were both of these cars?