Air bag deployment

I Sell a airbag once every two years on average,nobody seems to need them. Some of the cars i have had for example even a LE500 where the bulkhead had creased and still the airbags had not Gone off.

I have bought a fair few mgf & mgtfs damaged and never had one where the airbags,passenger or driver have gone off .I Have seen another LE500 recently It was a hard impact and rare in the ones i bought with front damage that the airbags have gone off .I suspect the accident caused damage to the bottom of the bulkhead area possibly the subframe pushed back where the column attaches to the rack so the clock ring behind steering wheel i think would have activated airbags.
The ZT AND ZS have side impact modules,on the inside of door cill but convertibles MX5 and TOYOTA ROADSTERS like the TF dont have side impact modules not even airbags in the side of seats but do have modules on the front chassis rail so i am not sure why MG ROVER never considered this for the MGF MGTF

I see no one has mentioned "Risk Compensation" the more safety features built in the more people assume they will take care of things and hence tend to drive more recklessly.

Crash helmets on Motor cyclists have been proven to cause serious neck injuries. The daft 28mph restriction on mopeds actually increases accidents but this was glossed over as it didn't suit the powers that be.

Sadly when they introduce such safety features as air bags no one gives any thought to what happens in 20 years time. they assume none of their vehicles will still be in use as they only care about selling new ones. I am sure if they had their way we would follow Japan and virtually outlaw older vehicles............................................. except for the rich and the elite of course.

cjj wrote: It used to be the same with seatbelts (and sadly still is).

OK not present on mgf mgtfs except japanese models which is just a warning light on dash but most modern cars produce that dong dong drive you daft noise if you dont put your belt on after a certain speed is reached after pulling off.
Would favour the belt over being driven loony by the dong every time.

Most air bags only have a 10 year life span!!
I replaced the steering wheel with an after market momo wheel in my corsa that I bought brand new in 2006. ... Label on back of air bag stated "expires 2016"
Same goes for a ka I bought to put a fiesta rs1800 engine in , removed airbag and is stated its expiry year as 2008 (car was a 1998 on an r reg) and I did the conversion in 2009 so air bag was already 1 year past it's use by date...

Nearly all mgfs and tfs are over 10 years old or close to it so if it's a problem and it worries you buy a newly manufactured one and get it fitted that way you no it's goin to work if the time comes

GT MG SPARES LTD wrote: OK not present on mgf mgtfs except japanese models which is just a warning light on dash but most modern cars produce that dong dong drive you daft noise if you dont put your belt on after a certain speed is reached after pulling off.
Would favour the belt over being driven loony by the dong every time.

You only need to go onto ebay or such like to see there is a big market in plug in seatbelt buckles that allow you to not wear your seatbelt and fool the system into thinking you are. Some people go to these lengths. There are also legitimate reasons for not wearing a seatbelt, but I doubt many on here come under that heading.

Not something i would search for on EBAY and had no idea this sort of thing was available to be honest,but thanks for the info.

A couple of penn'orth. Airbags are a feature that are designed to act with other features, hence SRS: Supplemental (or supplementary) Restraint System. These features are usually belt tensioners and the belts themselves. Worth pointing out that injury and fatality has been caused by airbag deployment whilst not wearing a belt: the body and head travel forward at speed due to impact deceleration only to be neatly twatted by the inflating airbag going the other way in 55 thousandths of a second.

Clive makes an excellent point regarding the type of impact influencing whether the bag deploys: if it's a heavy side or three quarter impact then the bag would not deploy as the body would not be in line with the bag, resulting in injury. Why many modern cars have side airbags. My Jag has several front and rear for example, including side pillar and knee protection.
From what I read, the bag is deployed by an electro-mechanical device that chiefly acts as a result of mainly linear deceleration: I.e. head on.

I think that car manufacturers should fit every 50th car with an airbag with one of the following......

1, a picture of a clowns face

2, a picture of a big pair of tits.

3, a picture of a horses arse

4, glitter and streamers

Imagine trying to fill your insurance form in with one of those images in your head!!

Diesel Destroyer wrote: I'm not encouraging people to remove them Clive,.

Does anyone actually know how the F/TF system works?

Does it only deploy in a head on collision?

That is that I said above - 30 degrees of the front and above a certain speed, think its like 25 or 30.

Harriet got crushed sideways into the central reservation of the A27 near Brighton University by a truck so not a front end impact.

On the question of lifespan (of the bags, not the driver) the workshop schedule says 'every 15 years replace the air bag module(s), seat belt pre-tensioners and rotary coupling'. It's interesting to note that the air bag modules are so dangerous, MG Rover used to fit them outside the factory!

Richard

The 15 year lifespan would be an extremely conservative estimate to cover MG-Rover's corporate arses in the event of one failing.
It would be highly unlikely that the airbags, rotary coupling and seat belt pre-tensioners would all wear out at exactly the same time!

But of course we probably won't be able to replace them when they do, so at some stage we will all probably have to remove/disable them