58
AIR BAG
Description and operation
The front airbag (driver and passen-
ger) is a safety device which is imme-
diately triggered in the event of a front
impact.
It consists of an instantly inflatable
bag housed in a special compartment
located:
– in the centre of the steering wheel
on the driver’s side;
– in the dashboard on the passen-
ger’s side (larger bag).
The front airbag (driver and passen-
ger) is a device which protects the oc-
cupants of the car during a head-on
collision of a medium-high degree.
The system was designed to protect
from injury caused by the body crash-
ing to the steering wheel or the dash-
board.
In a collision, an electronic control
unit processes the signals from a de-
celeration sensor and, where required,
inflates the airbag.
The bag inflates instantly and acts as
a soft protective barrier between the
front seat passengers and the struc-
tures in front of them that could cause
injury. The bags deflate immediately af-
terwards.
A passenger not wearing the seat
belt may crash into the bag before it is
fully inflated. In this case, the protec-
tion is considerably decreased.
The airbag, as a consequence, is not
a replacement for the use of seat belts
but rather a complement. We rec-
ommend that seat belts are worn at all
times as prescribed by legislation in Eu-
rope and most other countries world-
wide.
In the event of front collisions at low
speed, the restraining action of the
seat belts is sufficient and the airbag
is not inflated.
For impacts against very deformable
or mobile objects (traffic sign poles,
heaps of gravel or snow, parked vehi-
cles), side impacts, wedging under oth-
er vehicles or barriers (e.g. under a
truck or guard rail), the airbag is not
necessary and may even be undesir-
able. In the event of frontal impacts in-
volving, for example, the mudguard
against a guard-rail, the airbags are not
triggered as they would not offer ad-
ditional protection with respect to the
seat belts and may be undesirable.
The fact that the airbag is not trig-
gered in these situations, this does not
signify a malfunction.
fig. 76
P5S00671m
