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Frontal airbags (driver and right front passenger)
are not intended to inflate during vehicle
rollovers, rear impacts, or in many side impacts.
Your vehicle may or may not have roof-mounted
side impact airbags. See Airbag System on
page 66. Roof-mounted side impact airbags are
intended to inflate in moderate to severe side
crashes. A roof-mounted side impact airbag will
inflate if the crash severity is above the system’s
designed threshold level. The threshold level
can vary with specific vehicle design.
Roof-mounted side impact airbags are not
intended to inflate in frontal or near-frontal impacts,
rollovers or rear impacts. A roof-mounted side
impact airbag is intended to deploy on the side of
the vehicle that is struck.
In any particular crash, no one can say whether
an airbag should have inflated simply because
of the damage to a vehicle or because of what the
repair costs were. For frontal airbags, inflation is
determined by what the vehicle hits, the angle
of the impact, and how quickly the vehicle slows
down. For roof-mounted side impact airbags,
inflation is determined by the location and severity
of the impact.
What Makes an Airbag Inflate?
In an impact of sufficient severity, the airbag
sensing system detects that the vehicle is
in a crash. The sensing system triggers a release
of gas from the inflator, which inflates the
airbag. The inflator, airbag, and related hardware
are all part of the airbag modules inside the
steering wheel and in the instrument panel in front
of the right front passenger. For vehicles with
roof-mounted side impact airbags, there are also
airbag modules in the ceiling of the vehicle,
near the side windows.
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