2008 KIA Spectra Owner's Manual

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Knowing your vehicle
Curtain air bag (if equipped)
Curtain air bags are located along
both sides of the roof rails above the
front and rear doors.
They are designed to help protect the
heads of the front seat occupants
and the rear outboard seat occupants
in certain side impact collisions.• The curtain air bag deployment
occurs only on the side of the vehi-
cle affected by the impact.
• The side air bags (side and curtain
air bags) are not designed to
deploy during collisions from the
front or rear of the vehicle or in
most rollover situations.
• The curtain air bags are designed
to deploy only during certain side-
impact collisions, depending on the
crash severity, angle, speed and
impact.
WARNING
• Do not use any accessory
seat covers for the vehicle
equipped with side air bags.
Use of seat covers could inter-
fere with side air bag deploy-
ment.
If seat is damaged, have the
vehicle checked and repaired
by an authorized Kia dealer.
Inform them that your vehicle
is equipped with side air bags
and an occupant detection
system.
• Do not make modifications or
additions to the seats as they
may cause the air bag system
to malfunction resulting in
severe personal injury or
death.
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WARNING - Side and cur-
tain air bags
• In order for side and curtain
air bags to provide the best
protection, both front seat
occupants and both outboard
rear occupants should sit in
an upright position with the
safety belts properly fastened.
Importantly, children should
sit in a proper child restraint
system in the rear seat.
• When children are seated in
the rear outboard seats, they
must be seated in the proper
child restraint system. Make
sure to put the child restraint
system as far away from the
door side as possible, and
secure the child restraint sys-
tem in a locked position.
(Continued)(Continued)
• If a small child is seated on
the rear outboard seat cush-
ion, it is probable that they will
below the deployment level of
the side curtain airbag and
thus not protected by that
airbag.
• Do not allow the passengers
to lean their heads or bodies
onto doors, put their arms on
the doors,stretch their arms
out of the window, or place
objects between the doors
and passengers when they are
seated on seats equipped with
side air bags.
• Never try to open or repair any
components of the side cur-
tain air bag system. This
should only be done by an
authorized Kia dealer.
Failure to follow the above men-
tioned instructions can result in
severe injury or death to the
vehicle occupants in an acci-
dent.

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Why didn’t my air bag go off in
a collision?
(Inflation and non-inflation condi-
tions of the air bag)
There are many types of accidents in
which the air bag would not be
expected to provide additional pro-
tection.
These include rear impacts, second
or third collisions in multiple impact
accidents, as well as low speed
impacts. In other words, just because
your vehicle is damaged and even if
it is totally unusable, don’t be sur-
prised that the air bags did not
inflate.
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Air bag collision sensors
(1)SRS control module
(2)Front impact sensor(3)Side impact sensor (if equipped)

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Air bag inflation condition
Front air bag
Front air bags (driver’s and front pas-
senger’s air bags) are designed to
inflate when the impact is delivered
to front collision sensors depending
on the intensity, speed or angles of
impact of the front collision - general-
ly from an area a little to the left to a
little to the right of straight ahead.
WARNING
• Do not hit or allow any objects
to impact the locations where
air bag or sensors are
installed.
This may cause unexpected
air bag deployment, which
could result in serious per-
sonal injury or death.
• If the installation location or
angle of the sensors is altered
in any way, the air bags may
deploy when they should not
or they may not deploy when
they should, causing severe
injury or death.
Therefore, do not try to per-
form maintenance on or
around the air bag sensors.
Have the vehicle checked and
repaired by an authorized Kia
dealer.
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(Continued)
• Problems may arise if the sen-
sor installation angles are
changed due to the deforma-
tion of front bumper, body or
B, C pillar where side collision
sensors are installed. Have
the vehicle checked and
repaired by an authorized Kia
dealer.
• Your vehicle has been
designed to absorb impact
and deploy the air bag(s) in
certain collisions.Installing
aftermarket bumper guards or
replacing a bumper with non-
genuine parts may adversely
affect your vehicles collision
and air bag deployment per-
formance.
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Side air bag (if equipped)
Side air bags (side and curtain air
bags) are designed to inflate when
an impact is detected by side colli-
sion sensors depending on the
strength, speed or angles of impact
of side impact collision or rollover by
the side impact.Although the front air bags (driver’s
and front passenger’s air bags) are
designed to inflate only in frontal col-
lision, it may inflate in any collision if
front impact sensors detect a suffi-
cient impact. Side air bags (side and
curtain air bags) are designed to
inflate only in side impact collision, it
may inflate in any collision if side
impact sensors detect a sufficient
impact.If the vehicle chassis is impacted by
bumps or objects on unimproved
roads or sidewalks, air bags may
deploy. Drive carefully on unim-
proved roads or on surfaces not
designed for vehicle traffic.
To protect occupants, front air bags
or pre-tensioner safety belts may
deploy in certain side impact colli-
sions.
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Air bag non-inflation conditions
• In certain collisions, the vehicle
safety belts are sufficient to protect
the vehicle occupants and the air
bags may not deploy. In some
cases, deploying air bags in low-
speed collisions can cause a sec-
ondary impact to the occupants
(light abrasions, cuts, burns, etc.),
or loss of vehicle control.• Frontal air bags are not designed
to inflate in rear collisions, because
occupants are moved backward by
the force of the impact. In this case,
the air bags do not provide proper
protection.• Front air bags may not inflate in
side impact collision, because
occupants move to the direction of
the collision, and thus in side
impacts, frontal air bag deployment
does not provide occupant protec-
tion.
However, side or curtain air bags
may inflate depending on the inten-
sity, vehicle speed and angles of
impact.
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• In a slant impact or collision, the
force delivered will be relatively
weaker than that of frontal colli-
sion. So, the air bags may not
inflate.• At the moment of an accident, driv-
ers often brake heavily with reflex.
In such heavy braking, the front
portion of the vehicle is lowered by
the force of the braking and the
vehicle can dive under a vehicle
with a higher ground clearance. Air
bags may not inflate in this situa-
tion because impacts may not be
delivered or may be delivered with
less intensity.• Air bags may not inflate in rollover
accidents because air bag deploy-
ment would not provide proper pro-
tection to the occupants.
However, side air bags may inflate
when the vehicle is rolled over by a
side impact collision, if the vehicle
is equipped with side air bags and
curtain air bags.
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• Air bags may not inflate if the vehi-
cle collides with objects such as
utility poles or trees, where the
point of impact is concentrated to
one area and the full force of the
impact is not delivered to the sen-
sors.
How does the air bag system
operate
• Air bag only operates when the
ignition switch is turned to the ON
or START positions.
• Air bags inflate instantly in the
event of serious frontal or side col-
lision (if equipped with side air bag
or curtain air bag) in order to help
protect the occupants from serious
physical injury.
• There is no single speed at which
the air bags will inflate.
Generally, air bags are designed to
inflate by the severity of a collision
and its direction. These two factors
determine whether the sensors
send out an electronic deploy-
ment/inflation signal.• Air bag deployment depends on a
number of factors including vehicle
speed, angles of impact and the
density and stiffness of the vehi-
cles or objects which your vehicle
hits in the collision. Though, factors
are not limited to those mentioned
above.
• The front air bags will completely
inflate and deflate in an instant.
It is impossible for you to see the
air bags inflate during an accident.
It is much more likely that you will
simply see the deflated air bags
hanging out of their storage com-
partments after the collision.
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