2015 KIA Optima Owner's Manual

Safety features of your vehicle
50
3
Side air bag
❈ The actual air bags in the vehicle may differ
from the illustration.
Your vehicle is equipped with a side
air bag in each front seat. The purpose of the air bag is to pro-
vide the vehicle's driver and/or the
front passenger with additional pro-
tection than that offered by the seat
belt alone.
The side air bags are designed to
deploy only during certain side-
impact collisions, depending on the
crash severity, angle, speed and
point of impact. The side air bags are
not designed to deploy in all side
impact situations.
The side air bag is supplemental to
the driver's and the passenger's seat
belt systems and is not a substitute
for them. Therefore your seat belts
must be worn at all times while the
vehicle is in operation.
For best protection from the side air
bag system and to avoid being
injured by the deploying side air bag,
both front seat occupants should sit
in an upright position with the seat
belt properly fastened. The driver's
hands should be placed on the steer-
ing wheel at the 9:00 and 3:00 posi-
tions. The passenger's arms and
hands should be placed on their laps.
WARNING - Unexpected
deployment
Avoid impact to the side air bag
sensor when the ignition switch
is ON to prevent unexpected
deployment of the side air bag.
OTD030035
OTD030036
Front
WARNING - Deployment
Do not install any accessories
including seat covers, on the
side or near the side air bag as
this may affect the deployment
of the side air bags.

351
Safety features of your vehicle
If seat or seat cover is damaged,
have the vehicle checked and
repaired by an authorized Kia dealer.
Inform that your vehicle is equipped
with side air bags and an occupant
detection system.Curtain air bag
❈The actual air bags in the vehicle may differ
from the illustration.
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 occu-
pants in certain side impact colli-
sions.
The curtain air bags are designed to
deploy only during certain side
impact collisions, depending on the
crash severity, angle, speed and
impact. The curtain air bags are not
designed to deploy in all side impact
situations, collisions from the front or
rear of the vehicle or in most rollover
situations.
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 pas-
sengers when they are seated on
seats equipped with side and/or cur-
tain air bags.
✽ ✽
NOTICE
Never try to open or repair any com-
ponents of the side curtain air bag
system. This should only be done by
an authorized Kia dealer.
WARNING - Flying
objects
Do not place any objects (an
umbrella, bag, etc.) between the
front door and the front seat.
Such objects may become dan-
gerous projectiles if the side
airbag inflates.
OTF030037-1
OTF030038

Safety features of your vehicle
52
3
Why didn’t my air bag go off in
a collision? (Inflation and non-
inflation conditions of the air
bag)
There are many types of accidents
in which the air bag would not be
expected to provide additional
protection.
These include rear impacts, sec-
ond or third collisions in multiple
impact accidents, as well as low
speed impacts.
OTF034039N/OTF034040/OTF034041/OMG035053/OTF030048N
(1) SRS control module
(2) Front impact sensor (3) Side impact sensor
(4) Side impact sensor
Air bag collision sensors

353
Safety features of your vehicle
Problems may arise if the sensor
installation angles are changed due
to the deformation of the front
bumper, body or B pillar where side
collision sensors are installed. Have
the vehicle checked and repaired by
an authorized Kia dealer.
Installing aftermarket bumper guards
or replacing a bumper with non-gen-
uine parts may adversely affect your
vehicle’s collision and air bag deploy-
ment performance.Air bag inflation conditions
Front air bags
Front air bags are designed to inflate
in a frontal collision depending on
the intensity, speed or angles of
impact of the front collision.
WARNING - Air bag sensors
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.
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.
1JBA3513

Safety features of your vehicle
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3
❈ The actual air bags in the vehicle may differ
from the illustration.
Side air bags
Side air bags (side and/or 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
resulting from a side impact collision. Although the front air bags (driver’s
and front passenger’s air bags) are
designed to inflate in frontal colli-
sions, they also may inflate in other
types of collisions if the front impact
sensors detect a sufficient frontal
force in another type of impact. Side
and curtain air bags are designed to
inflate in certain side impact colli-
sions. They may inflate in other type
of collisions where a side force is
detected by the sensors.
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 prevent
unintended air bag deployment.
Air bag non-inflation conditions
In certain low-speed collisions the
air bags may not deploy. The air
bags are designed not to deploy in
such cases because they may not
provide benefits beyond the pro-
tection of the seat belts in such col-
lisions.
1JBA3516
OUN026090
1JBA3515

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Safety features of your vehicle
Air bags are not designed to inflatein rear collisions, because occu-
pants are moved backward by the
force of the impact. In this case,
inflated air bags would not be able
to provide any additional benefit. Front air bags may not inflate in
side impact collisions, because
occupants move to the direction of
the collision, and thus in side
impacts, front air bag deployment
would not provide additional occu-
pant protection. In a slant or angled collision, the
force of impact may direct the
occupants in a direction where the
air bags would not be able to pro-
vide any additional benefit, and
thus the sensors may not deploy
any air bags.
OED0361001JBA35211JBA3516

Safety features of your vehicle
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Just before impact, drivers often
brake heavily. Such heavy braking
lowers the front portion of the vehi-
cle causing it to “ride” under a vehi-
cle with a higher ground clearance.
Air bags may not inflate in this
"under-ride" situation because
deceleration forces that are detect-
ed by sensors may be significantly
replaced by such “under-ride” colli-
sions. Air bags may not inflate in rollover
accidents because the vehicle can
not detect rollover accident.
However, side and/or curtain air
bags may inflate when the vehicle
is rolled over following (or after)
side impact collision. 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.
1JBA35171JBA35221JBA3518

357
Safety features of your vehicle
SRS Care
The SRS is virtually maintenance-free
and there are no parts you can safely
service by yourself. If the SRS air bag
warning light does not illuminate, or
continuously remains on, have your
vehicle immediately inspected by an
authorized Kia dealer.
Any work on the SRS system, such
as removing, installing, repairing, or
any work on the steering wheel must
be performed by an authorized Kia
dealer. Improper handling of the SRS
system may result in serious person-
al injury.
For cleaning the air bag pad covers,
use only a soft, dry cloth or one
which has been moistened with plain
water. Solvents or cleaners could
adversely affect the air bag covers
and proper deployment of the sys-
tem.If components of the air bag system
must be discarded, or if the vehicle
must be scrapped, certain safety
precautions must be observed. An
authorized Kia dealer knows these
precautions and can give you the
necessary information. Failure to fol-
low these precautions and proce-
dures could increase the risk of per-
sonal injury.
Adding equipment to or modi-
fying your air bag-equipped
vehicle
If you modify your vehicle by chang-
ing your vehicle's frame, bumper sys-
tem, front end or side sheet metal or
ride height, this may affect the opera-
tion of your vehicle's air bag system.
WARNING - Tampering
with SRS
Do not tamper with or discon-
nect SRS wiring, or other compo-
nents of the SRS system. Doing
so could result in the accidental
inflation of the air bags or by ren-
dering the SRS inoperative.