Airbag system
How the Advanced Airbag System
components work together
The front Advanced Airbag System and the side
airbags supplement the protection offered by the
front three-point safety belts to help reduce the
risk of injury in a wide range of accident and crash
situations. Be sure to read the important infor-
mation about safety and heed the WARNINGS in
this chapter.
Deployment of the Advanced Airbag System and
the activation of the safety belt pretensioners de-
pend on the deceleration measured by the crash
sensors and registered by the electronic control
unit. Crash severity depends on speed and decel-
eration as well as the mass and stiffness of the
vehicle or object involved in the crash.
On the passenger side, regardless of safety belt
use,
the front passenger frontal airbag will be
turned off if the electrical capacitance measured
by the capacitive passenger detection system on
the front passenger seat is less than the amount
programmed in the electronic control unit. The
front passenger frontal airbag will also be turned
off if the capacitance measured by the system for
the front passenger seat equals that of an infant
of about one year of age in one of the child seats
that was used to certify the Advanced Airbag Sys-
tem under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
208. The PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF 3%; light
comes on and stays on to tell you when the front
Advanced Airbag System on the passenger side
has been turned off > page 199.
ZX WARNING
To reduce the risk of injury when an airbag in-
flates, always wear safety belts properly.
— If you are unrestrained, leaning forward, sit-
ting sideways or out of position in any way,
your risk of injury is much higher.
— You will also receive serious injuries and
could even be killed if you are up against the
airbag or too close to it when it inflates -
even with an Advanced Airbag > page 187.
196
More important things to know about front
airbags
5 s s
d g a
Fig. 159 Inflated front airbags
Safety belts are important to help keep front seat
occupants in the proper seated position so that
airbags can unfold properly and provide supple-
mental protection in a frontal collision.
The front airbags are designed to provide addi-
tional protection for the chest and face of the
driver and the front seat passenger when:
— safety belts are worn properly,
— the seats have been positioned so that the oc-
cupant is properly seated as far as possible
from the airbag.
Because airbags inflate in the blink of an eye with
great force, things you have on your lap or have
placed on the seat could become dangerous pro-
jectiles, and be pushed into you if the airbag in-
flates.
When an airbag deploys, fine dust is released.
This is normal and is not caused by a fire in the
vehicle. This dust is made up mostly of a powder
used to lubricate the airbags as they deploy. It
could irritate skin.
It is important to remember that while the sup-
plemental airbag system is designed to reduce
the likelihood of serious injuries, other injuries,
for example swelling, bruising and minor abra-
sions, can also happen when airbags inflate. Air-
bags do not protect the arms or the lower parts
of the body. Front airbags supplement the three
point safety belts only in some frontal collisions
in which the vehicle deceleration is high enough
to deploy the airbags.
