Hello:
I am new to this. I have a 1994 Ford E150 Conversion van. I was in what I would call a pretty serious accident on 5/10/2004. I was hit in the drivers front. It damaged the drivers fender, the edge of the drivers door, the headlight (and plug for the headlight) and turn signal, the hood, grill, and also the front bumper. I was wondering if anyone could tell me where the sensors are for the airbag? I believe my airbag should have went off but it did not. I smashed my face on the steering column and caused some severe damage to both my face and steering column and the airbag still did NOT deploy. Someone please help. I have searched the web and can't find ANY information as to the location of the sensors. THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Tuckerforlife

 

One is in the dash, one is behind the grill, and one is on the frame under and just behind the heater box. The reason your air bag did not deploy is because there was not enough info from ALL the sensors, so the control module felt you could be injured worse if the bad deployed. Also how fast were you going, and how fast was the other driver going?

Buy a haynes manual, it's all listed in there....

 

Hey thanks for the info. I was going about 5 mph. I am not sure how fast the other driver was going. After impact he continued to drive forward while I was peeling my face off the steering wheel and trying to make sure my daughter was OK. He continued on for another block before he turned the corner and stopped. Also wanted to add that I hit the steering column so bad that it knocked it loose and that is also shoved it forward into the dash and broke some of the dash. Just an FYI. Thanks again.
___________________________
1994 E150, 302, auto
many many many other Fords in this family too

 

The speed plays a big part in the air bag deployment... At 5 mph the speedo was barely reading so the air bag conrol module may have thought you were not moving.....

 

Just out of curiosity, how would one know if there was even a bag in there or not if the vehicle was bought used.

 

If there wasn't a bag first the cover would be stretched, adn the air bag light would be flashing or solid.

 

Yep, all the sensors have to sense a collision at the same time, and the speed has to be sufficient to detect a certain amount of rapid decelleration to prevent deployment when not necessary. Early systems like yours were not as complex as they are today. Each year they make changes to improve on the safety and performance characteristics of supplemental restraint systems. It would appear that maybe you werent wearing a seatbelt, in which case your airbag system is of no help anyway, in fact may have caused greater injury. That bag would have been flying at your face at 60MPH.

This is why it is called SUPPLEMENTAL restraint system, because it supplements the seatbelt system which is an ACTIVE restraint system.

 

I was wearing my seatbelt. As was my daughter. I am not sure if a airbag would of helped me or hurt me more. I had 3 teeth go through my lip/chin area. I had a fractured jaw. It ripped the inside of mouth away from my gum line. I had 50+ stitches in my mouth and outside my mouth. I lost a total of 5 teeth. And to top it off we had purchased the van from a Ford dealership 2 months prior to the accident and only put 2918 miles on it before it got wrecked. I have really good attorney and a lawsuit filed against the other persons insurance company. My insurance company might also be named in the lawsuit because I was HIGHLY under insured. They had me as a cargo van and I drove a conversion van. Thanks all for you help

 

Truckerforlife, they had you insured correctly, they can't insure it like a car, because it's titled as a cargo van, run the vin on carfax it should come back "incomplete chassis" as it's an RV prepped vehicle, it is a cargo van that has had seats retrofitted and window holes cut into it....

 

Nice to know that these steering columns do deflect instead of spearing you like vintage cars with non collapsing steering columns!

 

I've never been in an accident like this one, but I'm a little surprised that a properly functioning seatbelt wouldn't stop the driver from hitting the steering column. Is this normal? Could I expect the same from my 95 E150? If so, that might be another reason to upgrade to a newer model.

I've got a "Cargo" van that was converted into a quasi custom. All it really got was two low bench seats that fold into a bed. I'm really uncomfortable with the kids sitting back there as if offers absolutely no neck protection during an accident. Small kids are okay as they have there own highback boosters which seem to do the trick.

Thoughts?

Jim

 

Check your airbag light on the dash. If eerything is working normally, it should come on steady for a few seconds when you first turn the key on, then it should turn off.

If it doesn't come on at all, then maybe someone removed the bulb to hide the fact that the airbag system was not working.

If the light does show that it is working, then I suspect as was mentioned above, that your slow speed kept it from deploying.

 

At 5mph the impact was proably so minor that while giving one a good jar it would not even register on the sensors. I have hit deer at 65mph and not set of the bag.

 

Based on the amount of damage to the van, and to himself, I don't think "Tuckerforlife" would call the impact "minor".

Obviously, the other car was coming pretty fast and nailed him pretty good. I'm sure all the impact sensors registered more than enough to deploy the bag, If the system is working correctly, then it was probably becasue of HIS slow speed. Best bet would be to check in the haynes to see what are the conditions that will fire the bag (Especially as related to speed).

 

"The air bag is designed to deploy in frontal and front-angled collisions more severe than hitting a parked vehicle of similar size and weight head-on at about 28 mph (45 km/hr). Because the system senses the crash severity rather than vehicle speed, some frontal collisions at speeds above 28 mph (45 km/hr) will not inflate the air bag."
-1994 Ford Econoline Owner Guide page #43, the above is a direct excerpt including the bolding on the word "some".

There's some other information in the manual about how the air bag works and the sensor requirements for deployment. But anyway, it looks like you have to be going pretty fast for them to justify detonating the bag. I also noted the "similar size and weight" line.