air bag deployment

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Oct 26, 2004 | 03:44 PM

pistol pete

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air bag deployment

I have (had?) a 2002 F-150 and was involed in a accident Thursday. It was a front to side impact with my vehicle retained all the front damage. Most of the damage was on the right front side of the vehicle. The police report stated that my speed at impact was 50 mph. my air bags did not go off, and was wondering what it takes for them to deploy. Where are the sensors located at? I am really concerned as to why they didn't go off. My Attorney doesn't seem to think it is that big of a deal. What do you guys think?

Oct 26, 2004 | 04:02 PM

screwy

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Joined: Aug 2002

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From: Over Yonder, MN

I wouldn’t be to worried. The airbags in f-150's only deploy when a predetermined rate of frontal deceleration has been met. You may have been going 50mph, but you may have not experienced the G forces necessary to deploy them. Also, the fact that the collision happened at an angle and not head on also contributes to this.

Do you know if your truck had pretensioners?

Last edited by screwy; Oct 26, 2004 at 04:19 PM.

Oct 26, 2004 | 04:27 PM

pistol pete

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I have no idea. I was doing 70 then left about 100 feet of skid marks before impact.

Oct 26, 2004 | 04:36 PM

SirHailstone

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Joined: Apr 2004

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From: Indianapolis, IN

They are usually embedded in the bumper structure. It takes a pretty good whallop on the bumper to set off the airbags.

Side or corner impact won't set them off. On my old 1994 Taurus I hit a deer and didn't set them off. The deer's legs completely missed the bumper and hit the front headlights, hood, and fenders. Came awful damn close to the windshield and being in my lap!

How would I know if I had pretensioners on my new 04 Heritage?

Oct 26, 2004 | 08:18 PM

grafekie

Fleet Mechanic

Joined: Oct 2004

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From: Simpsonville, KY

My brother almost totalled our minivan head on with a tree (at 10 mph, according to him lol) and the mechanic pulled out 3 crushed airbag sensors. Any one of them should have set them off. He didn't make a big deal out of it at all, said it happens all the time, that's why there are so many of them. I've never had the pleasure of testing the ones in my truck, and hope I never do! I'm glad you are ok... but I would focus on sueing the cause of the accident, not Ford. Lawyers are far too sue happy in my mind.

Oct 27, 2004 | 09:58 AM

screwy

Cargo Master

Joined: Aug 2002

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From: Over Yonder, MN

Ok, the pretensioner is part of the buckle assembly, I wish I had a picture for ya, but instead of the buckle portion of the belt (part with button on it) being bolted directly to the floor it goes through a pretensioner. The pretension should be easy to identify, it looks awfully complicated to be sitting between a seat and has a long black cylinder. During a collision the pretensioners fires pulling the buckle down and strapping you to your seat. These trigger a lot easier then airbags and are sometimes unnoticed in a collision, one of are company’s drivers was T-boned and never felt the things go off.