This serious information for F150 or all Ford owners.

Several week ago I was involved in a serious accident. I had extensive damage to the front to my 2004 F150, lucky or unlucky the air bags did not deploy. After the vechicle was repaired the body shop owner took it to a Ford dealer and had diagostics performed to find out why. The diagonistc showed that the air bags were deployed. They replace two seat belt asy, the air bag sensor and air bag asy at the tune of $927.00

Fourtnaetly no one was hurt but if I had been going faster who knows what would have happened. Maybe someone other than me would be typing this post.

IF this alarms anyone please have your service dealer run a diagonistc test on your air bags.

This has been reported to Ford Motor Co.

Thanks, Drive Safley,
Derril

 

Thank you for the information. It doesn't suprise me though. More ford cost cutting at work.

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. I'm glad everyone is OK.

Please give us a few more details...

What speed were you going?

Angle of crash?

And did Ford give you a reason for non-deployment?

Did you report it to the NHTSA?

ford9c,

Failure to deploy does not mean Ford is doing it on the cheap. Failures can happen to any item.

 

Ford9c

Ford can not afford the litegation cost associated with a known airbag non-deployment senerio. Not to mention the recall cost. These vehicles and their RCM go through very extensive testing to insure proper operation before they get placed into saleable vehicles. The suppliers are also responsable to preform ongoing testing through production. Some feature are 100% inspected to insure they will operate properly.

Next is the goverment. They will get involved very quickly and determine the cause of the non deployment. There are extremely strict regulations around safety equiptment, airbags and seatbelts. Recalls are not voluntarily done by car companies, they are mandated by the government. Every recall carries a unique campaign number. Wildcard is right they are not being cheap, there is an issue.

It would be nice to know the whole story as mentioned above, speed angle etc. I have a very hard time believing 4 major components of the safety system were changed and you never had an idiot light going off on the dash. For that matter if the dealer did not change the RCM, the module that controls all of these components, they are completely stupid. If nothing fired there is a major issue, the probability of both airbags not going off during a crash due to faulty airbag components taht received a trigger signal is probably close to winning the lottery.

 

Just to let you know i think that these trucks are very safe. i was involved in a 50mph head on collision with a sedan, also going 50 mph. My airbag was deploid and i did have my seat belt on. I believe if i was in any other vehicle i would be dead, fortunatly i only messed up my knee and have since had surgury to repair it and i am on the road to recovery. My truck (2005 ex cab 4x4) was totalled, the front end was pushed back, the front wheel was under the front door, my passenger compartment however was in good condition ( the crumple zone worked), except for the floor which was up touching the bottom of the dash.


Im glad every one is alright in your accident. But i am ashuring everyone else that these are safe trucks.

 

Well said! These safety features are tested and tested again. A major defect recall like this would cost Ford many millions. The wrongful death suit could cost even more. Airbags (SRS) and seatbelts not something that anyone would do on the cheap. The beancounters won't let that happen, neither will the safety entities.

We're kinda getting off the subject. I'd like to hear some of the details.

 

bibcasa thanks for the info i will have mine checked next week when it is in for service it never hurts to be on the safe side thanks again

 

I was going approx. 20 mph. I broadsided a Nissian Altima. The Ford service gave no reason why the air bags failed. I have not reported it to NHTSA.

I'm not downing Ford, I like my F150, Im just trying to let people know what happened and hopefully they will have their bag system checked. I too think it was unbleivable the number of componets replaced but it is true.

 

It sounds as if whatever component failed, if one did, it would have made no difference if you had the system checked or not. You were at the border speed of deploy/no deploy.

If you had no Air Bag light prior to the accident, then the system thought all was normal. If the system thought all was normal and the Air Bag did not deploy, then the failure item is not within the computers diagnostic parameters.

I think most dealer are going to ask anyone that wants the Air Bag system checked if the Air Bag light is on or flashing. If the answer is no, then they will say the system is fine. Without any failure information to pass on to them, it's kinda a moot point.

If it was me, I would press the dealer for an answer. I would also file a report with the NHTSA.

 

air bags are not supposed to deploy in a 20 mph crash, the system is designed to monitor everything, including angle of accident, vehicle speed and also seat position, as well as if the seat belt was on, the seat belt prensioners will tighten the seat belts in even a minor crash, even if the air bags are not deployed, most likley, you had your seat belt on and in a 20 mph crash the air bag was not needed because the air bag coming at you at 200 mph would have done more harm than good!