Argh

GT3 · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:14

Decided to go for a spirited drive last night, really giving it some round some back roads and my airbag randomly goes off :confused:

Pulled up, nothings wrong with the car otherwise but the car is full of white powder and I have a lovelly full thickness burn on my arm

Anyway the point of this thread is, can I get a replacement airbag unit and just replace the old one? How can I get rid of the airbag deployed warning light off the dash?

How do airbag systems work? Is it likely to happen again?

Cheers

-westy- · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:16

I think most of them work off a tilt switch, so it could be faulty..

Enfield · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:19

Did it hurt?

Pretty strange for it to randomly go off. Everything happens for a reason though...

Amps · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:21

what car did this happen in ?

is it a french car ?

GT3 · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:26

Hurt a lot at the time, and constant burning sensation 24 hours later :/

Yeah french car

Saxo.

TaKeN · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:29

Did you jump over a humpback bridge or something ?

Poppy · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:33

Is it in warranty? From what i hear airbag replacement usually very expensive.

karoshi · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:38

GT3 said:
How can I get rid of the airbag deployed warning light off the dash?

are you looking for a more technical answer than "take the bulb out of the dashboard.."?

unless the car is under manufacturer warranty or your insurance will cover it, replacing the airbag will cost you an awful lot compared to a nice non-airbag steering wheel and two minutes with a pair of pliers..

if you're getting the wheel replaced with another airbag wheel, whoever will do that for you will reset the ecu to remove the fault code.. at least either a dealer garage or a reputable 3rd party garage would.. you're not planning to re-fit it yourself are you?

Gaygle · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:38

The white powder should just be something like talcum powder iirc. Also, yeah i seem to remember airbag replacements can be ridiculusly expensive. I would call Citroen HQs and ask wtf u can do about it as that is stupidly dangerous.

ci_newman · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:41

You could try getting Citroen to replace it for you? Tis a bit dangerous for the airbag to be going off. What would've happened had you been going around a tight corner at speed and it went off? Could've been very nasty! If you write a nice long letter I'm sure you can get something out of them!

Firestar_3x · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:42

Once the airbag has gone off not only do you need to replace the bag but the firing mechanism and the wires, did the pre tensioners go off as well?

BTW my saxo airbag felt nice and soft, but the powerder started to give me a rash, girly gave me a sponge bath

Firestar_3x · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:43

ci_newman said:
You could try getting Citroen to replace it for you? Tis a bit dangerous for the airbag to be going off. What would've happened had you been going around a tight corner at speed and it went off? Could've been very nasty! If you write a nice long letter I'm sure you can get something out of them!

They will prolly pull the good old, car hasn't got a full citroen service history etc.

GT3 · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:43

It's an X reg, speaking to Citroen is out the question.

I've seen plenty of crashed saxos where the airbag hasn't gone off and scrappy will charge me about £15 for the unit which is held in with 2 torx screws. I don't want a cheap looking aftermarket wheel either.

edit: pre-tensioners didn't go off.

Enfield · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:43

Gaygle said:
The white powder should just be something like talcum powder iirc. Also, yeah i seem to remember airbag replacements can be ridiculusly expensive. I would call Citroen HQs and ask wtf u can do about it as that is stupidly dangerous.

Talcum powder are you joking?

What do you think makes the bag inflate?

Amps · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:44

My uncle had this happen twice in his 2 year old peugeot 307.

French electrics for the lose.

GT3 · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:45

I think it is talcum powder to lubricate the bag as it fires out.

Firestar_3x · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:45

Enfield said:
Talcum powder are you joking?

What do you think makes the bag inflate?

The airbag when folded has talcum powder put on the bag to make the deployment smooth.

The thing that burns is the chemicals from the fast burning pellets that produce the inflating gas.

burns · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:48

If you do replace it yourself be very, very careful. It goes without saying you don't want it deploying whilst your trying to put it in.

Gaygle · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:54

Enfield said:
Talcum powder are you joking?

What do you think makes the bag inflate?

I would read up first next time

Keeps its lubricated and pliable while in storage.

burns said:
If you do replace it yourself be very, very careful. It goes without saying you don't want it deploying whilst your trying to put it in.

Yeah, it can be exceptionally dangerous. Drug smugglers have been known to hide drugs in the airbag systems...and it sometimes goes wrong for them...

GT3 said:
It's an X reg, speaking to Citroen is out the question.

edit: pre-tensioners didn't go off.

Even if it is out of the warranty, can't you still go to citroen and say its a serious design flaw? Like if your accelerator got stuck (like that guy claimed in the BMW), surely even if it was out of the warranty, it is an extremely dangerous thing to happen and is a design flaw? If the pretensioners didn't go off then it means the crash sensor wasn't triggered and the airbag is just tat tbh

Maz · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:58

Remove battery when replacing.