2001 Civic rear-ended by large van; driver airbag did not deploy. Is it defective? More than 5k damage.?

bestonnet_00

No it isn't. The front airbag is not going to protect you in a real end collision so there is no point in having it deploy (it would just increase your repair bill even further without making you more likely to live or less likely to be injured).

If you had rear ended the van it probably would have deployed.

john d

air bags have sensors at the four corners of the vehicle ,on most chq electrical connections ,your better off without the bag working ,wear your seatbelt the bag can fracture your chest ,if it deploys and your not using the belt !

Scott H

Airbags don't deploy if you're rear-ended. They are designed for head-on collisions.

achaminadefriend

Accordingly what I've been told, the airbags should only inflate during a head on collision during which the primary impact occurs at the front of the vehicle.

Think about it, a vehicle rear-ended will receive a force that propels the vehicle forward but the driver backwards into the seat. No need for an airbag because the driver's seat will catch the driver.

For a frontal head on collision, a colliding car will cause the other vehicle to receive a force in a direction towards the rear of the vehicle, as a result the driver, who still has a force towards the front of the car, needs something besides the steering wheel to break the inertia, thus, an airbag deployment.

In addition, I think that you need a 10-15+ mph head on collision to deploy the airbags.

Tash

I think the air bag sensors are in the front of the car...I know a car that hit a power pole wire, and it missed the sensors in the front of the car and the air bag did not deploy!

charlottemc1

No your airbag is not defected it only goes off if you were to get hit from the front of your vehicle, i was in a similar accident, but by a drunk driver in Philly and he hit from behind at the rate of 35 miles an hour blew the back windshield out and i barely hit the car in front of me with my foot still on the brake, but my air bag did not go off, so i asked the tow truck man why and he said only when you get hit from the front will the air back deploy or from an angle on the side of your car if it was to get hit will it deploy.

Frankie Coletta

You got hit from behind. No the air bag is not defective. You need to hit the back of the van while driving forward to set the air bag off.
And 5k damage has anything to do with what?

There is nothing you can do really. My mom had the same problem with a 2000 honda accord. Honda has some problems i guess where the air bags dont go off for no reason at all. I looked up my mom's car on i think it was the us highway department vehicle safety, or some agency like that, and found that 16 other people with the same make, model, and year had the same problem with the air bags not deploying.
All you can do is report it to the us highway safety department, report it also to the place you bought the car at (or honda themselves) and report it to your insurance company.
If the honda and the us highway dept of safety has enough complaints they may do a recall on that car.

alfieboy

more than 5k? if you do the work your self, no!
airbag defective? yes! thats a good thing. my plastic baby dolls head got severed from its body by an airbag. consider your self luck!

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