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Vehicle Air Bags

 

 

Recently National Public Radio ran a story about air bag fraud.

 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95844517

Air bag fraud is when you buy a vehicle believing that the air bag system is functional, but an unscrupulous person has covered up air bag problems in order to sell the vehicle without the expense of a proper repair.

Here are a few things I know about air bag systems used in cars and trucks.

• They are also known as Passive Restraints because they do not require the vehicle operator to take any action for them to work. Another passive restraint is the automatic shoulder belt which was used as a transition from seat belt only systems to air bags. Non-passive or active restraints are things like seat or shoulder belts that you have to buckle yourself.
• Air bag systems are primarily electronic devices that employ an electronic module to work. This module not only determines when to deploy the air bags in a crash, but constantly monitors the system for faults.
• If a fault is detected, the system is shut down and a warning light is turned on to tell the driver that there is a problem.
• Any time the warning light stays on or flashes after prove-out, the air bags will not work.
• The warning light will be turned on, briefly, (called prove-out), each time the ignition key is turned from off to on.

To prevent yourself from being caught in a air bag fraud scheme, or just in the honest mistake of an individual seller who is unaware of the vehicle problems, do these things:

1. When looking at a car you want to buy, make sure the air bag warning light proves out
2. After prove-out, watch to see if the warning light comes back on, either steady or flashing.
3. Read the car owner’s manual to understand the particular system.
4. Inspect all the air bag components you can find. These include the driver’s air bag located in the steering wheel, the passenger air bag located in the dashboard in front of the passenger, and, if equipped, the side air bags which may be located in the seat back of the front seat or in the body around the doors. Look for covers that are not attached well, are not the right color or appear tampered with in any way.
5. If the warning light does not behave properly, take the car to a dealer to be inspected, BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE DEAL!

If you have any other questions, please ask a question in the comment link at the bottom of this page.

Good luck, Walt

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2008 at 8:29 am and is filed under General tips and tricks, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.