Old airbags in shonky old rammel: still safe?

[jonny69]

I think about this fairly frequently. I'm basically driving a car with a bag of 15 year old explosives right in front of my face. Many of you in older shite than me with earlier airbags. Should we be worried about that? Do they have a 'use by' date? What do we do when it comes to 25, 30, 40 years old? Will they even trigger by that point?

I don't think I've seen this brought up on here, but I do tend to dip in and out of the forum a bit so might have missed it. Can't see anything obvious in the search.

[Stanky]

Having first-hand experience of driving a 15 year old skoda felicia (with airbag) into the back of a Vauxhall insignia at moderate speed on the m27 in 2011, the airbag failed to deploy. I think the general consensus is that they DO have a BBE date, but no-one replaces them and certainly nowhere wants a pile of out-of-date airbags lying about so they get left in situ.

I think I heard/read somewhere that the default failure mode is that they don't trigger, rather than decide to go off randomly while you're sat in a queue at McDonalds drive-thru one day, showering the postcode with cold chips and impacting chicken nuggets through your forehead.

[jonny69]

^ Are airbag units a standard fit box or specific to each car? I know they share connectors but that's about as far as I know.

I come from a generation where safety devices means actually having a seatbelt fitted to your car.

[Agila]

I think they were originally designed with a 10 year lifespan but proved reliable. The decision was effectively made to not have them all replaced at 10 years as it would write the car off.

I've read all that info somewhere and know one of mine had it as a 10 year service item. (Think it was a 94 accord)

[Fumbler]

3 minutes ago, jonny69 said:

^ Are airbag units a standard fit box or specific to each car? I know they share connectors but that's about as far as I know.

I come from a generation where safety devices means actually having a seatbelt fitted to your car.

Potentially, I believe. Although the pin-outs are the same, the devices themselves will vary depending on the airbag manufacturer. Audi still reckons that the airbags in their 1990s cars still work so they issued a recall because the airbags fitted were made wrong and so will instead send shrapnel into your face... nasty stuff in a crash. My car's handbook says to get the airbag checked every 10 years at an approved mechanic, so I suppose the general consensus is that the airbag will last as long as the car's designed life, however it'll probably last much longer if it was made well enough.

[maxxo]

In one of the books for the picasso it states they should be replaced after 15 years, in small writing too

it is something i do think about, i don't see why they wouldn't work

i have done a few lexia tests on the air bag system and it's passed them all so that gives me slight hope

I think if for example i had to frequently take loved ones places i would get them replaced regardless of cost

but in say 99% of cases they would perform the same as they were new

i also wonder about the seatbelt pertensioners and if they would work correctly when needed

Tbh it's more of a concern if the car has corrosion in the chassis and other areas which shouldn't crumple rather than airbags being a bit old

plus sitting correctly on the seat is the best thing you can do at all times

[Jim Bell]

And don't crash. 

[Asimo]

28 minutes ago, jonny69 said:

^ Are airbag units a standard fit box or specific to each car? I know they share connectors but that's about as far as I know.

I come from a generation where safety devices means actually having a seatbelt fitted to your car.

Airbags are very specific. The shape, inflation rate and so on are all very carefully matched to the car. The inflator propellant charges as well as the bag.

The recall that finished off the Takata company concerned the propellant: it went to crumbs from being solid therefore burning too fast and bursting it's container making lethal shrapnel.

[bunglebus]

VW stuff used to say replace every 10 years. Mine's 12 years overdue, really not something I lose any sleep over

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, maxxo said:

I think if for example i had to frequently take loved ones places i would get them replaced regardless of cost

Seriously though... new airbags even if you could obtain them would be absolutely prohibitive in cost, you’d be as well just buying a new car. 

[maxxo]

56 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Seriously though... new airbags even if you could obtain them would be absolutely prohibitive in cost, you’d be as well just buying a new car. 

It's never about the money with a car you love, i'd love to get it done but i just don't think it's worth doing when the current ones properly work perfectly

especially as it's usually just me and as long as the wheel airbag deploys when needed i'm happy

[Agila]

@maxxoit would be interesting how much Citroën would charge to change the lot, all airbags, seat belt tensioner, possibly any modules.

I think it would have to be certified work not  diy.

I don't think you would get much change from £5k.

When I saw it as 10 years on that Honda I bought at 6 years old it worried me. I soon found a solution to that problem on a country road and flipped it front to back 3.5 times and skidded it on it's roof after having it 6 months. I can vouch that 6.5 year old Honda airbags work spot on at least.

Young and foolish at 20 years old.

[maxxo]

I dare say i'm quite tempted to phone up and ask, i know full well it won't be cheap

if it was like £500 i'd do it, but no chance of that happening

I think the fact theres not much media attention on the subject, and an awful lot of pre 2010 cars still on the roads and getting in crashes does fill me with confidence

[djim]

My old Audi said replace after 10 years in the service manual, it was 18 years old at the time and had been dealer serviced when due but it wasn't done. 

Might be worth considering that if you do get them replaced on an older car the replacements may have been sitting on a shelf for a decade+ as well

[loserone]

4 hours ago, Asimo said:

The recall that finished off the Takata company concerned the propellant: it went to crumbs from being solid therefore burning too fast and bursting it's container making lethal shrapnel.

You got a source for this? I did a fair amount of research on this when I last had a car with a recall letter, and all I could find stated the aluminium casing degraded in heat and humidity so the explosive was no longer properly directed, and instead the casing became shrapnel.

[Agila]

5 minutes ago, loserone said:

You got a source for this? I did a fair amount of research on this when I last had a car with a recall letter, and all I could find stated the aluminium casing degraded in heat and humidity so the explosive was no longer properly directed, and instead the casing became shrapnel.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/108316/exclusive-explosive-scale-of-takata-airbag-scandal

[loserone]

Interesting! Same outcome, same conditions, different issue to what I'd read previously

[Out Run]

My mate rolled his car when he was younger and he got hit in the face by the undeployed airbag, as it was jettisoned from the steering wheel, due to him not bolting it back in. ?

[Austin-Rover]

Surely if random air bag deployment or failure was a problem on old cars, don't you think we'd all know about it by now? Keep on driving, and don't worry about it.

The oldest air bag in my fleet is 20 this year. Last year my mother wrote off a 25 year old Vauxhall Corsa, and I can tell you that both front seatbelt pre-tensioners worked as they should (no air bag fitted).

[SiC]

14 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

And don't crash. 

Or do and then we can find out if they still work (or not). 

[artdjones]

Once a model goes out of production I would imagine that the production line for its airbags would shut down very soon after ,once there was a reasonable stock of spares.So if you have new airbags fitted to a 15 year old car you will probably find that they were produced many years previously,which  makes a replacement a bit pointless.

[Split_Pin]

My 04 Rover 75 has curtain airbags fitted and there's no way they can ever be replaced!

IMO if you are driving a car over 10 years old, the airbag is the least of your worries. I'd be focusing on brake pipes, fuel lines and corrosion near seat belt mounting prescribed areas.

[drewd]

I've considered this occasionally too. With more modern cars having side impact air bags etc in the seats or body I'd expect it to be time consming and costly to replace them all.

I don't really hang on to cars long enough to justify spending four figure sums on them, so I try and stay on top of servicing and ensure brakes, tyres, suspension and steering components are all good and hope that unseen safety features like airbags etc work should I ever need them.

[Tamworthbay]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Once a model goes out of production I would imagine that the production line for its airbags would shut down very soon after ,once there was a reasonable stock of spares.So if you have new airbags fitted to a 15 year old car you will probably find that they were produced many years previously,which  makes a replacement a bit pointless.

Not the case, I had a recall on my 51 plate 3 series in 2018 for both driver and passenger bags. Got a voucher for a meal at the local pub as they didn’t have a courtesy car spare which was very nice, and a free valet.

[sierraman]

12 hours ago, maxxo said:

It's never about the money with a car you love, i'd love to get it done but i just don't think it's worth doing when the current ones properly work perfectly

especially as it's usually just me and as long as the wheel airbag deploys when needed i'm happy

I get you like the car but money does come in to it at some point. Where do you end with that thought? A complete £10,000 restoration on a 15 year old car to make it as new? Like @Split_Pin said what about the brake pipes, what about the parts of the monocoque you can’t see? 

[UltraWomble]

I thought design obsolescence with cars was about 10 years anyway - so its more likely that a failed fuel pump or ECU will render the car FUBAR before the air bags do.

I did get a recall on the Almera (54 plate ) in 2016 for an airbag issue ( something about sending shards of metal into your face) but I dont think I would be too surprised if the ones in the DisAstra failed to detonate in a crash given its now 19 years old.

[New POD]

Perhaps phone up your local manufacturer.  

I once didn't apply for a job here.  My cv has : responsible for clio air bag connector assembly line.

So I guess it was picked up as a keyword. 

Airbags International
Viking Way, Congleton CW12 1LJ
01260 294300
https://goo.gl/maps/5UfmTwCKETxXE61e6

[HMC]

As has been said, certainly in 90s and early 2000s stuff I’ve had had either something in the service book saying replacement or a sort of Expiry sticker in the door jamb on the airbag 

You’d really need to take a look at higher value stuff that stays in the dealer network For years or at a specialists to see what happens on a manufacturer Sanctioned by the book (and probably slightly ott in some areas) service schedule on stuff 10-15-20 years old.

Ive not ever heard even in those bubbles of wholesale replacement of SRS stuff, not even 90s Ferraris that are classiche certified.

 

[Out Run]

@HMC Charge ur fone m8y

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

IMO if you are driving a car over 10 years old, the airbag is the least of your worries. I'd be focusing on brake pipes, fuel lines and corrosion near seat belt mounting prescribed areas.

Maybe if you live in Scotland ?