Monday 5/29/06..I was driving on the interstate and heard noises I thought were coming from the blower motor , A/C was running.
My driver airbag deployed for NO REASON.. Wow what an experience, pretty freaky and the bag bruised up the inside of my left arm pretty bad. The bag deploying was LOUD.
Yes , I pulled onto the shoulder of the interstate , turned off the car and had to sit to catch my bearings.
I was wearing my seat belt and now the belt tensioners are frozen on both sides.
I called MB USA and filed a complaint said they get back w/ me , also filed a complaint w/ the NHTSA.
When I called a local MB dealer about replacement ..the service mgr stated .."nothing they can do"... wait to hear from MB USA
My main safety concern are the seat belts... I'm driving around w/ no protection now. I'll keep you guys posted with updates.


**Here's an update*** 5/31/06...MB USA and the Benz dealer here locally called me today and I bought my Benz in to get checked out. I bought the car 2 yrs ago, so don't know if the orginial owner replaced the airbag.
They also gave me a rental car free of charge. So glad to see they were quick to act on this serious matter even w/ my 19 yr old Benz.

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1993 Lexus SC300
1987 Mercedes 300E ..totaled out..
1991 Saab 900Convertible ..gave away..

Was your SRS light flashing on or off at anytime in the past years by any chance? Cause now you have me worried! (My SRS light is not ever on except at start up...)

I dont wanna drive! :-(

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2006 BMW M5 "Heidi" @ 109,000 miles
2005 MBZ C55 AMG "Lorelai" @ 165,000 miles
1991 MBZ 300E "Benzachino II" @ 165,000 miles
1990 MBZ 500SL "Shoshanna" @ 118,000 miles

(On the hunt for a good used M103 engine as of 6/10/23, PM me if you have one to sell!)

Yes, I have to admit , the SRS was flashing , but not all the time..
I've read other posts where as the bag should be OK anywhere from 10 to 20 yrs..
I will post update tomorrow when the dealer calls me.

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1993 Lexus SC300
1987 Mercedes 300E ..totaled out..
1991 Saab 900Convertible ..gave away..

Wow dude, you could have lost control of your car on the highway. Glad you're ok. I've heard alot about airbags and the thought of one going off in my face makes me **** my pants. They've got explosives in them, so it must feel like a gun going off in your face.

It's my understanding that the reason for replacing the airbags when they reach a certain age is because they may FAIL to deploy when needed.

At my dealership I get a handful of "accidental" air bag deployments every year. I've ALWAYS found underbody damage to be the cause. In each case the owner had no idea they hit anything, most likely because the airbag deploys just milliseconds after striking an object. I'm not saying it can't happen, but I've NEVER seen an MB airbag deploy for no reason. I'm guessing your dealer has had similar experience. They'll give the car a good going-over, and it won't surprise me if they find the cause relatively quickly. Let us know what they do.

A broken from flex disc can cause the bag to deploy. When it suffers a catastrphic failure the driveshaft will hit the tunnel and the crash sensor is mounted to the top of the tunnel (up behind and under the stereo). Have also heard that a disintegrating flex disc can shed pieces with enough force to activate the crash sensor when chunkc hit the tunnel just right.

Since the bag and ETR's deployed I am fairly certain your sensor took some sort of hit.

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Mike Tangas
'73 280SEL 4.5 (9/72)- RIP
Only 8,173 units built from 5/71 thru 11/72

'02 CLK320 Cabriolet - wifey's mid-life crisis

2012 VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI...at least its a diesel

Non illegitemae carborundum.

I would have to agree with you, I have yet to see an unintended/false deployment of the SRS system in an MB car without a reasonable explanation. With 20+ years of exposure to the product I would tend to think the reason for the unexplained deployment might be the result of:

• A sudden impact to the transmission tunnel
• An inappropriate electrical repair/installation

A severely worn flex disc, more often than not, can be the most common cause for the SRS system to suddenly "Deploy." It would stand to reason that a driver would be in a state of shock and not realize that something had struck the underside of the vehicle. More so if the stereos volume was in an elevated state at the time of the impact.

Just my .02

I will have to check my flex discs... Yesterday my wife was driving and we heard a loud pop and a burst of air hit her in the chest. We pulled over and looked, but found nothing. My wife asked me to drive as she was shaken up. When she tried to put her seatbelt on it was completely locked up. We decided to carry on to our destination and then take a closer look. Five minutes later as we were driving down the road the airbag went off without any reason whatsoever. It exploded in my face. We were able to park safely and noone was seriously injured. I do have a very bruised arm and the windshield is completely broken. The interior of the car had air blown all through it and did some damage (nothing that can't be fixed). It definitely felt like a freak accident. I am glad that this forum is here. At least now I can look at the car and figure out if that was the cause. Thanks for the info!

So do the seat belts lock permanatly after an airbag deployment??

The seat belt retractors have a pyro device or a spring device (not sure which) which trips and pulls the belts tight in an airbag deployment situation, but it is a "once only" device, so once it fires, after that the belts can not be retracted any more and the belts are slack.

Rgds,
Chris W.
Had the passenger bag only go off in a mild front end collision on my '95 W124, belts were slack afterwards and retractors need to be replaced.

thats very interesting,you must have hit something to trigger the bag,at least you knew it worked,i was in a collision in my 86 300e,major front end collision,and the air bag did not deploy,it may have been so old that the sensor stopped working,or the powder packed inside for inflation,was so old the trigger electrodes must have been defective,ussually if a car is in a collision,the sensors need to be replace after the air bag has ben triggered,so make sure the sensor is looked at and replaced if nessecary.or it wont deploy when really needed.the sensor is only trigger after a certain mile per hour,and it senses slow down g's.if the g's are not high enough it will not deploy.generally after replacing a deployed bag,you also havew to replace the slow down g sensor.