I can't help but wonder how affective (effective?) the air bags in our old steering wheels will be if ever they are 'called upon' for deployment.

Looking to hear what others think about this or their own experience with them.

Dale

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Dale

Go to the JY with a small battery, pop some old airbags and see what happens. I've never seen one misfire or do anything it wasn't supposed to do.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Well, now there's a reply I wasn't expecting.


Please...TELL me what happens when this is carried out. I personally have no interest in doing this experiment you recommend - first of all, I wouldn't know exactly what to do with the "small battery" you refer to! You have my curiosity piqued


Dale

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Dale

Splice into the airbag wiring harness. Anything over 3v is enough to pop the airbag.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Just wondering if anyone else *thinks* about it. Obviously I do - periodically.

Dale

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Dale

I do. There is a sticker in the the drivers side door that has a date when you’re supposed to install a new one. I’m more worried about the psg side airbag, I’m pretty sure it will destroy the entire left side of the dash.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Two people I know have gotten into pretty good front enders in '80s-90s Benzes and the airbag didn't go off.

There's also this doc:

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Watch him go!!! link

#dontdealwithkahlil

I plan on replacing the whole car next summer. That should take care of the airbag, as well. The inflator contains sodium azide, which is solid rocket fuel. As long as it hasn't absorbed moisture it should be stable for the duration. It's not only explosive, it's highly toxic, so don't get to fooling around with it.

I believe it’s $1200 at the dealer. Now the question is, how do insurance companies respond if they find out the airbag that was supposed to make an accident less painful didn’t do its job because of old age?

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I guess it’s a question of whether you want it to deploy.

In my ‘93 SD I rear ended another car. I was braking heavily so my bumper dipped under the other bumper. The grill took the hit. Driver airbag didn’t deploy. Seatbelt pyro tensioner kept me from the steering wheel. Passenger airbag deployed tearing the dash and shattering the windshield, by design. Passenger seat was unoccupied.

I could have repaired the grill and radiator damage but I walked away from the cabin damage.

A dud passenger airbag would have served me better, but only in retrospect.

FWIW the airbag was right at 15 years installed.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon
02 C320 wagon

There was a forum post about 2-3 years ago from a guy in New Jersey (I think) who got into a crash in his pre-facelift W124 and reported that the original airbags worked as designed. I tried searching for the post but I couldn't find it even though I've run across it a couple of times.

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1974 Porsche 914 | 1980 Porsche 911SC
2002 Porsche 911 | 2002 Mitsubishi Montero | 2011 VW Golf

And I seem to recall that the 15-year life was looked at later and deemed to be irrelevant. That is, the airbags were still fine after 15 years.

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Prost!

I have a sticker on the driver door to replace the airbag in 1998 - after only 10 years. I have no idea if this was replaced, but I doubt it very much.

Last year I opened the First Aid kit from the back window. It has never been opened before and I took one of the band-aids. It was in better shape than stuff you can buy new.

Based on that, I will take my chances on the air bag!

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2012 Mercedes E350
1988 Mercedes 300SEL
1996 Nissan Pickup
2003 BMW K1200GT

I have one on both my cars. I'm like you, I doubt they've ever been replaced. Still I have concern that they may not deploy or worse, but we currently have the Takata air bag fiasco that's going on right now on much much newer cars and trucks!

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Dale

Not only does the ancient airbag need to function in said crash, but the impact sensor does too....at this point probably questionable. My 420 has dual airbags up front and the tag on the pillar says replace by 2004.....

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
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'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)