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Originally Posted by JCE
Aside from liability, the older bag compmnents degrade with time. [url]
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Basically, that is the whole issue about airbag ageing. The chemical components which trigger and inflate the bag on an accident degrade through time.
First, it was thought that 10 years was the limit for those chemicals. As originally equipped W126s and W124s aged, it was proven that the limit could be raised to 15 years without trouble.
As with any industry "expiration date", I would assume those 15 years could be easily and safely extended maybe to 17 or 18 years. After that, you are simply playing the luck factor.
Buying an used airbag (similar in age to the one fitted to your W124) from E-bay should be useless and a waste of time and money (as the chemicals would be degraded similarly).
The only safe bet would be obtaining a recently manufactured airbag with fresh components.