Your Guide to Car Airbags
Learn how airbags work to protect us
It’s easy to get dazzled by the modern safety features that many modern cars now come with. From adaptive cruise control to blind spot monitoring, these functions are becoming more and more relied upon to keep us safe on our travels. However, there is a safety system that’s been present in our cars for years now, ready to deploy if the worst happens and the car suffers an impact.
These are, of course, your car’s airbags, and anyone who’s ever had the misfortune of being in a situation where they’ve activated will know how they operate. In this article, we’ll be covering what airbags are, how they work, where they’re located in your car, and what happens when an airbag goes off.
What are airbags and what are they for?
Secreted in various locations around your car, airbags inflate to provide a cushion in the event of an impact, getting between you and the hard surfaces within your car that could otherwise cause serious injury. They’re generally located within crumple zones, where the car bears the brunt of the impact.
How do airbags work?
Airbags rely on impact sensors to signal when they should deploy. These sensors are located around the car, telling the airbags to inflate if they sense impact. The airbags then inflate at speeds of up to a whopping 160 mph - that’s around 25 milliseconds!
Airbags immediately deflate, doing their job and then standing down so that occupants can exit the car, or be attended to by emergency services.
Where are your car’s airbags?
You may commonly associate airbags with the front dashboard of your car, but they are in fact located in several places around your vehicle. Almost all vehicles will have airbags in the following places:
|
Airbag type |
Location |
|
Front |
These are the ones located within the steering wheel, and in the dashboard in front of the passenger seat |
|
Side |
These are located in the doors of the car and will deploy if there’s a side-on or lateral collision |
|
Knee |
These airbags are under the steering column on the driver’s side, and around knee height on the lower part of the dashboard in front of the passengers |
|
Centre |
These deploy to prevent head contact between the driver and the passenger, inflating between the front two seats in the event of a lateral collision |
|
Curtain |
These come down from the roof, or the roof liner above the doors, aiming to protect the heads of the occupants of the car. |
Some cars will have seatbelt airbags, designed to protect the occupant's torso in the event of an accident.
How long do airbags last?
Airbags should last the lifetime of the vehicle, providing they’re never deployed, and don’t need servicing like other parts of your car do.
If there’s something wrong with your airbag, a light will illuminate on the dashboard to let you know, in which case you should seek out a repair centre as soon as possible, as it may mean that your airbags won’t deploy properly if there’s an impact.
If your airbags deploy, you’ll need to get new ones fitted, as they are single-use safety items, and cannot be ‘reused’, so to speak. You should not drive your car if the airbag has deployed, though it’s likely that if they have, the car will need repairs anyway at the least, so the airbags can be replaced by the trusted technician attending to the car.
Talk to us about safety features on your next car
From airbags to autonomous emergency braking systems, we’re always happy to put your mind at rest about cars you’re interested in amongst our Carlingo display. Browse all the vehicles available, and chat with our knowledgeable team at our Harrogate dealership.