Side Curtain airbag deployed?
 

We had a pretty heavy snow fall the other day and while out driving I found a pothole. No major damage was done to the car just a bent tie rod end. The odd thing is that the passenger side curtain airbag deployed. I was traveling at low speeds about 50 mph and other than the bent tie rod nothing else is wrong with the car. Why would the airbag deploy? Should I take it to the dealership and have them look at it? I'm now afraid to have my kids ride in the car with me if the airbags will deploy for randomly small things like a pothole.

50MPH is not slow... and not to a pothole either.

-alex

If you bent a tie rod over a pothole at 50mph that was no small impact. Airbag didnt randomly deployed, it deployed to prevent whoever might've been sitting there to smash their head agaisnt the window. (pothole hit only 1 side of the car, so heavy lateral impact was probably what the car's systems received as info).

This^
The sensors are not just a mechanical switch but a complex mechanism that sends signals to the whole air bag system. In your case the sensor detected an impact to the side of the car, sent a signal to the ECU which said it was moving at 50MPH and triggered the air bags. No impact or moving slower it would not have gone off so not really so random.
The side bags do not create a hazard for children anyway (unless they are leaning their head against the window I guess).

Yes 50 is not really that slow but for highway driving it is. The pothole was not that big and the car continued to drive perfectly fine afterwards. I took it to the shop to have it looked at and that's when they found the tie rod bent. Given I just bought this car used a month ago it could have been bent already as the alignment was still good. I know how airbag systems work I've just never seen them go off from hitting a pothole before. It wasn't even that jarring of a hit.

If something bent, and the airbag deployed-it was a substantial hit.

If the airbag just went off, thats one thing...but bent stuff? Hard hit

The right combination of things can cause it to go off. It's possible that "ideally" it wouldn't have gone off, but the jolt could have been just right that all of the accelerometers and other sensors in the vehicle thought that the vehicle was experiencing a side impact.

Better that they go off to be safe, than they don't go off when you need them to.

Yes, take it in to have them checked, if it would make you feel better.

I reckon that having an airbag go off accidently and harming my grandkids is the least of my worries concerning them.

Y, back in the day .......... oh, never mind ...... :bonk:



humfrz

It's also important to note that our airbags are dual stage, so based on the amount of force an impact sensor detects it chooses the inflators go off in two or more stagesto tailor the amount of pressure to the impact. A 50 mph impact near the front wheel would totally make the ecu set it off to save a passenger.

It doesn't matter if it's highway driving or not, it's about inertia and kinetic energy and the object within a vehicle. At 50 mph you hit a pothole close to one of the side impact sensors to the sensor and programming of the collision systems it thinks it's a worst case scenario so it deploys to save the passenger, most likely if it hadn't gone off, the passenger would've hit there head somewhere. Also the amount of force needed to bend the tie rod is not minor.

Let me rephrase:

For purposes of airbag deployment, 50MPH is not slow at all. I don't care if you are going 50 in a residential or 50 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, 50MPH is enough momentum to cause the airbags to deploy if enough force is (unexpectedly) introduced to the sensors.

-alex

Back in the day we just banged our heads on the windows. I did this in my stang, hole wasn't big I was going nowhere near 50. When I turned the wheel on the bad rod I could feel the car pull up in that side. See if insurance will fix it

Lets change the story a little. What if the DRIVER side airbag deployed at 50mph on a busy interstate. A little more serious? No?