Airbags Didn't Deploy
 

Yesterday a woman hit me head on. I was nearly stopped but the other car was traveling at least 20 mph. My bumper was bent pretty well. The other driver was exiting a parking lot after being caught shoplifting and turned the wrong way on the one-way I was on. I'm okay. Truck not so well but hey, it's getting fixed.

At least one of the air bag modules was activated. I could smell that distinctive odor. However, no bags deployed in the passenger compartment. The air bag indicator light is also illuminated on the instrument panel.

Seems strange.

Anybody seen this before?

2015 F-150 Lariat

Thanks.

did your seatbelt yank tight? What probably happened is your seat belt pretensioner fired and then that is the odor you smelled.

Oh yes it did. Would that illuminate the airbag indicator?

BTW, I also lost a fresh slice of Costco pepperoni pizza.

yes it would. that is tied in with the airbag system. there is a little pyro charged attached to the seatbelt retractor that yanks it tight during an accident. sometimes that is enough and the truck wont fire the airbags or other times that fires right before the airbag fires to make sure you are seated properly

Thanks. Just watched a video on them. I'm assuming the collision folks know about this. It's one of the signature places for my insurance. Glad the bags didn't deploy as I know that creates a much more difficult repair.

I was rear ended by a schoolbus and sent into the truck in front of me towing a boat. It completely smashed the front of truck and none of the airbags went off. From what I read it seems that there are so many computers in these trucks now they only go off if all the parameters that are set for them are met.





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OUCH! and you are correct, in the early days of airbags as long as you met the decel rate..they went off. these days they can tell impact angle, direction, speed. all that good stuff

Damn, hope you guys are ok!

@CosmicMiami can you share pics of your damage?

I would assume that since you didn't have a passenger in the vehicle, that's why they didn't fire. I believe there is an operator (or passenger in this case) sensor in the seat. Nothing was detected so no airbag on that side.

Actually, it was the seat belt tensioner. No bags deployed anywhere in the cab.