Air Bags

[rvs442]

Was wondering about the safety of airbags as car start getting old. Can they malfunction? Do sensors go bad or corrode with age especially in a corrosive (roads are salted) environment such as in New England. Imagine driving down the highway drinking a bottle of soda and have the airbag go off for no reason.

 

[JohnZ]

Unlikely, I think - the impact sensors out front are sealed, and are electrically fail-safe; the circuit only closes based on impact (spring-loaded sealed mechanism). Even when an external sensor is impact-triggered, the impact must be confirmed by the air bag control module (which is bolted solid to the body structure inside the car, behind the dash) which contains another impact sensor before the system will react and deploy the bag.