i recently got into a accident with a 18 wheeler and none of my air abgs went off. does any one know the specs for these

Please describe the accident in better detail.

My first thought, as to how to answer was "Tell her that her ass looks fat in those jeans".

:)

i was going down the highway about 70mph and slid on ice into the rear four tires of a 18 wheeler. it slammed both passenger doors the car hooked'em and about tore the whole right side of the car off

i was going down the highway about 70mph and slid on ice into the rear four tires of a 18 wheeler. it slammed both passenger doors the car hooked'em and about tore the whole right side of the car off


My guess is, that shoulda done it - but if you and any passengers were unharmed, no worries.

Does this mean the cars a lemon? If the insurance decides to fix it, who's to say they wont go off when some one is there?

This is only a guess on my part but if you locked the wheels during your skid the car could have been sliding more that 40 MPH but the computer thought is wasn’t moving at all. Speed of impact is the main thing that controls the bags. Wheels not moving hitting the back of a truck going forward = not enough the set off the bags?? Again just thinking out loud

Very rational explanation, Expo...nice!

so if your at a stop light and some comes slamming into you, toyr whells arent moving,no airbag deployment?

I feel fairly qualified to say that the vehicle speed sensors are not used when determining whether or not to deploy the airbags. There should be (in most cars, at least) separate accelerometers that detect a crash event.

what should be done to check the check the air bags? how do you know if anythings wrong w/ them?

^^yeah, I think he's right. and ABS should prevent the wheels from locking

what should be done to check the check the air bags? how do you know if anythings wrong w/ them?
The light on the Dash is the only thing we have to tell us if its "working". Many new cars have a “black box” type device that records vehicle data at the point of impact. Not sure if the RX-8 have this. But since the bags did not deploy there is a chance no data was recorded. If they fix this car you should insist the SRS system is checked out thoroughly

^^yeah, I think he's right. and ABS should prevent the wheels from locking

ABS doesn't prevent them from locking on snow/ice.

It does on wet roads, it's happened to me

what should be done to check the check the air bags? how do you know if anythings wrong w/ them?

Try driving head on into a brick wall at about 150 mph.........that's the ULTIMATE test

You might want to also contact Mazda. They could be interested in examining your car. Accidents are very interesting things from an engineers point of view. How many times have you seen a wreck on the road and said, “ How the hell did that happen”. Real world accidents often differ greatly from the ones they do in the crash center. Think about it could you come up with a crash test that duplicates what happened to you?

ABS doesn't prevent them from locking on snow/ice.
Not sure I agree with this. While I dont have my 8 up here in Boston, I have been driving my parents ABS cars this past week. When I brake on snow or slide on ice, the ABS system is going nuts. This is going forward or reverse...I dont think I have ever put my car into a spin on ice...but I would think it will still attempt to pump the brakes to establish some sort of friction between the tires and the road...

Now that I think about it more what I think would happen to an ABS car on ice when in a panic situation is that the system would slow down the wheels to almost the locking point. They would be rotating so slowly that you could read the sidewall. Yes they wouldn’t be “locked” but in terms of their revolutions per sec VERY SLOW. Giving the car’s computers the impression you were not traveling very fast.

Not sure I agree with this. While I dont have my 8 up here in Boston, I have been driving my parents ABS cars this past week. When I brake on snow or slide on ice, the ABS system is going nuts. This is going forward or reverse...I dont think I have ever put my car into a spin on ice...but I would think it will still attempt to pump the brakes to establish some sort of friction between the tires and the road...


I've experienced it. (shrug). :)

The pedal would kick like a mule...however. Tires still locked up.

Air bags are set off by a item called an acceleromitor (ya I know spelling) it measures how quickly the car is accelrated or deccelrated. Therefor the speed of the car is not the sole factor it also includes how quickly the car changes direction. Therefor a side impact would not set off the front airbags. Sounds like you side swiped tht truck that might be why the side air bags didn't go off. I will say that I am not an expert so I could be a little off but I think I am on target with what I said. If not please let me know.

was there anyone actually sitting in the passenger seat?

if all 4 wheels lock up... then i think the car will think it has stopped... thus ABS stop working...

The Owner's Manual describes accident scenarios where there may not be sufficient force for air bags to deploy.

Correct me if I'm wrong...air bags deploy when the sensor in the panels and bumpers are activated (hit by the other car).

Funny you ask about air bags...,

Airbags don't usually care about the speed of the vehicle, it's really the G forces induced. Like the collision force equivilent to hitting a wall/object at 10-15 MPH. The airbags sensors are accelerometers..., basically G-force detectors. They determine the direction and force of an impact. So if you are hit head on (as my wife was, see below) the front airbags go off, if on the side only the sides go off. If you're hit at an angle between front/side, both might go off, depends on the car.

What I'm saying there, is that it shouldn't matter what speed the computer thinks you're going, it only matters what the force is that the airbag sensors detect.

My wife's story:

Two days ago my wife was heading home from work in her '00 VW Bug..., some chick darted out right in front of her, Lissa slammed on the breaks. No idea what the final impact speed was, but she had been doing between 35-40. ABS worked great..., so did the airbags. The other driver froze up, if she'd kept on the gas my wife would have cleared her. Instead Lissa slammed into them. Cop gave the other girl a citation for crossing oncoming traffic or something. My wife is OK, her ankle hurts a bit from getting slammed around, and both her wrists are sprained from the airbag.

The Bug is a total write off and she's missed 1 & 1/2 days of work so far. My wife's pretty freaked out right now. The trip downtown to the wrecking yard to take pics was rough cause she was skittish about every freaking-idiot-driver that merged w/o blinkers... . At the time, I was a bit unsympathetic as I had just driven from Orlando (7 hours), with all sorts of idiots cutting me off all day...There are A LOT of idiot drivers on the roads right now. But she is OK, hopefully she'll feel better after Christmas.

Pics to follow, once I find the right USB cable..., damned mini USB port. The bug did really well protecting her, we're probably getting her another one.

that bug is probally one of the best at crashing head on and read end due to it's dome design...

i was going down the highway about 70mph and slid on ice into the rear four tires of a 18 wheeler. it slammed both passenger doors the car hooked'em and about tore the whole right side of the car off

The side of your car slid sideways into the SIDE of the 18 wheeler's tires?

Or

The side of your car slid sideways into the REAR of the 18 wheelers tires?

The truck was also travelling at 70 MPH?

While the impact and damage were probably pretty dramatic, if you were both travelling in the same direction, the g forces were probably not high enough to trigger the bags. Plus, you ran into the tires which absorbed some of the energy of the impact.

beachdog hit it on the head there. if you were both traveling at similar velocity, the force wouldn't have been high enough. Still enough mass to do quite a bit of damage I guess. Do you have pics? Good to hear your OK as well.

it will be suck more if the air bag come out, then you have to pay extra money to fix it