Talk about scary *****, my installer was taking off the console that sits around the shifter when he tried to look to see how the shifter **** comes off and BOOOOOM, the passenger air bag blows up just missing his head. He was just about deaf from the noise and was pretty badly shaken up. He said he had never heard of this happening ever before with his 15+ years experience working on aftermarket installations in vehicles.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to why this could have happened? It scares me to death knowing that my 9 year old son sometimes rides up front with me on very short trips where I drive very cautiously for his safety, and this thing can go off this easily. He will definitly be sitting in the back from now on.

I have an appointment with the dealer on Monday for them to have a look at it and determine why it happened. I hope that they aren't going to come up with some lame excuse and blame the installer.


Silverstone 6MT Maya DTM 20's

 

Here is the picture.


Silverstone 6MT Maya DTM 20's

106397-Dash_02.jpg

 

What mods have you done to your car so far? The intertial sensor is located in the front grille, and is sensitive to a point... if something's crossed wires with it, there could be a problem. Other than that, I've never, ever heard of an airbag just randomly deploying.

How big is your son, btw? There does come a point at which the stastical probability of being injured by sitting in the backsear FAR, FAR outweighs that of sitting in the front during a "random" airbag deployment. Good luck with your dealer, keep us up to date.

G

2003.5 Black w/ Willow G35
Premium / Sport / Aero / Winter / Navi / Tint

 

Wow that looks prety bad. I think warranty should cover it, cuz it was only one airbag.

 

I haven't done any mods to the car other than adding a sub in the trunk. After doing some research I found out that the main diagnostic unit for the SRS system is located underneath the console close to the parking brake. One of those wires must have shorted out against the body somehow.

My son weighs about 80 lbs. So are you saying GeoBau that it is safer for him to sit in the front?


Silverstone 6MT Maya DTM 20's

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

My son weighs about 80 lbs. So are you saying GeoBau that it is safer for him to sit in the front?

<hr></blockquote>
Technically your child has to be 12 to 13 or older (can’t remember exact age) in order to sit in the front seat equipped with airbags, but I’m not sure if the law enforces it though.

 

Wow, that's a very rare occurance. But I have heard of unintened air bag deployment before.... I remember one case where a petite woman got into her car, started the engine and then bent forward to tie her shoe and BAM-- the driver air bag deployed for no apparent reason. Well, her nose was broken and her face was bruised and a few small burns. I believe she still has a lawsuit pending.....

Anyway, your tech obviously shorted a wire for that to happen. This is why it's so important to disconnect the negative battery cable when doing ANY type of mod on your car. And not only should the cable to disconnected, but you should wait a while to allow the back-up current to dissapate.

FYI, in order for an airbag to deploy, TWO sensors must be tripped....at least one crash sensor and one safing sensor. This is designed to virtually eliminate unintended deployment, but obviously will not stop the type of shorted wire that your tech experienced.

The tech should have known better than to work on the car at all without disconnecting the negative battery terminal.

 

Wow that's not cool at all. I take it they shoved the air bag back in the dash from the looks of the pic. BTW why were you trying to have your shifter changed at Infiniti anyway?

 

I ran a copy of Infiniti Service Bulletin ITB03-003 dated January 13, 2003. This SB describes removal of the shift ****. No where in the bulletin does it recommend removal of the negative battery terminal. I have removed the **** myself, when I updated my console. I would say many of us have updated their consoles. This is indeed a rare occurrance. But removal of the battery cable is not applicable to this operation.

Lou

 

lowrider,

I don't care what the service bulletin says.... the point is that it's ALWAYS a good idea to disconnect your negative battery terminal whenever doing ANY mod to your car, especially if you're going to be disassembling stuff.

BTW, there's no need to remove any panels to remove the shift ****, so there would obviously be nothing to worry about in regards to pinching/shorting out wires that could deploy an air bag in that case. If you read the original post in this thread, he said the guy was removing the console to see how the shift **** was removed (obviously the guy isn't experienced in removing the shift **** on the G35) when the air bag deployed. Who knows, maybe he was prying with a screwdriver or small pry bar and managed to slice into an air bag trigger wire. If the battery had been disconnected (and the current allowed to drain off) then this would have never happened.

 

Good point Hitman. I don't know why he didn't disconect the battery terminal but I assumed he knew what he was doing. The shop that did this is the same shop that put in my subs and amp in the trunk and they are a reputable shop. In fact I don't remember them ever disconnecting the battery at all during my sub install so I doubt that they would have thought it necessary this time for a shifter ****.


Silverstone 6MT Maya DTM 20's

 

Well if the Infiniti dealer doesn't want to honor the warranty you can always go after the shop owner, either way I wouldn't pay anything.

 

For sure I'm not paying. It's all a matter of whether the dealership will cover it or not under warranty.

My concern is why did moving wires around cause this to happen. If the wires can be shorted that easily then maybe they should be encased in some less volatile substance.


Silverstone 6MT Maya DTM 20's