So I was driving last Friday night and hit a man hole cover that was elevated due to road construction making my air bags deploy! It was pretty crazy, I was disoriented for a few seconds so was my wife. It bent my cross member slightly, other than that no other damages, but the obvious air bag components.
Insurance adjuster estimated the repairs at $6100! For those that are lowered please be careful with those pot holes!! Never thought this would happen without getting into a collision.
Should get my car back this week, hope I have no issues with the repair.

 

I'd be contacting Nissan/Infiniti, this sounds like it warrants an investigation. That shouldn't happen.

 

I could see it happening if the oil pan or anything clipped the concrete hard. Wow that sucks though. Glad to hear insurance is paying for the damages.

 

Is your car lowered?

 

The bumper would have had to hit and pulled back in towards the car.

Frontal hits are the ONLY thing that should cause the front air bags to deploy. Getting hit from the top, bottom, rear will NOT deploy air bags if it's working properly.

There's a recall on air bags on the G I think, something to do with wiring, you need to call Infiniti about this. I'd inquire about recalls for your VIN number first before mentioning the event.

 

That's retarded.. that much damage over a pothole..

 

^When the air bags deploy, a lot of carp gets damaged and will need to get replaced.

 

why would that warrant anything.

Its a out of warranty car, plus modifications were done to the car. Yea i agree it shouldn't happen but its just one of those things in life that just SUCK.

If anything, you should be taking it up with the city/county as they should of put something over it like those wooden horse thingys.

$6100, why not total out the car? Its almost at the point. I think most insurance total lost starts around 66-75% of the car. I dont see our cars worth more then $10k in the insurance eye's


I hit a man hole pretty hard when i was lowered. Different outcome

 

Dash board is 2200 alone, plus another g for each airbag...you will need new seat belts too so the price keeps going up and up!!!!

 

Any item that is a safety concern like a recall is covered indefinately for the most part. Unless specifically noted otherwise, they're lifetime items.

My car is an 03 and has a couple outstanding recalls, one for air bags, and one for fuel lines. The dealer does this for free, no charge, my car is WAY out of warranty, it doesn't matter.

And if it IS due to a manufactuer defect, Nissan/Infiniti is liable for it.

The idea to go after the city is just as likely to be fruitful, it's not uncommon for them to pay part or all of a repair that was due to poor road mainenance, especially if you're a tax payer. That's a REALLY good idea as well.

This is a lot of money, it's not a 'wash your hands' of it deal IMHO, even if insurance is coming though, that's a big claim to have.

 

His car is lowered, which is what caused the airbag to deploy.. He should be contact the City of New York, not Nissan.

Again, sorry to hear about this Al.

 

I've never heard of any Lowered Nissan hitting their undercarriage with something causing the air bags to deploy. I've hit curbs, speed bumps, pot hole, etc hard with my Nissans and never had the air bags deploy. Only when I hit a deer head-on cracking the radiator support did the passenger air bag deploy.

 

Well in any event if you lower your car and hit something its your fault.

 

This^

Lowering a car doesn't cause air bags to go off.

Again, the only reason your frontal air bags should go off is a signifigant impact on the FRONT of the car.

That's it, that's all. If they go off in any other circumstance it's VERY UNSAFE. Airbags are dangerous.

If his airbags deployed and it DIDN'T have to do with the front bumper somehow getting pushed in due to this, then there's something wrong with the OEM airbag system, period.

 

The front crash sensor is located on a bracket right in front of the radiator, not on the bumper. If you hit something with enough impact to jar that sensor, it will deploy the bags. It doesn't matter if the bumper was touched or not. The front cross member is attached to the frame of the car and hitting it with enough force will trigger the front crash sensor. It's not a defective part and nissan is not at any fault. Any make/model car will do the same thing.

My advice would be to contact the city. They might pay for it unless the cover was only a couple of inches high and you car is slammed.