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 *** 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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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?

 

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.

 

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).