brianm767

Modified by brianm767 at 6:17 PM 9/15/2008


NEW PICS ADDED!!!


long but I need info if any one has any??

My daughter was recently in her 01 Civic and was in a pretty good accident, her boy friend was driving the car, they were traveling about 40-45 MPH, going through an intersection, and a Mini Copper Blew the red light and ran infront of our Civic and my daughters car t-boned the Mini.

Both Airbags deployed, but the drivers airbag exploded the sterring column , turn signal and light switch housing and shot shrapnel though out the car, there were even strips of metal torn from the airbag backing plate that shot forward and smashed out the instrument panel , and teh airbag almost completely tore away from the steering wheel, it was only held on by a small piece of metal on the lower RT corner, either after or during the deployment it folded down towards the floor into the drivers lap, my daughters boyfriend had shrapnel tear into his LT wrist and his legs and arms were peppered with thousands of tiny pieces of tiny plastic particles, thank God the big metal pieces missed the people in the car and just took out the instrument panel.

Question is, Has any one ever heard or seen any thing like this before?

My father is a 35 Year vet of the CHP and he's never seen any thing like it, my son is a police officer, he gave pictures to his dept's accident investigative team, none of them have ever seen an airbag fail like that,

I contacted Honda, told them about it and said it was a safety hazard, some one could have been killed or blinded by the explosion, about a week later a guy called and said he was an insurance adjuster who Honda had asked to look in to the accident , l gave him all the information I could about the accident, and I sent him some Pictures I had taken of the car, he called me back the other night and said he had another guy who was in the area where the car is being stored look a the car,
And I could tell he was very hesitant to tell me what the other guys conclusions were, he made numerous excuses as to how this was some one else's opinion, and Honda engineers have not reviewed it yet, and he was only telling me what the other guy said, well he said the other the investigator said he had never seen any thing like this, and couldn't explain why the column shot pieces through the instrument panel, but even so, he thought the damage was normal and caused by the forces of the collison? WTF??

I was pissed, i said you have to be kidding me? I'm not an idiot, you know what happened, there was too much genarant in the CO2 cartridges or for some reason the gas was directed into the column or some thing, the column is not supposed to explode and rip from the steering wheel, and there's not supposed to be metal pieces torn away from the airbag back plate.

he said he will send all the info to the Honda engineers and at a later time they will want to have a sit down and meet with us to explain the operation of the airbag? I said don't even come here to tell me it's normal, we know it's not. don't insult my intelligence.














Modified by brianm767 at 6:18 PM 9/15/2008


Modified by brianm767 at 6:19 PM 9/15/2008


Modified by brianm767 at 9:17 PM 10/26/2008


Modified by brianm767 at 4:59 PM 10/27/2008

Whatislove

My mom's 94 sentra, her airbag broke the windshield from a small fender bender.


if that airbag wasnt changed like it supposed to [yes, read the owners menual, airbags have a 5 year lifespan] then technically its negligence on the owner.

what happened is the airbag didnt deploy properly and some of the gas leaked back into the column.

Honestly, I dont think you can do anything at this point.

A: no injury was caused by the airbag.
B: Was the airbag maintained?


Modified by Whatislove at 1:05 PM 8/21/2008

briq4

Back in 01 my buddy totaled his 01 Civic, it was a 4 door and there was NO damage like what you have. I think there was definitly something not right with that airbag in that car. Was it the original steeringwheel? I don't remember his having that textured look to it. Maybe I just don't remember but it just doesn't look quite the same.

coolusername

deffinately not normal

theciv

JESUS! im jus glad everyone is ok.

i've never heard that happen

theineffable

i've been hit by the civic airbag....no injuries occurred...it felt like a slap in the face

note that the airbag didn't deploy at full force...the civic has dual stage airbags...

dudmore

It looks like the airbag inflator housing had a catastrophic failure. Do you have any photos of the back of the airbag module?

eviee1973

Just a question since it was not stated, was this car purchased used, or ever previously in collision damage? People in Quebec, Canada had been rebuilding airbags and filling them with gunpowder. Insurance companies were buying them to install in cars being repaired, to make more profit. That would be scary to have deploy.

brianm767

OK the airbag has not been changed, I can not find any where in my manual where it is supposed to be replaced at 72 months, infact it says the airbag is virtually maintenance free and there's no parts you can service, now I know that does not say it never needs to be replaced, but it is not mentioned in the Maintenance schedule either as a part that requires replacing, if it says that some where else? Oh well, I go by my maintenance schedule in the owners manual that is supplied by Honda.

It was not a matter of the steering column adjustment.

We did buy the car from the orig owner, so we are the second owners, we did not know the first owner, but a friend of ours did and said he knew the car since it was new and stated it had never been in an accident.

The driver "was" injured by the airbag failure, not a major injury, but his wrist was torn into by a piece of flying shrapnel requiring a trip to the ER for stitching, and his legs and arms looked like he had been shot with a shotgun blast or rock salt, from all the small particles blasting into him


It is the original steering wheel as far as we know, it's never been in a wreck, and it is exactly the same as my cousins 01 Civics wheel, same texture as hers .

My main reason for contacting Honda was, if this is a factory defect, there needs to be a recall before some one gets killed, or maimed, I kept a couple of pieces of metal that were shot through the Inst panel, if they would have went aft and struck an occupant, it could have killed them.

I own two other Honda's both 03 V6 Accords, we sold a 05 Civic last year, and we own three Honda motorcycles, and sold two others in the last year, we are Honda people, but how they treat this will determine if I ever buy another Honda product.



Modified by brianm767 at 5:36 PM 9/9/2008

SHG_James

wow, ive never seen one blow like that. thank god none of you guys got hurt badly

Harlowe

I wrecked my 01 in February, hit a guard rail, and it was right next to the airbag sensor, but my airbag didn't deploy. Car wasn't totaled or anything.

dudmore

You're correct in assuming that the Honda rep is probably worried about a lawsuit, however, for the safety of others, they should be investigating this. What happened here is definitely not normal and not due to collision impact forces. The airbag module should not be essentially blown off of the steering wheel.

In very rare occurances, airbag inflators have been known to fail. During deployment, the inflator (the device that produces the gas that fills the bag) sustains very high internal pressures. If there is a manufacturing defect in the inflator's structure, it may fail and essentially explode due to the high pressure.
That's what I suspect happened in this case. It would be very rare, and is very dangerous, but has happened on other vehicles. A rupture/explosion of the inflator could certainly blown the module off of the steering wheel as your pictures indicate.

In looking at an undeployed airbag module mounted in the steering wheel, you cannot see the inflator. But since your module got blown off its steering wheel mounts, if you look at the back side of the module you'll see a cylinderical component, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. This is the inflator. Does it appear to be ruptured?

brianm767

cylindrical component, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter?? I don't remember even seeing it in the car? I wonder if thats where the shrapnel came from? maybe that's actualy what exploded?

And the car is in a towing impound yard 150 miles away, so I don't know?

briq4

Perhaps someone tampered with something, Ironically my mom totaled her Accord yesterday, and both airbags went off, as you can see there is no damage like in your civic and her car is a 98 which I'm sure the airbags have advanced since then. I wonder if the original owner's car was broken into and the airbags stolen, and they were maybe replaced with cheap imitations? HEre are the pics of her car.








Modified by briq4 at 3:24 PM 8/24/2008

brianm767

I don't think it's correct to say, "Some one(Correction) "must" have tampered with some thing" yes ,it is possible, but just because it had a catastrophic failure, it doesn't automatically mean that it must have been tampered with, believe me I know, I'm an airline meck, and we've had catastrophic engine and other component failures many times, when they were not "Tampered with" mechanical things can fail, have desighn flaws or have a quality control issue with certain parts runs, plain and simple, and I'm sure Honda engineers will be able to figure out if it is one of their bags, we'll see, what happens, what ever the case may be, i just hope no one else gets seriously hurt from a failure like this.

I did find where a line of Honda passports had the same failure, it was determined that there was too much accelerant used in the deployment cannister. Honda replaced the airbags free of charge, and they were not tampered with or after market bags, came from the factory with too much pressure in the cans.

And I hope you Mom is Ok.



Modified by brianm767 at 11:02 AM 8/25/2008

popee

glad everyone is okay..

briq4

I take back the must, but I didn't SHOUT MUST....

dudmore

I would strongly suggest you report this incident to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defect Investigations. If this is, in fact, an inflator that blew up, there may be others with the same problem. Other Honda owners may be at risk of serious injury. The NHTSA's ODI website is:

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/index.cfm

They have a telephone number and a link where you can file a complaint.

brianm767

Thanks for the Link to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, my father, a retired CHP Captain told me the same thing.

If they were to look at it, I'm sure they would also be able to determine if it's a OEM Honda bag or an after market one, and they would not have a reason to deny it being an original Honda bag, actually it doesn't matter who's product it is, if they are defective, they need to be removed from cars.

i''ll call tomorrow and file the complaint.


Modified by brianm767 at 12:34 AM 8/27/2008

TeRRoRiFiC35

i guess i should be happy mine didnt deploy when I got t-boned in the front 2 yrs ago by someone going 60+ in my 02..... when i was a passenger in an 06 si that was totalled, the front airbags didnt deploy either. we hit a tree going 80+ miles an hour and none of the airbags deployed except the side. we hit directly in the rear first then on my door itself.

brianm767

I still haven't heard from Honda, other than their Ins guy who called and said it was normal damage caused by the forces of the accident.

But my ins Co. called me and said that Honda had called them and told them that I had filed a law suit against Honda, (Not true!) and they wanted to buy the car from them, I still own the car and have not settled on it yet, I told my ins I wanted the car returned to me, we'll see what happens.


I wonder if our car had the same type of problem that these Passports did? here's a recall on them, read what the Defect Consequences might be?

2001 HONDA PASSPORT Recall ID from NHTSA: 01V055000
Auto Recall Date: FEB 22, 2001
Vehicle Component: AIR BAGS:FRONTAL
Model Affected PASSPORT
Estimated Vehicles Affected: 3 Recall Details
Auto Recall Date:
FEB 22, 2001

Vehicle Component: AIR BAGS:FRONTAL
Estimated Vehicles Affected: 3
Model Affected
2001 HONDA PASSPORT

2001 Honda Passport Defect Summary:
VEHICLE DESCRIPTION: CERTAIN SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES WERE BUILT WITH THE INFLATORS IN THE PASSENGER SIDE AIR BAG MODULES HAVING THE WRONG AMOUNT OF GENERANT.

Defect Consequence:
IN THE EVENT OF A CRASH THAT WOULD TRIGGER A PASSENGER AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT, TOO MUCH GENERANT CAN CAUSE THE INFLATOR MODULE TO EXPLODE. IF THE AIR BAG MODULE EXPLODES, METAL AND PLASTIC DEBRIS COULD CAUSE SEVERE INJURY TO VEHICLE OCCUPANTS.

Remedy:
DEALERS WILL REPLACE THE PASSENGER SIDE AIR BAG UNIT.

Estimated Vehicles Affected:
3

Notes:
ISUZU MOTORS LIMITED


Modified by brianm767 at 2:46 PM 9/3/2008


Modified by brianm767 at 2:48 PM 9/3/2008

626ofall

Having done some customer service type work, sometimes it is hard to take peoples claims of defects and damage seriously. When I did do customer service work, we would take people like you seriously because you have good photos and know what you are talking about. You have good reason to report that. I'm not an expert, but that is not supposed to happen. Hopefully Honda will take you seriously. I wish you luck on this one.
One other thing real quick, it might be worth your while to run a carfax report on that car and see if anything abnormal happened to that car.

brianm767

It looks like Honda is taking it very seriously,

I was notified the other day, that they want to have their engineers look at the car, that's why they were inquiring about buying it from my ins Co., until they found out I have not settled and I still own it, I did not want to settle on the car and have it lost to the junk pile, I told them of course they can look at it and examine it all they need too, also the reps from the airbag manufacturer are flying out to look at it right away, they wanted to have already inspected it, but I did tell them I wanted to be present,and I have not been available yet, they wanted to remove and take some of the parts, I said they can remove for inspection as needed, but as of yet, they can not take any parts.

We do still need to determine it is the original airbag, as far as I know it is, but who knows, they are indicating that from the pics, it appears to be their bag, what ever the case is, no matter who's bag or what was the cause, lets hope it was a one off freak incident.

Oh and a Carfax was ran at the time of purchase back in 05, no reports of damage or any thing, but it did show regular Maintenance from the Honda dealer since new.

I never even look at a car without checking the Carfax first, but it's not perfect, I know a guy who bought a truck back from his insurance as salvage and replaced the frame, for some reason, it never showed up on carfax, and his Cali DMV title was reissued as a normal title, no salvage title? but he did tell folks what it was when he later sold it.

626ofall

I figured you probably had carfaxed, but I wasn't sure. I know the carfax for my Mazda 626 didnt show any report about some damage my car had, but that's the fun of the used car game!

brianm767

Engineers from Honda flew out from the mid west, verified by S/N it is the original bag/module installed when car was manufactured in Japan, they are investigating and trying to determine the cause of the failure of the module.


Modified by brianm767 at 11:59 AM 9/13/2008