1993 Oldsmobile 88 Owner's Manual - Page 26

How the Air Bag System Works You will see this light flash for a few seconds when you turn your ignitionto Q: Where is the air bag? Run or Start. Then the light should go A: The driver's air bag is in the middle out, which means the systemis ready. of the steering wheel. When CAUTION I Q: inflate?is an air bag expected to If the airbag readiness light A: The air bag is designed to inflate in doesn't come on when you moderate to severe frontal nearor start your vehicle, or stays on, or frontal crashes. Theair bag will onl! comes on when youare driving, inflate if the velocity the impact is of your air bag system may not work above the designed threshold level. properly. Have your vehicle When impacting straight into a wall serviced right away. that does not move deform, the or threshold levelfor most GM vehicles is between 9 and 1 mph (14 and 4 23 km/h). However, this velocity threshold depends on the vehicle design andmay be several miles-perhour hster orslower. In addition, I A this threshold velocity will be considerably higher if the vehicle strikes an object such as a parked car which will move and deform on impact. The air bag is also not designed to inflate in rollovers, side impacts, or rear impacts where the inflation would provide no occupant protection benefit. In any particular crash, the determination of whether theair bag should have inflated cannot based be solely on the level damage on the of vehicle(s) . Inflation is determined by the angleof the impact and the vehicle's deceleration, of which vehicle damage is only one indication. Repair cost is not a good indicator whether of an air bag should have deployed. 25