1994 Oldsmobile 88 Owner's Manual - Page 26

Seats & Restraint Systems car which will move and deform on impact. Theair bag is also not designed to inflate in rollovers, side impacts, or rear impacts where the inflation would provide no occupant protection benefit. It is possiblethat in a crash, only of one the two air bags in your Eighty Eight will deploy. This is rare, but can happen in a crash just severe enough to make an air bag inflate. The right-front passenger'sair bag is In any particular crash, the located inthe instrument panel onthe determination of whether the airbag passenger's side. When is an air bag expected to inflate? should have inflated cannot bebased solely on thelevel of damageon the The air bag is designedto inflate in vehicle(s). Inflation is determined by moderate to severe frontalor nearthe angle of the impact andthe vehicle's frontal crashes. Theair bag will only deceleration, of which vehicle damage is inflate if the velocity of the impact is only one indication. Repair cost is not a above the designed threshold level. good indicator of whether an airbag When impacting straightinto a wall that shouId have deployed, does not move or deform,the threshold What makes an air bag inflate? level for mostGM vehicles is between 9 In a frontal or near-frontalimpact of and 15 mph (14 and 23 lun/h). sufficient severity, the air bag sensing However, thisvelocity threshold system detects that the vehicleis depends on the vehicle designand may suddenly stopping as a result of a crash. be several miles-per-hour faster or The sensing system triggers achemical slower. In addition, this threshold if velocity will be considerably higher the reaction of the sodium azidesealed in vehicle strikes an object such as a parked the inflator. The reaction produces How The Air Bag System Works Where is the air bag? The driver's air bag is in middle of the the steering wheel. 24