1996 Buick Park Avenue Owner's Manual - Page 32

Don't put anything on, or attach anything to, the steering wheel or instrument panel. Also, don't put anything (such as pets or objects) between any occupant and the steering wheel or instrument panel. If something is between an occupant and an bag, it could affect the air performance of the air bag or worse, it could cause injury. vehicle strikes something that will move deform, such or as a parked car, the threshold level will be higher. The air bag is not designedto inflate in rollovers, side impacts or rear impacts, because inflation would not help the occupant. In any particularcrash, no one can say whetheran air of bag should have inflated simply because the damage to a vehicleor because of what the repair costs were. Inflation is determinedby the angle of the impact and the vehicle's deceleration. Vehicledamage is only one indication of this. -- What makes anair bag inflate? In a frontal or near-frontal impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing system detects that the vehicle is suddenly stopping as a result of a crash. sensing The system triggers a chemical reaction the sodium azide of sealed in the inflator. The reaction produces nitrogen gas, which inflates the airbag, The inflator, air bagand related hardware are allpart of the air bag modules packed inside the steering wheel and in the instrument panel in front of the right front passenger. When should anair bag inflate? The air bag is designedto inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. The air bag will inflate only if the impact speedis above the system's designed "threshold level." If your vehicle goes straight into a wall that doesn't move or deform, the threshold level is about 9 to 15 mph (14 to 24 km/h). The threshold level can vary, however, with specific vehicle design, so that it can be somewhat above or below this range.If your