1994 Cadillac DeVille Owner's Manual - Page 48

Where is the air bag? The driver's air bag is in the middle of the steering wheel. The right-front passenger's air bag islocated in the instrument panel on the passenger's side. When is an air bag expected to inflate? The air bag is designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. The air bag will only inflateif the velocity of the impact is above the designed threshold level. When impacting straight into a wall that does notmove or deform, the threshold level for most GM vehicles is between 9 and 15 mph (14 and 23 km/h). However, this velocity threshold depends on the vehicle designand may be several miles-per-hour faster or slower. In addition, this threshold velocity willbe considerably higher if the vehicle strikes an object suchas a parked car which will moveand deform on impact. The air bag is also not designed to inflate in rollovers, side impacts, or rearimpacts where the inflation would provide no occupant protection benefit. It is possible that in a crash, only one of the two air bags in your Cadillac will deploy. This is rare, but can happen in a crash just severe enough to make an air bag inflate. In any particular crash, the determinationof whether the air bag should have inflated cannot bebased solely on thelevel of damage on the vehicle(s). Inflation is determined by the angle of the impact and the vehicle's deceleration, of which vehicledamage is only one indication. Repair cost is not a good indicator of whether an air bag should have deployed. What makes an air bag inflate? In a frontal or near-frontal impact of sufficient severity,the air bag sensing systemdetects that the vehicle is suddenly stopping as a result of a crash. The sensing system triggers chemical reaction of the sodium a azide sealed in the inflator. The reaction produces nitrogen gas, which inflates a cloth bag. The inflator, cloth bag, and related hardware are all part of the air bag inflator modules packed insidethe steering wheel and in the instrument panelin front of the passenger. 35