1993 Chevrolet Corvette Owner's Manual - Page 29

Seats & Safety Belts How the Air Bag System Works Q: Where is the air bag? A The driver's air is in the middle bag of the steering wheel. Q: When is an,air bag expected to inflate? A: The air bag is designed inflate in to moderate to severe frontalor nearfrontal crashes.The air bag will only inflate if the velocity of the impact is above the designed threshold.level. When. impacting straight irito a wall that does notmove or deform, the tbeshold level formost GM vehicles is between 9 and 14 mph (14 and 23 l d h ) . However, thi,s velocity threshold dependson the vehicle design and may be several miles-perhour fasteror slower. In addition, 28 this threshold velocity will be Q: What makes - a nair bag inflate? considerably higher the vehicle if A: In a.frontalimpact of sufficient strikes an object such as a parked car severity, sensors strategically located which will move and ,deform on an the vehicle. detect th& the vehicle impact. The airbag is also.not is. suddenly stopping .as a result of a designed to inflate inrollovers, side crash. These sensors completean impacts, .or rear impacls where the electrical circuit, triggellinga inflation would provide no occupant chemical reactionof the sodiumprotection benefit. az-ide sealed the .inflator. The in In any particular ;crash,the reaction produces nitrogen gas; determination of whethertheail bag which inflatesthe cloth bag. The should have inflated cannot be based inflator, clothbag, and related solely on the level of dgrnage on the hadwareare all part of the air bag vehicle(s).. Inflation is-determined by inflator module packed inside the the angle of the impact and the steering wheel. vehicle's deceleration,of which vehicle damage is only one indication. Repair cost is not a good indicator of whether an air bag should.have deployed.