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If the airbag has deployed, operating the car or doing it yourself often leads to tragedy on the road.
To eliminate problems, you should contact an authorized dealer, who, after a complete diagnosis, will replace the failed elements.
Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the airbag will work in an accident and save lives.
Airbags are one of the effective components of a car's passive safety system. Its main task is to almost instantly reduce the speed of the person in the cabin. Thanks to this, during an accident you can avoid traumatic impacts and save the life of the driver or passenger.
Airbag replacement technology
To dismantle the Lada Granta airbag, you will need a 5 mm rod and a flat-head screwdriver. So, let's get down to the process itself:
- As with any repair, you need to disconnect the minus terminal.
- Using the rods, you need to tighten the cushion clamps. This is done through special holes, the marks of which are on the side of the steering wheel.
In the places of the marks, press the rod on both sides to unclip the cushion latches
Removing the airbag module
Removing the plus terminal from the horn
Removing the negative terminal of the horn
Removing the wire clamp
We remove the wires from the seat
The nuances of replacement and what should be prevented
As with any car repair for the Lada Granta, when replacing the airbag and steering wheel, there are nuances that need to be taken into account. So, what is worth considering when performing dismantling work:
- Before you begin removing the airbag, it is imperative to disable the control module. If this is not done, then the probability of the airbag triggering when turned off is 99%.
- When the power is turned off, you need to wait until the activator capacitor discharges. The manufacturer recommends doing this after 1 minute, but as practice shows, it may take up to 3-4 minutes, so you should wait 5 minutes.
- Never allow water, oil or other liquid materials to come into contact with the cushion module.
- When installing the airbag, you should be outside the triggering area.
- After installing the airbag, you should turn on the ignition by reaching under the steering column.
Compliance with all the listed nuances will protect against airbag deployment and harm to a person, since in practice there have been cases when neglect of safety precautions became fatal for car service workers.
Safety benefits
The main problem that causes concern among car owners is the accidental deployment of the airbag while driving. Indeed, such a danger exists if people are in the cabin of an old car model. In modern cars, airbags are equipped with a special unit that monitors the state of the system. If the slightest problem occurs, the driver will be immediately notified about it.
Also, diagnostic units, thanks to additional devices, guarantee proper operation of the security system even if the battery is damaged due to an emergency.
Accidental activation is frightening, first of all, due to the force of the blow that a person sitting in the car receives. And if in an emergency situation a broken nose is the lesser of two evils, then in a calm environment it is unlikely that anyone will like such a gift. Taking into account this feature of the operation of airbags, engineers from many automobile companies have tried to eliminate the problem using special technology that ensures gradual deployment of the airbag.
Airbag control structure
Modern airbag control systems are structurally simple and consist of the following elements:
- ECU (electronic control unit). Its main element is a three-dimensional accelerometer, which calculates the deceleration of the car when impacted on different axes. It must be borne in mind that the command for airbag squibs is issued only during sharp deceleration in a moving car, so complaints about allegedly faulty airbags that do not work at low speed are actually groundless. The control unit also reads information from a number of additional sensors described below.
- Shock sensors are an element of outdated Airbag systems that did not have an accelerometer built into the ECU. Such sensors were attached either in the bumper area, and responded to critical deformation, or in the front part of the cabin, and gave a signal about a sharp deceleration. They only made it possible to determine the fact of an impact in the direction where they were located, which is why they are not applicable on modern cars with many airbags that are triggered depending on the direction of the impact.
- Airbags. They consist of an elastic shell that is filled with gas when the squib is detonated by an electrical signal. The only airbag malfunction that the ECU can track is a significant change in the resistance of the squib ignition circuit relative to the specified one, that is, a short circuit or break. If the reason for the airbag warning light to come on is a detected open circuit, you can turn it off on a number of vehicles by removing this airbag or another element from the system configuration menu using a diagnostic scanner.
- Auxiliary actuators. The most common are seat belt pretensioners. They are squibs that, before the airbag deploys, press the person to the back of the seat. In this case, the pretensioner will work only in one case - if the seat belt is extended to a sufficient length (determined by the sensor located on the belt reel) and is latched into the buckle. A malfunction of any of these sensors will not only cause the warning light to come on, but also block the corresponding pretensioner.
- Additional sensors. These include seat belt sensors, the front passenger's front airbag switch, and so on. Their malfunction also leads to the registration of a corresponding error and the turning on of a warning lamp on the instrument panel.
- Wiring and connectors. The most common problems associated with them are mechanical damage. The most common malfunction of safety systems lies in a break in the connecting cable of the driver's airbag.
