[Az-Geocaching] OT: Jeep question

[Scott Sparks]

Daniel,

I personally find it difficult to believe that these sensors would be 
mounted to the bumper.  I don't own a Jeep so can neither confirm nor 
deny this specifically but, in general, a bumper mounted sensor seems 
unlikely.  A more likely location would be somewhere else near the front 
of the crumple zone. In my vehicle, the sensors are mounted to the lower 
frame rails.  In other vehicles, the sensors are attached to the 
radiator frame.  That being said, the original post that started this 
thread was asking two questions:

>1 - What keeps the airbag from deploying while undergoing extremem four-wheel
>drive conditions? 
>
>  
>
I found this information addressing that question:

"Air bags are typically designed to deploy in frontal and near-frontal 
collisions, which are comparable to hitting a solid barrier at 
approximately 8 to 14 miles per hour (mi/h) (13 to 23 km/h). Roughly 
speaking, a 14 mi/h (23 km/h) barrier collision is equivalent to 
striking a parked car of similar size across the full front of each 
vehicle at about 28 mi/h (45 km/h). This is because the parked car 
absorbs some of the energy of the crash, and is pushed by the striking 
vehicle."  (source :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbag)

My point is, if you are 4-wheeling and experience the equivalent of 
hitting a solid barrier at greater than 8 mph, chances are you have 
*actually* hit a solid barrier at greater than 8mph and in that case you 
should be grateful that your air-bad deployed. ;-)

>2 - Can the airbag be safely disabled? If so, how?
>
Most likely it can be disabled.  Check your repair manual (not your 
owner's manual.)  It should describe how to disable your air bag system 
while performing related maintenance.  Keep in mind, as someone 
mentioned earlier, it may be illegal to disable an air bag system except 
for maintenance purposes.  I'm not convinced this is precisely true but 
then, I'm not a lawyer.  I do know it is illegal to *sell* a vehicle 
that has had the air bag purposely disabled.  This applies to dealers 
and individual sellers alike.

>I have a 1998 Cherokee Sport with the 4.0 engine. The airbag light keeps
>coming on and off, sometimes for a long while, other times not long at all.
>
If your Jeep has "smart" or "advanced" air bags, there may be sensors 
located in the seats and seat belts designed to detect the weight of the 
person sitting there.  I don't know if these were available in '98 but 
I've read that the early designs did have problems properly detecting 
the weight of a person and they would sometimes cause the "Airbag Off" 
light to come on intermittently if there was a small person in the 
passenger seat, if they were sitting in an unusual position or if sudden 
movements of the vehicle caused them to shift positions in the seat.  
It's also been reported that seat covers can also affect the sensors of 
these "smart" systems.

Lastly, your vehicle ('98 Jeep Cherokee) did undergo a safety recall for 
"Airbag Control Module Internal Corrosion" in May of 2000.  You may want 
to check with your local authorized Jeep repair facility.

-- Sprocket

>Please forgive my ignorance here, what happens to these guys who replace the 
>factory bumber with a bumper that can actually be useful to jeepin'? Are the 
>sendors in the bumper mounts?
>
>Daniel
>
>
>
>
>---------- Original Message -----------
>From: "Raphaella Emet" <khofesh at comcast.net>
>To: <listserv at azgeocaching.com>
>Sent: Thu, 1 Sep 2005 17:49:51 -0700
>Subject: RE: [Az-Geocaching] OT: Jeep question
>
>  
>
>>> Most vehicles have the airbag sensors in the bumper. There have been
>>> accidents where the bumper of the vehicle wasn't hurt even though the
>>> vehicle was toast and the airbags never deployed because the sensors 
>>> didn't get the impact.
>>> 
>>> VeloRacer
>>

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