Can anybody help me?

[Medusa]

I've read that before, and I really like it.

But I feel like the 1MZ problems are less applicable for me. I'm going to be using a Megasquirt ECU so I can tune around those problems. And the 1MZ is lighter than my non-turbo 5S-FE, and definitely lighter than a 3S-GTE, especially if it's twin turbo.

[scottohno]

Originally Posted by Medusa

MKII just has 500 extra pounds and a driver airbag.

i would love to meet the person who invented the airbag...

the concept astounds me. he takes a bag and some compressed gas on an igniter that has enough force to hit a two story garage ceiling and mounts it where??? 2 feet in front of your face. he mounts it to a steering wheel and calls it a safety feature...

the only way an airbag can help you in an accident is it basically gives you an awesome punch to the face when you hit something... i guess it is good motivation to not do it again... why not just wear your seatbelt, get one dose of whiplash instead of two, and think to yourself "jeez... that guy i hit just got punched in the face by his car... glad im not him" as they take him away on a stretcher with a broken nose.

i dont know. i guess it seems to me that... if youre going not too much over the speed limit. (highest is 65mph around here) and you hit something, the seatbelts got it handled. anyone have any feelings about this?

[mattdouken]

It's your cars way of saying "Ok, now we are even"

[Medusa]

I've definitely got feelings about airbags. Have you ever been hit by an airbag? I have not, but many of my friends have been in pretty bad car accidents and they say that hitting the airbag is almost comfortable. It's like a giant pillow.

Although I did roll my first car (which obviously doesn't deploy a properly designed airbag system), which was a lot less painful than I expected it to be. It was kind of like a rollercoaster ride, but just more boring and quicker. And less violent.

[mikemike]

In my time working for Loomis Fire Dept. I responded to countless accidents. About 1/10 of the crashes, were the airbags needed. In those other 9 cases... we had to transport the passengers to the hospital because of burns and trauma to their necks and faces from the airbags.

I have been hit by a few airbags as well, and none of them were necessary. One time I spun into the center-divide on I-80 with enough force to set off the airbags. Well, as i was spinning towards the wall I knew that the spin was going to absorb my impact w/ the wall. Unfortunately the impact was enough to set of my not so friendly SRS. Now I had a totaled car and burns on my wrists.

My little brother on the other hand, benefited from his airbag. He hit a 3ft diameter oak tree head on in his 98 Crown Vic going 60mph.

[Medusa]

I thinks burns/non-life threatening trauma are an acceptable injury for airbag deployment, when those same airbags may save your life in other situations. Sure, it hurts for a while and fixing the car/getting a new car and hospital bills suck, but being dead sucks more.

[328FTW]

Originally Posted by Medusa

I thinks burns/non-life threatening trauma are an acceptable injury for airbag deployment, when those same airbags may save your life in other situations. Sure, it hurts for a while and fixing the car/getting a new car and hospital bills suck, but being dead sucks more.

This ^

Unless you are wearing a harness and hans device you are better off with them, big accidents are not a pretty thing to look at especially in older cars with questionable rigidity and no airbags. My mkI is death on wheels in a head on and I know it. Sure in a small crash they go off you might get a broken nose/thumbs and some burns but until you have seen someone ripped apart roadside by a big accident I wouldn't question airbags so much........a lot of the people that would of liked airbags are dead, there is no treatment for that I'm afraid

[mattdouken]

new airbags are ok, they usually work off of CO2....but before 95, that powder **** with the igniter are horrible, and burn.

[mikemike]

2000 Civic Si- Powder/Igniter

17 year old girl goes of an embankment, hits tree, gets knocked out by the airbag, car catches fire, she dies of smoke inhalation before fire/ems shows up. - I was first on scene.

I think we can all agree that there is no guarantee regardless of safety equipment, the best we can do is avoid crashes as much as possible

[Medusa]

Originally Posted by mikemike

I think we can all agree that there is no guarantee regardless of safety equipment, the best we can do is avoid crashes as much as possible

I agree most with this.

Also, the old powder/igniter setups used sodium azide if I remember correctly - NaN3. If I remember correctly from chemistry class, the reaction goes like this: 2 NaN3 --> 2Na + 3 N2. There are other chemicals added to this that combine with the resulting sodium so that it doesn't pose a hazmat threat.

[scottohno]

well, ive seen what happends when a shopping cart hits a ladys car on a windy day in a parking lot. the lady was like 502 years old. got hit by the older airbag in har buick and broke a lot of things (arms, nose, other face bones). she lived but was bedridden for weeks. and she didnt hit the cart hard. maybe it hit just right or maybe the airbag malfunctioned, but it wasnt a pretty sight.

[Medusa]

No matter what it is in life, there is room for freak accidents. Like a shopping cart setting off an airbag.

I know a guy who rolled out of his bed (which was just a mattress on the ground) and broke his arm.

[espguitarist33]

eipc fail much? that sucks so bad

[Medusa]

It just goes to show you even the safest things in the world can still be dangerous.

And we all know that driving a car is definitely NOT one of the safest things you can do.