Airbag deployment with no collision.

It's one of those things you hear about, but don't know anyone that it actually happened to. (At least I didn't.)

Well, now you do.

My son was driving one of my work vans, a 1997 E150. He pulled up to the office, put the van in park and the drivers side airbag went off in his face.

He had blood in his ears so I sent him to the urgent care facility. His ears are OK, but he might have a minor concussion.

I'm assuming there was a short in the steering column. Anyone know what a airbag replacement costs.

I can not help you with the airbag cost but I know they are expensive. As in your van could be a total loss if you were to file an insurance claim. Also I would not put one back in untill the cause is determined. I think I would be asking ford about it and looking at the NTSB and see if filing with them is something that should be done.

I am not sure but I think safety and emissions things have much different warranties than the rest of the vehicle. Being a 97 it may be beyond that but still I think you may have some recourse.

A similar thing happened with a GM work van in my companies fleet a couple years ago, it was also accompanied by an electrical fire. In this case there was a wire harness that ran near the gas pedal and doghouse area on the floor that somehow got damaged and was blamed for both the fire and airbag deployment.

I'm glad it didn't happen to me, I just had a normal GM van blower motor resistor fire.

one from the junkyard shouldn't be expensive. I'd have someone scan the system to make sure the module is ok, check wiring, etc.

It's headed to the Ford dealer tomorrow. I'm going to let them figure it out. I definitely don't want another one deploying at 70 mph on the interstate. The van has 270k on it. If it's too expensive, I'll replace it and let someone else worry about it.

Hakuna Takata

My gut instinct is chafed wires upstream of the clockspring connector, shift lever hit it just wrong and made a connection.

I also agree, let them figure it out, it is not only highly unlikely that the airbag module would have blown the bag deliberately, but the way it coincided with moving the shifter SCREAMS wiring harness issue.

captdownshift wrote: Hakuna Takata

Well played, sir. Well played...

In reply to Knurled:

That's my thoughts as well.

Are the E-vans subject to the same cruise control recall as the F150 of a similar era?

In reply to ssswitch:

Not a clue, but this van doesn't have cruise.

It was the weirdest thing ever. Surprised the heck out of me.

In reply to Son_Of_Toyman:

Gee, you THINK?

You are now the first person I know of directly with an airbag going off randomly. Glad you were stopped and made it out OK!

Unbolt blown bag, throw away, use seatbelt like any other sane person

patgizz wrote: Unbolt blown bag, throw away, use seatbelt like any other sane person

Put an older steering wheel in it and remove the airbag light..

Yeah I would go the no airbag route.

Airbags are the devil.

Glad you're mostly OK.

That's some scary junk! I've been in exactly one vehicle with an airbag deployment- a work truck that t-boned a bus.

It's good you got checked out and I hope nothing comes of it health wise.

HappyAndy wrote: A similar thing happened with a GM work van in my companies fleet a couple years ago, it was also accompanied by an electrical fire. In this case there was a wire harness that ran near the gas pedal and doghouse area on the floor that somehow got damaged and was blamed for both the fire and airbag deployment. I'm glad it didn't happen to me, I just had a normal GM van blower motor resistor fire.

From the owners manual, High speed is only to be used for short duration for heat or AC. Not making this up, have you ever tried to heat or cool a full sized van, it takes all the fan you can get. I went in to buy a fan speed resistor only to find my wires melted, by no coincidence the store also stocked the wire harness.

Knurled wrote: My gut instinct is chafed wires upstream of the clockspring connector, shift lever hit it just wrong and made a connection. I also agree, let them figure it out, it is not only highly unlikely that the airbag module would have blown the bag deliberately, but the way it coincided with moving the shifter SCREAMS wiring harness issue.

Wiring would be my guess too. Though with a van that old, it may have had the old fashioned rolamite sensors in it instead of the newer ones. I know unintentional deployments were more common with those old sensors.

OEM replacement will probably set you back $800 or so.

RealMiniParker wrote: Airbags are the devil.

Not sure if sarcasm, but I sure wouldn't say that about side-impact airbags.

novaderrik wrote:

patgizz wrote: Unbolt blown bag, throw away, use seatbelt like any other sane person

Put an older steering wheel in it and remove the airbag light..

Should be easy enough to look up the resistance the ECU is looking for and spoof it with $3 worth of resistors in the connector wiring.

RealMiniParker wrote: Airbags are the devil.

But... but... THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Wait, no, I mean... THINK OF THE MORONS WHO WON'T WEAR SEATBELTS!

Son_Of_Toyman wrote: It was the weirdest thing ever. Surprised the heck out of me.

They should fill them with confetti to make it a happier surprise.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

File a complaint with NHTSA, they have been rather busy with this exact kind of thing, its what they are for.