HHR SS airbags went off, no accident, no rollover
05-15-2011, 05:50 PM
#1
New Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: 10-07-2010
Location: P-Town, Illinois
Posts: 18
HHR SS airbags went off, no accident, no rollover
I didn't think it was possible, but somehow, my 09 decided that it needed to fire the side airbags last Friday (Friday the 13th, go figure!).
I was moving at a pretty good clip, down****ed to 2nd for a 90 degree corner, steered into the corner (slid with a little understeer) and BLAM!, side airbags went off, seatbelts tensioned and OnStar called.
OnStar: "Sir we received an indication that you have been in an accident, are you ok?"
Me: "I haven't been in an accident, I just took a corner at speed and they went off."
So that was my first experience with an airbag deployment, scared the poop out of me, lucky the road was empty in the middle of nowhere, cause it probably would have caused me to get into an accident otherwise.
Called the dealer 5:30 on Friday, they told me to bring it in and call my insurance agent, what... insurance, I didn't get into an accident, they just went off! Dealer didn't believe me, I got a little peed off, he backed off.
Brought the car in, met with the service manager. He put it in the system and said that he could not touch the car until GM had a chance to look at it and pull down the codes from the SMD? on Monday morning. That would tell them exactly what happened before the airbags were fired, how fast, what was the car doing, etc.
I had an intermittent airbag light about 2 weeks ago, it hasn't come back since, but I told the dealer about it when I dropped the car off. He told me that those are hard coded and I should have brought it in because they can download airbag faults even if they are intermittent.
So, stay tuned, not sure what GM is going to come back with, they may either tell me that:
a) this is a warranty issue or
b) I was driving / cornering too fast and the car thought it hit something and I should have my insurance company take care of it
Either way, I'll now have a Carfax report that says that my car has been in an accident, so much for resale value.
I was moving at a pretty good clip, down****ed to 2nd for a 90 degree corner, steered into the corner (slid with a little understeer) and BLAM!, side airbags went off, seatbelts tensioned and OnStar called.
OnStar: "Sir we received an indication that you have been in an accident, are you ok?"
Me: "I haven't been in an accident, I just took a corner at speed and they went off."
So that was my first experience with an airbag deployment, scared the poop out of me, lucky the road was empty in the middle of nowhere, cause it probably would have caused me to get into an accident otherwise.
Called the dealer 5:30 on Friday, they told me to bring it in and call my insurance agent, what... insurance, I didn't get into an accident, they just went off! Dealer didn't believe me, I got a little peed off, he backed off.
Brought the car in, met with the service manager. He put it in the system and said that he could not touch the car until GM had a chance to look at it and pull down the codes from the SMD? on Monday morning. That would tell them exactly what happened before the airbags were fired, how fast, what was the car doing, etc.
I had an intermittent airbag light about 2 weeks ago, it hasn't come back since, but I told the dealer about it when I dropped the car off. He told me that those are hard coded and I should have brought it in because they can download airbag faults even if they are intermittent.
So, stay tuned, not sure what GM is going to come back with, they may either tell me that:
a) this is a warranty issue or
b) I was driving / cornering too fast and the car thought it hit something and I should have my insurance company take care of it
Either way, I'll now have a Carfax report that says that my car has been in an accident, so much for resale value.
05-15-2011, 07:16 PM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: 07-05-2008
Location: Akron Ohio
Posts: 5,464
This is a rare thing and I suspect GM will cover it. The codes will show a fault somewhere.
Things like this make GM and any auto maker nervous as this could be a deal that could cause an accident and hurt someone or if one did not fire in a accident and killed someone.
The car fax will show an air bag went off and it was repaired with no other repair for an accident. It should be clear that this was a air bag failure with what is recorded. GM should cover it under warranty and it will show that too.
For it to have gone off with your driving the HHR would have been well over what it could do. Besides more than the side bags would have popped if you had crashed. The steering wheel would busted you right in the face.
As for resale value the record will show what repairs were done and you will not take a hit.
I saw a Mazda a little while ago that got hit in the side and the bags failed. Mazda was really checking into that one too. The car was totaled as the passenger seat was smashed intot he console. No bags popped.
Things like this make GM and any auto maker nervous as this could be a deal that could cause an accident and hurt someone or if one did not fire in a accident and killed someone.
The car fax will show an air bag went off and it was repaired with no other repair for an accident. It should be clear that this was a air bag failure with what is recorded. GM should cover it under warranty and it will show that too.
For it to have gone off with your driving the HHR would have been well over what it could do. Besides more than the side bags would have popped if you had crashed. The steering wheel would busted you right in the face.
As for resale value the record will show what repairs were done and you will not take a hit.
I saw a Mazda a little while ago that got hit in the side and the bags failed. Mazda was really checking into that one too. The car was totaled as the passenger seat was smashed intot he console. No bags popped.
05-15-2011, 07:37 PM
#3
Premium Member
Join Date: 10-09-2010
Location: Tacoma
Posts: 14,420
WELCOME to the site hodor. That sounds a little scary.
05-15-2011, 08:00 PM
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: 04-12-2008
Location: Cedarburg, WI
Posts: 527
Holy crap! That would scare the hell out of me! 
I'll bet that was plenty loud, especially right near your head like that!
That is so strange that they went off like that, but I certainly hope that it is covered 100% by the dealer and not your insurance. Would not be right if you had any bad marks on your Carfax record!
I'll bet that was plenty loud, especially right near your head like that!That is so strange that they went off like that, but I certainly hope that it is covered 100% by the dealer and not your insurance. Would not be right if you had any bad marks on your Carfax record!
05-15-2011, 09:13 PM
#5
New Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: 10-07-2010
Location: P-Town, Illinois
Posts: 18
hyperv6, yep, that is exactly what the dealer said, when airbags don't deploy it is a big deal, when they do deploy when they are not supposed to, that is just as big of a deal. He advised that the information that GM downloads from the car isn't even available to the dealer for review due to potential liability / litigation issues.
We shall see.
SSFan, thanks for the welcome, I figured I'd make my first post something interesting.
By the way, those seat belt tensioners are freaking incredible, once they go off, it is like being strapped into a race seat with a 5 point harness, your body isn't going anywhere.
We shall see.
SSFan, thanks for the welcome, I figured I'd make my first post something interesting.
By the way, those seat belt tensioners are freaking incredible, once they go off, it is like being strapped into a race seat with a 5 point harness, your body isn't going anywhere.
05-15-2011, 09:31 PM
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: 09-10-2010
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Posts: 904
hyperv6, yep, that is exactly what the dealer said, when airbags don't deploy it is a big deal, when they do deploy when they are not supposed to, that is just as big of a deal. He advised that the information that GM downloads from the car isn't even available to the dealer for review due to potential liability / litigation issues.
We shall see.
SSFan, thanks for the welcome, I figured I'd make my first post something interesting.
By the way, those seat belt tensioners are freaking incredible, once they go off, it is like being strapped into a race seat with a 5 point harness, your body isn't going anywhere.
We shall see.
SSFan, thanks for the welcome, I figured I'd make my first post something interesting.
By the way, those seat belt tensioners are freaking incredible, once they go off, it is like being strapped into a race seat with a 5 point harness, your body isn't going anywhere.
If I were you, I would chamber a lawyer right quick...
This could have killed you.
You could have died.
You could have died.
You could have died.
Ruminate over that for a while. Regardless of how fast you were going, you didn't get into an accident, but your airbags still deployed. Maybe it thought you were flipping..? I don't know how they work, but that'd be my guess. The ESC may have told the bags to fire because maybe two wheels stopped dead cold.-who knows.
You don't often hear about these issues, because I'm sure they get settled quickly. Get a lawyer. Don't incriminate yourself by telling them how fast and in which manner you were driving.
If they say you were going too fast into a turn and it was your fault, why the hell would they put a performance tuned suspension on some of them then?
05-15-2011, 09:40 PM
#7
Banned
Join Date: 10-02-2010
Location: Port Huron, MI
Posts: 5,933
Interesting story. Something to be careful of. Not drift'ing in an HHR. 
I joke.
I joke.
05-15-2011, 09:51 PM
#8
Deceased
Join Date: 06-30-2010
Location: Kannapolis NC
Posts: 25,739
Welcome to the site hodor! Sounds like an interesting situation you have with your HHR to say the least. As to what nacademus was saying, please do not withhold any information from an attorney if you choose to retain one on your behalf. Starting out any relationship with an attorney by withholding information will only hurt you and your potential case in the long run, I know this because I'm a lawyer. GM will also know exactly how fast you were going and all the other parameters of vehicle operation at the moment of air bag deployment as soon as they download the data from the vehicle's "black box".
Being that you had an intermittent air bag warning before the unintended deployment you should have nothing to worry about in regards to having the vehicle repaired at GM's expense. As to the CarFax record of an airbag deployment, I'm sure that either GM or your dealer will be able to have it noted on the vehicle's record that this was an accidental and unintended deployment with no accident damage involved.
Good luck and please keep us posted as you find out more from your dealer and GM.
05-15-2011, 11:37 PM
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: 09-10-2010
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Posts: 904
I didn't mean to withhold information from the lawyer. Lol. I meant NOT disclosing any information to the dealership.
05-16-2011, 01:06 AM
#10
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Join Date: 06-30-2010
Location: Kannapolis NC
Posts: 25,739
If GM holds to their usual practices, the dealer will get an idea of what the black box data dump revealed, not that it should affect hodor's situation negatively. Even if the aggressive driving triggered the bags, GM will use that data to prevent other accidental deployments because aggressive driving shouldn't trigger the airbags. I'm guessing it was a defect in the module that caused the deployment because he did have an airbag warning light previously and the codes will be stored.