Air Bag Fault

[davewr]

I was on my drive yesterday when my neighbour's car, an A3 was returned on a transporter. The neighbour said the air bags had just gone off as he was driving. There was no obvious damage to the car, just the partially inflated bags. Has anyone heard of this happening as I am a bit sceptical?

[chas2008]

never known one go of spontainously, if it was a known fault on that vehicle there would have been a mega recall on it being as its such a safety issue.
There are certain vehicles with side air bags that seem to go off just by side swiping a kerb..(BMW & Clio being 2) Front airbags require an impact at a certain minimum speed and certain angle before they deploy, if you cant see any visible damage it may that they have driven over one of those car park non return type thingys (rising kerb / traffic control plate / rising bollard ) so any damage will be underneath , this does set them off ,seen cars written of due to this
...perhaps they are to embarrassed to own up

[chas2008]

ps
Audi being Audi would want it inspected by one of there techie guys if it had really deployed for no reason

[davewr]

Thanks Chas, now that I think about it, I only saw the side ones so perhaps it was a kerb. After the bags go off would the car be immobilised? Maybe there was damage underneath and that was why it was on a transporter.

[chas2008]

if its the side the chances are hes lost it and impacted a kerb or similiar,the only outwood sign of this is a bent wheel which isnt always immediately obvious.

Not all vehicles immobilise after they have deployed, not sure about A3s, but if it has suspension damage which it will have after that type of impact it would need to be transported.

[davewr]

Thanks for the info.
I don't supose I'll ever find out what happened, but I'll let you know if Audi or Top Gear turn up!