63Corvette

Disturbing Airbag deployment..........
I was instructing at a Chin HPDE at TWS last weekend when we had a very disturbing on-track event. A ZL1 Camaro driven by a student with an instructor on board had a sudden snap oversteer with a fairly violent correction, resulting in full airbag deployment WITHOUT any contact, spin or offtrack excursion. The airbag deployment with it's attendant side curtain deployment, smoke and debris field blinded the driver to the extent that he drove off track and parked it without any further damage. However, if this had taken place in traffic, the result could have been catastrophic. At this time I have no information if this deployment could have been triggered by faulty sensors or other mechanical malfunction. The owner/driver was intending to take his car to his dealer for inspection and clarification of the problem. But it might be a good idea to consider this unfortunate event in case our Forum members are considering tracking their new Z06, or ZL1 Camaros. It would be interesting to know if the newer cars have more sensitive" sensors or lower set points which could result in "unintended deployment" of the Supplemental Restraint System components.

AND....from the Cadillac Forum:

jzips jzips is online now
Cadillac Owners Member
Automobile(s): CTS V wagon
Join Date
Mar 2013
Posts
65
Cts v not as advertised! Use caution!
The side curtain airbags on my 2013 V Wagon delpoyed while I was making a turn. No accident. No rollover. No damage on my car. Nothing. Just an exploded airbag. GM is conducting their "investigation" and have told me the car functioned "as designed" and that they aren't going to cover it under warranty. So, please be aware that GM thinks it's appropriate and normal for your airbags to explode in your face while driving your car. Consider returning your cars to Cadilllac ASAP. God forbid this happens to you on a canyon road or by innocent bystanders, as it's so shocking and loud that you could easily kill yourself and others because of the distraction.

I'm deeply disappointed by the response I've received from GM. I would've expected an apology and deep concern for my well being. But nope, I got none of that. These cars should be sold with a warning letter instead of the Nurburgring commercials they were advertised with. I was in love with my V and was becoming a brand loyalist, but if GM's position is that this is on me, then I'm moving on to car brands that don't explode in your face while driving (Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, etc.). Sucks.

z06_tim

That is very worrying and hopefully is a very unusual event for a vehicle from any manufacturer. Auto makers put all vehicles through very comprehensive misuse and abuse testing to ensure there is a very, very low risk of this happening.

It will be in GM's interests to get to the bottom of this one very quickly I would imagine, so I hope this guy's dealer is pro-active enough to take the right course of action.

There will be people in GM that understand the engineering and calibration of this system and they will be able to extract the data from the occupant restraints controller to know exactly what caused it to trigger.

RC000E

So, to be clear, you weren't in the car, you were just in the area....and you found another example of someone with a cadillac that is having the problem investigated by GM but is repeating they said the system functioned as designed....but we have no other info.

I would call this all...very shaky at best and entirely based upon heresay. The Camaro NOT only suddenly snap oversteered without reason or warning, but it ALSO deployed airbags without reason or warning...I'd call an exorcist not GM...that's a lot of goings on for nothing.

Lastly...this is a Corvette forum, not a Camaro and Cadillac forum. I'm sure GM will look into the matter upon the submission for repair, they'd be foolish not to.

63Corvette

Hi RC000E,
Just to clarify:
1st a moderator asked me to post this to "Ask Tadge"
2nd there are now 3 pages of comments from people on the Autocross and Road Race Forum who ARE interested, including the owner and driver of the Camaro that this happened to. NONE of this is "hearsay", but feel free to ignore it or to just not read it if it offends you
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...eployment.html

RC000E

Yet again, you're posting a link to ONE incident, that happened according to your second hand, or even third hand information. Of course you have three pages, because people are taking you at your word, they all may note though, that their airbags haven't deployed. Now though, you want to bring it to the attention of the chief engineer and GM corporate levels...I think it's unwarranted. In addition, I think it's an abuse of this process.

It's electronic, and faults do occur. It'd be ridiculous though, for GM to deeply investigate and provide press releases for every failure of a part...that's essentially what you're implying here...on a case to case basis. If it wasn't your car, with you in it...it's certainly hearsay.

I find it interesting that the owner implies that the car not only exhibited an electronic anomaly, but that the car also tried to wreck itself...all while coincidentally on a racetrack. I mean...none of us were there...no one at GM...no one here...and technically not even you. I feel like this is a lot of talk for nothing. Is it possible it exhibited some electronic power surge or failure that activated air bags and traction control intervention that yawed the car, blah blah blah...sure...but until you have more data, or the car can be looked at we have nothing but your words here...which doesn't amount to anything.

I never said you didn't have a right to ask the question...I just personally think that many posts are made prematurely, before GM themselves can even have a chance to look at the case internally, via the warranty process, etc. Now, what you've done, is created a phantom event, that will be google cached, and now will be produced in search results indicating that air bags just randomly deploy on camaros. People won't fail to read into it, they'll just stop there and say...oh man, that car is dangerous. Not to mention you compound this with the "what if he were in traffic"..."what if pedestrians pushing a small child, breathing on a respirator, in a stroller across the street had happened while this driver experienced this", etc.

Mountains out of molehills....

pewter99

why does this concern you so much?

If the question gets submitted so be it if not whats the harm?

Move on to another topic.

RC000E

It concerns me because of the reason stated. This is the type of thing that leads to the spread of false and unsupported information. I think for the benefit of readers/google searchers/etc that there should be something said to the validity of the claim. Also, this doesn't even concern Corvettes at all. If a Mclaren vs Z06 is posted in the Z06 forum it is moved because it's deemed "non-Corvette related", despite having a Corvette in the subject matter.

Are there rules in place that don't allow a response to something posted in this forum? I see a number of questions with a myriad of responses by a multitude of users elsewhere. I've violated no rules here. I see this forum as a venue for people to ask Corvette related questions to the Chief Engineer of the Corvette Program...if anything I contend that this question acts outside of the spirit and the bounds of this forum and takes away from Corvette related questions.

So, as a member, just like he did, I'd like to submit my reporting of this post, as it is mis-categorized and not Corvette related.

jvp

I agree. Don't expect this one to make it too far.

pewter99

yes but now you have continued in other posts...perhaps adding that user to your ignore list would be helpful since you seem to follow him around...

last on that topic.


nor do I, like many other posts here, but if we closed 'em all based on that we wouldn't have much of a section and I might add we do know he has read things here before so while it may be a long shot there was no harm in posting the question.