Not the crashing into something way, the actual sensor function. Where is the sensor?

I've got the front fenders, nose, & hood off my car and the air bag electrical connection are in the pass. side frt. fender area as is the PCM.

I don't wan't to do anything stupid like activating the deployment sensors when we get the engine back in. (bodywork will have to wait to be put back on until the engine is back in)

 

All I know is this: When they deploy... they deploy very QUICKLY!

 

The crash/deplyment sensor is in the center of the car on the bottom of the front frame crossmember, just below and in front of the stock air cleaner box. There is a warning tag attached to it to let you know what it is.

 

I was curious about this and since nobody else has offered any information, I looked up the airbag system in my 2002 GM Service Manual. Here's what the manual says:

The inflatable restraint sensing and diagnostic module (SDM) contains a sensing device that converts vehicle velocity changes into an electrical signal. The SDM compares this electrical signal to a value stored in memory. When the generated signal exceeds the stored value, the SDM performs additional signal processing and compares the generated signals to values stored in memory. When two of the generated signals exceed the stored values, the SDM will cause current to flow through the inflator modules, deploying the air bags.

In the drawings in the manual, the SDM is shown to be located in the center console underneath the radio and HVAC controls. So it sounds like you should be ok as long as you don't damage the wires you've exposed. Hope this helps. If you need more detailed information, like how to disable the air bags, you should get a set of GM service manuals.

- Mark

 

Well, in the time it took me to type up my reply, other people chimed in. Its interesting that my manual doesn't talk about anything down around the front cross member. Perhaps the system has been changed over the years. I highly recommend you get a set of GM Service Manuals for your year of car. They have been worth far more than I paid for them in the information I've gotten out of them.

- Mark

 

Mark,
I have the 2000 service manuals and it refers to the SIR, supplemental infaltable restraints. I took a while to find them in the GM user friendly manuals. Everthing is as you described and I went to penta check the front end (i've had the nose off of the car 4 times already and found no sensor)

The manuals discribe the sensor as I would have expected, a major jolt from a sensor in the centor of the vehicle sets it off.

2 wiring clusters are connected to something in the pass. side fender (fender is at the shop can't check now) and I can't see a reference on that in the 85 pages the manuals devote to the SIR.

 

Early C5's ('97 , '98 for sure) had a sensor on the front crossmember as described above... Later C5's do not have a sensor in that location. It was moved into the SDM module under the radio...
Shirl

 

Just take the negative ground off your battery...that'll keep it safe for you...

 

Very interesting. Why did they take that sensor off?.
State of the art on passenger cars is: one sensor in the middle (in the area of the tunnel/shifter, two sensors called satelites, left and right between B-pillar and C-pillar to detect side impacts earlier, and two sensores in the front end called upfronts.

IMO the frame of C5´s so stiff that there is no effect of more than one sensor in the center.

Frederik