Quote:
Originally Posted by asteele-xr6
My understanding is that the older the airbag is, then the less safe it becomes - so the priority is to replace the older ones first, and then ones that are being operated in a humid environment - and then the rest.
|
Yes true in a sense. Its only the Takata Alpha air bag that this applies to. There are no alpha air bags fitted to any Australian Ford built here or imported by Ford Australia.
But because of the fiasco, the government said that we don't trust Takata at all, so they are making every manufacturer replace every type of Takata air bag regardless it being the Alpha style or not. Econovan, Courier, early Ranger and Mondeo have the non alpha Takata air bag so that is why they are being replaced. I honestly think there is nothing wrong with the non alpha bags, but I guess the govt is being precautious. Poor production process of the alpha air bag back in the day allowed moisture to get into the propellant of the air bag inflator, as years went on the moisture corroded or reacted with the metal inside the inflator so in the event of an accident the corroded metal would also disintegrate and shrapnel would then hit the occupant. Unfortunately you would only find this out in an accident where the air bag deploys.
Takata was the biggest supplier of air bags back in the day globally, so to replace all those air bags is no small task. Were talking hundreds of millions of air bags across many manufacturers.
Takata has closed down and gone bankrupt unsurprisingly.
So you need to understand the complexities of the whole exercise. Target for manufacturers to have it all done by is end 2020.