Air Bag life? (salvage, Buick, Lexus, Mercedes)

[Radio Ron]

I have a '91 Buick Park Avenue, I wonder what the chances are
of a 17 year old air bag working if it was needed??

Ron

[usafracer]

Very good. There is only one way to find out for sure though.

[M3 Mitch]

I do know that old, pre-WWII ammunition is usually OK if it's been stored in a reasonably cool, dry place. And every once in a while, a WWII bomb or mine gets set off, they seem to go boom just fine. An air bag is, essentially, ordnance, so it's probably very long lived as well.

[DDevil]

It has the same chances of a newer air bag deploying if needed.
Unfortunately there is only one way to find out, and it may be too late by then.

[Tennesseestorm]

On my 1991 Lexus LS400 (airbag equipped) under the sunvisor it states that the airbag system should be inspected by the dealer 10 years after the date of manufacture and every 2 years after that, but a Toyota-Lexus tech told me that was only a precaution and it was not necessary and the system would be fine decades down the road.

I have a 1988 Mercedes, which is an even older car with an airbag and I have been told by other 80s MB owners that have had crashes that the bags inflate fine.

My grandmother had one of the first cars with airbags. It was a 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado (airbags were optional on certain full-size 1974-76 GM cars and only about 10,200 were equipped). Anyway in 1987 my uncle crashed the car and the airbags worked fine. I later talked to someone that had one of these with the airbags that they were going to put in a salvage yard because it was in such poor conditions... he deliberately blew the bags and they worked fine. As long as the "airbag", "SRS" or if I recall on my old 1992 Park Avenue and 1991 Camaro "inflatable restraint system" warning light is not on, then it should be fine.

BTW, the 91+ Park Avenue earns very high scores in crash tests.