A very good friend of mine rolled his dads 2005 Legacy GT :-\ and the side air bags didnt go off. He's fine , his dad is a little tweaked , and the car was totaled:banghead: . Admittedly my friend was speeding on a gravel road and not wearing his seat belt but the side air bags should have gone off. I did a quick search of the Message Boards to see if this had been discussed already but all that came up was a thread on how 5000 of the first Legacy Outbacks side air bags didn't work. Im thinking that this may be a bigger issue than previously thought.

2 Things I come to mind here. The first X number 05 Legacies/Outbacks were recalled not for the side curtain air bag not deploying, BUT they were put in 'backwards'. So they deployed toward the roof, not covering the side.

Now to the other, This by the way is no excuse, but I might have your buddy contact Subaru or a local authority to investigate WHY they didn't deploy. But the Side Sensors are mounted low by the door side pillar. Again, I didn't see this car, but of they were not impacted, this may be why they didn't deploy.

In either case, It would not give me a warm fuzzy, BUT the Legacy/Outback design does. In May 1996, my wife was driving my 90 Legacy LS wagon on the NY thruway and was cut off by another car at 70mph. After she swerved, the Legacy rolled 3 1/2 times landing on the roof (sunroof was open at the time). Legacy was destroyed.....She walked away with seatbelt abrasions. Even the EMT's were amazed. And in 1990, they didn't have air bags yet. They became an option in 1991.

That's another reason I'm still a Subaru Owner.

I am really glad your friend is okay...especially since he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

 

There are a lot of factors that need to be met in a split second before the side airbags deploy. Things such as vehicle speed, g-force of impact, rotation speed of rollover...etc. They are typically designed to go off when t-boned, but not always in a rollover. If the occupant isn't wearing their seatbelt, the bags may or may not have protected them. Or worse, the bags could have hurt him. I think there are weight sensors in the seat that might determine whether or not the bag deploys. So if the car's computer thought that no-one was in that seat during the rollover (since your friend may have been thrown up away from the seat), the bags may not of deployed.

 

Anyway, I learned that my old Volvo 850 that I sold 4 years ago, with side airbags, recently got rolled and totalled. The side airbags didn't deploy in that wreck either. I think there are too many un-knowns here before you can really lay the blame on the car.

I am really glad your friend is okay...especially since he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

 

There are a lot of factors that need to be met in a split second before the side airbags deploy. Things such as vehicle speed, g-force of impact, rotation speed of rollover...etc. They are typically designed to go off when t-boned, but not always in a rollover. If the occupant isn't wearing their seatbelt, the bags may or may not have protected them. Or worse, the bags could have hurt him. I think there are weight sensors in the seat that might determine whether or not the bag deploys. So if the car's computer thought that no-one was in that seat during the rollover (since your friend may have been thrown up away from the seat), the bags may not of deployed.

 

I think you have to have a sudden lateral force, such as a side collision for the airbags to go off. The airbag module also has a gravitational sensor that detects sudden changes in motion. In a collision, there's a rapid deceleration that produces very high G's, and that's what sets the airbags off. In a roll-over, there's some G's, but the rapid deceleration is not there to keep the airbags deploying. If you rolled over, then slammed the side of the car into a tree, the airbag would have deployed the moment the car hit the tree because there is a rapid deceleration involved there.

 

Next time, take it easy.