Subaru 2009 Tribeca Owner's Manual page 79

The SUBARU advanced frontal airbag
system is designed to determine the
activation or deactivation condition of the
front passenger's SRS frontal airbag
depending on the total load on the front
passenger's seat monitored by the front
passenger's occupant detection system
weight sensor. For this reason, only the
driver's SRS frontal airbag may deploy in
the event of a collision, but this does not
mean failure of the system.
If the front sub sensors located on both
sides of the radiator panel and the impact
sensors in the airbag control module
detect a predetermined amount of force
during a frontal collision, the control
module sends signals to the airbag
module(s) (only driver's module or both
driver's and front passenger's modules)
instructing the module(s) to inflate the
SRS frontal airbag(s). The driver's and
front passenger's SRS frontal airbags use
dual stage inflators. The two inflators of
each airbag are triggered either sequen-
tially or simultaneously, depending on the
severity of impact, backward-forward ad-
justment of the driver's seat position and
fastening/unfastening of the seatbelt in the
case of the driver's SRS frontal airbag and
depending on the severity of impact and
the total load on the seat in the case of the
front passenger's SRS frontal airbag.
After deployment, the SRS airbag imme-
diately starts to deflate so that the driver's
vision is not obstructed. The time required
from detecting impact to the deflation of
the SRS airbag after deployment is short-
er than the blink of an eye.
When only the driver's SRS frontal airbag
deploys and both the driver's and front
passenger's SRS frontal airbags deploy,
the driver's and front passenger's seatbelt
pretensioners operate at the same time.
Although it is highly unlikely that the SRS
airbag would activate in a non-accident
situation, should it occur, the SRS airbag
will deflate quickly, not obscuring vision
and will not interfere with the driver's
ability to maintain control of the vehicle.
When the SRS airbag deploys, a sudden,
fairly loud inflation noise will be heard and
some smoke will be released. These
occurrences are a normal result of the
deployment. This smoke does not indicate
a fire in the vehicle.
CAUTION
Do not touch the SRS airbag system
components around the steering
wheel and dashboard with bare
hands right after deployment. Doing
so can cause burns because the
Seat, seatbelt and SRS airbags
components can be very hot as a
result of deployment.
The driver's SRS frontal airbag and front
passenger's SRS frontal airbag are de-
signed to deploy in the event of an
accident involving a moderate to severe
frontal collision. It is basically not designed
to deploy in lesser frontal impacts be-
cause the necessary protection can be
achieved by the seatbelt alone. Also, they
are basically not designed to deploy in
side or rear impacts or in rollover acci-
dents because deployment of only the
driver's SRS frontal airbag or both driver's
and front passenger's SRS frontal airbags
would not help the occupant in those
situations. The driver's and front passen-
ger's SRS frontal airbags are designed to
function on a one-time-only basis.
SRS airbag deployment depends on the
level of force experienced in the passen-
ger compartment during a collision. That
level differs from one type of collision to
another, and it may have no bearing on
the visible damage done to the vehicle
itself.
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