God forbids a situation where you or any of your loved ones gets into a driving accident, but fortunately, your car had an airbag system deployed to save your life, and everything went smoothly after nobody was injured and your car was not damaged. Now as you again turn your keys you find out that your car is not starting. 
What are airbags? How do they work? And why won’t your car start after the airbags are inflated? These are some general questions that will be coming to your mind after facing the situation. To get answers to such questions dive into the article and find out why your car wont start after airbags deployed.
Table of Contents
What Are Airbags?
An airbag is a vehicle safety device. An airbag is a large nylon bag that inflates and deflates very smoothly whenever there is a situation of a crash. It prevents the driver and the passengers from crashing into steering or windows during the accident. Airbags are universal nowadays and are present in almost every vehicle for the safety of the consumer.
The driver’s airbag is housed in the center pad of the steering wheel, and the passenger’s airbag, where fitted, in the upper left of the dash. Other airbags could also be found in the lower dash, seats, seatbelts, roof pillars, and roof structures. Some motorcycles also have airbags in the front. Airbags provide additional protection to those wearing a seatbelt. Generally, they are made to inflate in frontal crashes which are potentially causing heavy damage to you or your car during the accident.
How Are The Airbags Deployed?
Most of the airbags are made up of pyrotechnic that means they can be used only once. A Survey by NHTSA shows that the airbags can reduce the risk of head injury by 80 percent whereas if your car has a shoulder belt only that means it can reduce the risk by 60 percent.
When a car hits something, it starts to decelerate (lose speed) very rapidly. An electronic chip that measures acceleration or force known as an accelerometer detects the change of speed. If the deceleration is good enough, the accelerometer triggers the airbag circuit. Normal braking doesn’t generate that much force to do this.
The airbag circuit passes an electric current through a heating element which ignites a chemical explosive. Airbags use different chemicals as explosives that burn out a harmless gas that gets filled up in the bag. As the bag expands, it blows the plastic cover off the steering wheel and inflates in front of the driver. The bag is coated with a chalky substance such as talcum powder to help it unwrap smoothly.
Issues You Might Face After Collisions
After you met an accident you might face some problems in your car, first advice to which is don’t panic just call any mechanic nearby if you are not understanding what went wrong if you do understand and know how to fix it try to fix that on your own. Some of the issues are listed below.
1. Your Car Won’t Start
The main reason for your car not starting is the tripping of an inertial switch and which cuts the power through the vehicle’s fuel pump. If your car doesn’t start after a minor accident, check the vehicle owner’s manual. Here, you’ll tfigure out whether your vehicle has an inertial switch trip that cuts power to its fuel pump after a collision. If the vehicle does have the inertial switch trip, then you will likely be able to press a button that will allow you to start the car normally and continue driving.
2. Some Parts Of Your Car May Need Replacement
Many times whenever you crash into an accident this often leads to damaging a vehicle headlight or taillight, While a broken light requires replacement, disconnected wiring and lens damage is a quick repair. If a wire has come loose, you should be able to reattach it to get the lighting system to reactivate. If lens damage occurs, you should be able to use a car light lens repair kit to fix the damage. These replacements can be easily made by yourself.
3. The Scratches Are Needed To Be Repaired
There are always minor damages that can be fixed by yourself and that means that the car needs some cosmetic repairing after the collision.
4. Alignment Should Be Repaired
After any collision, you must check how your car is aligned are the wheels arranged as they were before or the alignments are changed. If the alignments are changed then what you might do is get your wheels aligned by an automotive expert.
Why Your Car wont Start After Airbags Deployed?
After a crash happens, the airbags present in your car for your security inflates up and save you from a window or front steering crash. But what about the car following things that happen to your car after a crash:
- Ignition turns on, but nothing happens or ignition may not turn on at all due to pre fuse block that cuts of power from the engine.
- Multiple warning lights on the instrument cluster like the SRS malfunction light turn on and the EBS malfunction warning turns on.
- All lights come on, but nothing happens when you turn the key or press start and the Antitheft system will be activated.
Due to cutting off of power from the engine by the presence of an inertial switch in your car, the car won’t start after airbags deployed.
What Can You Do In This Situation?
Even after you replace the airbags, seatbelts, SRS module, and pre-tensioners, etc. you may notice that your car won’t start. Since many cars make automatically disconnect the battery when the airbags blow, that is the PYRO fuse on the positive battery terminal would blow if the airbags inflate.
In 2015 and recently manufactured car starting of the engine is disabled via the control module and will need to be reset with a professional scanner. Therefore it is recommended that even if you are not experiencing any faults in the car you may want to take your vehicle for a checkup with an expert.
Conclusion
So, now you know why your car wont start after airbags deployed, and what do you do in that situation. First of all driving at an average speed is recommended and driving with a sane mind is too important but even if you are taking all the precautions you never know when somebody can hit you on the road. So putting on seatbelts is a must rule that you should always follow to protect yourself and your loved ones from any kind of injuries.
Even though airbags help in protecting you from any damage but they work more efficiently only when you have fastened your seatbelt. Whenever you face some issues after a crash or an accident you don’t have to panic, just call any automotive expert who will come to your spot to help you get your car fixed.
Any further queries related to this topic are mostly welcomed. Ask your questions down in the comment section and enrich this blog with your worthy opinions.