RESOLVED Airbag assembly fell off the wheel twice...

[coma24]

Not once, but twice in three days. It plopped into my lap while steering at low speed.

happened to anyone else?

Will advise how the service visit goes, i just sent the picture to them at KOP.

 

[xponents]

Not once, but twice in three days. It plopped into my lap while steering at low speed.

happened to anyone else?

Will advise how the service visit goes, i just sent the picture to them at KOP.
View attachment 21590

I would suggest you immediately park the car and do not drive it (until service picks it up, which they should). In the event of an airbag deployment, this could end up being extremely dangerous.

 

[terrycs]

Whoa ... this could end up being something serious with other manufacturers dealing with airbag issues.

 

[joec]

Ummm. I would not drive the car at this point. Who knows if that’s going to effect the Airbag deployment.

 

[BobFM]

Definitely do not drive it. Looks like you've already done so, but if not, call Customer Service ASAP.

 

[borski]

That has absolutely never ever happened to me or anyone I’ve met. Do not drive it, and get it fixed yesterday. Airbags are no joke.

 

[segbrk]

Just to reinforce, keep in mind you're not just driving without a safety feature, you're now driving with some small explosives pointed at your face in an unknown state.

 

[borski]

Just to reinforce, keep in mind you're not just driving without a safety feature, you're now driving with some small explosives pointed at your face in an unknown state.

This is what I meant by “airbags are no joke”

 

[st50maint]

Not once, but twice in three days

How did it happen "twice"?

 

[terrycs]

If I had to guess ... the airbag assembly looks like it is normally held in place by two mounting holes and removed by pulling it straight out. From the picture, it looks like a piece of plastic broke from the mounting hole the right?

 

[coma24]

How did it happen "twice"?

I had reason to believe it was 'fixed' when I snapped it back into place when it happened the first time, thinking it was a one-off bizarre incident that wouldn't repeat.

Once it happened again, I realized something else was afoot and escalated with service first thing on Monday without waiting for them to call me (after the initial call to customer care on the weekend).

Looking closely at the picture, I think there might be two metal rods which provide some sort of tension on the 2 plastic pegs on either side of the center of the unit. The pegs were symmetrical with nothing appearing to be broken. That's what made me think perhaps it was an assembly issue and that it simply wasn't properly snapped in from the factory.

Looking more closely at the picture, though, it's possible that the the metal rods aren't providing the required tension to hold the pegs in place, but that will be up to them to determine.

They're flat bedding it to KOP in a couple of days. Sad to lose access to the vehicle when I was just getting comfortable with it after such a turbulent acquisition process, but obviously it's the correct course of action.

Interestingly, customer care's reaction on the w/end was, "oh, wow, that's interesting. Haven't heard of that one. Glad to hear you got it back in. I'll log a ticket with service and they'll call you some time on Monday." It was pretty chill, giving me the impression that my 'fix' wasn't so bad. Service, however, had a VERY different take, akin to spitting out their coffee. "Sooo, this is absolutely NOT normal, and snapping it back in is not a solution." They are eager to take a close look at it at the service center (not with a mobile tech) to determine the root cause.

 

[coma24]

Btw, in both instances, the steering wheel was inverted at the time the unit separated from the wheel. The photo shows it with the wheel returned to center, but that's not when it came off either time. I was definitely uphill in the second instance.

I looked into airbag design a little bit, it appears there's usually chain of events that leads to the deployment (ie. concurrence from multiple sensors, not all of which are in the bag itself, if any at all, in fact). I realize the gut reaction is absolutely alarming, but putting that aside, through what mechanism would the airbag deploy if the housing unit detached from the wheel? This is an academic discussion, of course, the car is being flat-bedded, period, however, I'm just trying to ascertain the actual practical risk beyond the sharp inhalation that results from the use of the words "the airbag fell off."

 

[segbrk]

Btw, in both instances, the steering wheel was inverted at the time the unit separated from the wheel. The photo shows it with the wheel returned to center, but that's not when it came off either time. I was definitely uphill in the second instance.

I looked into airbag design a little bit, it appears there's usually chain of events that leads to the deployment (ie. concurrence from multiple sensors, not all of which are in the bag itself, if any at all, in fact). I realize the gut reaction is absolutely alarming, but putting that aside, through what mechanism would the airbag deploy if the housing unit detached from the wheel? This is an academic discussion, of course, the car is being flat-bedded, period, however, I'm just trying to ascertain the actual practical risk beyond the sharp inhalation that results from the use of the words "the airbag fell off."

Joking aside, there are a bunch of sensors involved in telling the airbags to deploy, but in the end, it's a circuit closing which ignites a tiny capsule of explosive gas. A spark or a short or something could presumably do the same without any involvement from the usual systems. Hopefully that's not an easy thing to do by accident, but... you know, it also shouldn't be easy for your airbag assembly to fall off by accident. Assumptions are out the window at that point.

 

[coma24]

The wiring from the car to the airbag unit is in that self-contained bundle which is still happily connected to the car and wasn't disturbed at all, thankfully. Near as I can tell, it's the physical mechanism that keeps the airbag housing attached to the steering wheel has failed to some degree, no longer providing the required tension to keep it in place in all circumstances.

Granted, not great AT ALL, however, I'm not making the leap as to how that, in and of itself could lead to a deployment.

If the dislodging COULD generate trigger an accelerometer within the unit itself, that would obviously be cause for concern, however, given that it's evidently triggered by various sensors in the vehicle, that also seems unlikely from a system design standpoint at least.

Just trying to build a better understanding of how the mechanisms work as the car in general is completely blowing me away in terms of performance and handling. I'm also having zero issues with mobile key (android), other than in some instances having to wait a little bit for the car to come out of deep sleep. I'm going to miss this thing while it makes the trip to KOP, gets fixed and comes back, that's for sure!

 

[segbrk]

The wiring from the car to the airbag unit is in that self-contained bundle which is still happily connected to the car and wasn't disturbed at all, thankfully. Near as I can tell, it's the physical mechanism that keeps the airbag housing attached to the steering wheel has failed to some degree, no longer providing the required tension to keep it in place in all circumstances.

Good.

If the dislodging COULD generate trigger an accelerometer within the unit itself, that would obviously be cause for concern, however, given that it's evidently triggered by various sensors in the vehicle, that also seems unlikely from a system design standpoint at least.

No, I'm not talking about triggering a sensor. Forget all the sensors and computers and stuff, there's still a little explosive sitting there that is triggered by electricity. Electricity gets in the wrong place (shorted wires, sparks, whatever), it goes boom (or at least pop). No logic involved, just electricity. You hope all those wires are properly insulated and held apart from each other, but like I said, you also hope that the front of your steering wheel doesn't fall off. Not by any means saying this is likely to happen either, but you still don't look down the barrel of a gun to find out if it's loaded.

 

[coma24]

That's fair about the wiring, good point. I appreciate the input, it's helpful as I try to objectively wrap my head around it.

I'll report back when they have a resolution and hopefully a root cause.

 

[coma24]

Alright, it's on the truck to KOP to resolve:
1. the airbag detachment issue
2. steering wheel creaking (common issue with 2022's from what I've read so I was on the lookout for it when it arrived to begin with)
3. software update (it was left too long without being updated and is stuck on an older build, 2.0.74)
4. charger port door alignment is not quite flush on the bottom right side when it's close, and is leaving streaks on the left side when opening.

Curious if they'll be proactive about changing accelerator and vehicle control module based on other posts. Are they good about spotting patterns and then applying fixes proactively when cars are in their hands?

 

[coma24]

New steering wheel and airbag are being installed. They weren't able to replicate the issue at all, and found it was seated correctly when I sent it back to them. I'm bummed as we're unlikely to know the root cause. Engineering has MANY questions. I'm glad they're taking so much interest and wish they were able to replicate or find the smoking gun.

 

[scal_air]

That’s good. Thought you were selling an air bag in your first post…

 

[coma24]

it's been a journey, but the car is finally back home. They were too busy yesterday to return the vehicle, with no promise of getting it today either, so I made my way down there with an non-reimbursable Uber, which is odd since flat bedding it back would've cost them 4x as much). All repairs and software updates were completed, TCU was replaced, steering wheel and airbag replaced, decals applied, and windshield wiper fluid was added.

A few other normal campaign changes were made (re-torquing washer arm bolts, and the 12V battery terminal). They were kind enough to remove a pretty severe grease stain from the passenger wheel well that happened during transport before I got the car.

The charger port door realignment somehow dropped off the work order during one of the many revisions, so that was forgotten. It was anticipated to take 1-3 hours (1 I could've swung, but not 3), so that's been re-added to work order as a mobile service item, along with fixing a slightly dented C-pillar flag (rear right side). I also had them program a new key card since it was missing from the vehicle when I got it.

Ecstatic to have the car back and looking forward to many more miles! The drive home from KOP was sublime, other than the Blue Angels style side-by-side "NONE SHALL PASS" formation on 202 doing 2mph under the already-slow speed limit. It's incredible how much people either don't care, or don't perceive just how inconsiderate their driving is. People were LOSING it behind them.

Regarding the airbag, the work order says that there was likely a 'special tools removal' that took place at some point and that the bag was not correctly reinstalled. It's odd because the person I spoke to on the phone specifically said he saw no signs that that bag had been removed with any tools in the past, which is why they had so many questions for me on behalf of the Engineering team.

Ultimately they couldn't replicate the issue at all but replaced the airbag out of caution and replaced the steering wheel because it was creaking like an old rocking chair in a Spaghetti Western.