Driver seat airbag/seatbelt blew; anchor / latch need replacing, too?

[Nuje]

Friend's car - driver seat (and side curtain) airbag blew while driving down gravel road.

Got the airbags and seatbelt reel for replacement, but then noticed that the anchor (by console, where the belt clicks in) also has the yellow connector; does that need to be replaced as well if the seatbelt tensioner blew?

 

[wonneber]

Might be the switch to detect if the belt is buckled?

 

[Nuje]

I had gotten the impression just from pulling various bits apart on these cars, that anything with a yellow connector was part of the airbag system. (?)

In any event, I just left the seatbelt latch as it was (easy enough to remove later if need be), hooked everything back up, cleared the codes, and....all good! No bags blew up, no airbag light, just like before.

BTW, has anyone else seen / dealt with airbags that deployed simply while driving? Both the car I recently bought (2003 Golf) and this car (2002 Jetta) had airbags blow just driving down gravel roads.

 

[Powder Hound]

In answer to the first question above, no you wouldn't need to replace the buckle as well. Yes, there is a yellow connector, but I think it is a safety thing and is more likely to indicate gold plated contacts - a better, corrosion resistant plug. Anyway, there is nothing else in that buckle than the switches to allow the control module to nag you if you don't properly buckle up.

I've never heard of airbags going off without good reason. I would think if it happens then there was some shock to the sensor that made it happen, or maybe the sensor was having problems. Those sensors are well hidden and problems with them generally don't just happen.

Cheers,

PH

 

[Nuje]

The car did suffer a little parking lot "doink", while it was parked, to the left (same side as blown bags) rear taillight (photo below) about 10days prior. I figured the two might be related, but (a) seemed ridiculously minor, and (b) weird that it'd wait 10days to deploy.

 

[csstevej]

That shouldn’t have done anything, it’s a G force sensor that sees a rapid deceleration that triggers the air bags.
I clocked Two deers several years ago, did $3500.00 damage to my car , I hit them doing about 45 mph.
I thought that the air bags would have deployed.....didn’t.

My youngest daughters bug I got from a salvage yard where the previous owner glanced off a wall with the Rh front of car.
That one blew drivers air bag, drivers seat belt, and passenger dash bag. Passenger seat belt was good but needed to replace the airbag computer with identical P/N and letter code...