Collision repair facilities in several provinces in Canada, enjoy profits that U.S. shops are missing out on. They have been recycling non-deployed OEM air bags since the first installations fifteen years ago. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, approved their use in 2002. Hundreds of non-deployed OEM air bags have been tested in Canada and the U.S. by credible organizations over the years with no problems and no reported failures of air bag modules themselves.

Franklin

On the other hand, claims of failures or alleged failures in service in vehicles relate to SRS system level malfunctions, e.g., sensor location, ECU sensitivity, ECU location, and are directly responsible for failures to fire. To the industry's knowledge, there has never been an instance of an air bag system failure that was attributed to the air bag module itself.

Since all air bags are OEM, all have been tested to 99.999% reliability. These assurances have enabled many Canadian repair facilities to purchase non-deployed air bags for less than half of the cost of new replacement OEM air bags - and have saved many hundreds of vehicles from being declared total losses.

The OEMs certify that their vehicles meet FMVSS 208 (among other federal safety and emissions standards) prior to sale. The air bag manufacturers comply with various quality standards such as QS 9000 and U.S. OEMs require that all suppliers meet the QS9000Standard in order to qualify to supply. Five 9s is not mandated by either FMVSS 208 or QS 9000, it is a level of reliability driven by competition.

Completely different story

In the U.S., the story is completely different. About 20% of collision estimates are declared total losses, many largely because of the cost of replacing the air bags. Because of liability concerns and a lack of vital knowledge, non-deployed air bags are not commonly used for insurance-paid repairs resulting in a full OEM ticket price for replacement air bags. As the number of air bags in vehicles has climbed from two, to four to as many as twelve in some vehicles, the potential for more total losses will also climb dramatically. Obviously this means fewer repairs for shops, fewer repaired vehicles returned to the customer, and higher repair costs for the insurance company when air bag replacement does not total the vehicle.

Is all of this necessary? Not according to George Eliades, executive vice president of the Automotive Recyclers Association (A-R-A). George says their organization has been studying ways to reduce the liability issue and to get these perfectly good air bags regularly employed in the repair of vehicles that would not have been totaled had it not been for air bag replacement expense.

Over the past several years, A-R-A committees have compiled facts and figures and made presentations to insurance and collision industry organizations like CIC, SCRS, and I-CAR. The result has been the creation of an "ARA Protocol for Use of Original Equipment Non-Deployed Air Bags"(www.a-r-a.org/standardsandcodes).

What the protocol does

The purpose of the Protocol is to "provide guidelines for the practice of removing an original equipment non-deployed air bag from a salvaged vehicle and reusing it in another vehicle." The document contains detailed procedures for removal, handling, processing and shipping of the air bag.

Peter Byrne, the President of ATT (formerly Air Bag Testing Technology, Inc.), was retained to develop a Standard, much like an ANSI or OEM Standard that addresses the topic, to enable third party inspectors to validate OEM non-deployed air bags.