Are aging air bags a concern ?

Today I realized my 99 C4 is 25 years old . I have been thinking about switching to a black steering wheel to break up the gray interior . That got me thinking OEM vs aftermarket . That got me thinking about the air bag . Aftermarket wheels like Momo/Sparco/NRG generally eliminate the air bag . Obviously OEM wheels utilize the air bag . But what about the age of the airbag ? My biggest fear with airbags has always been them going off by mistake . Is that concern valid as airbags get older ? Some websites say they last 10-15 years . Others state lifetime of the vehicle . But what is considered the lifetime ? Is that 20 years ? 30 years ? 50 years ? Thoughts ?

Disconnect it if you. Fear it but I’ll leave mine in there

@996C438 You ask a very good question. Haven't thought about it nor have I ever priced replacing them. The second question would be, if you do order a new set of airbags, are you getting 20+ year old airbags from the factory or dealer inventory anyway putting you in the same spot? I will probably stop in at my local dealer in a few weeks as i am collecting a couple of parts and get their perspective.

Here's a helpful article: https://www.callasrennsport.com/File...ag-Systems.pdf I did a deep dive on this topic when I owned a 968 which had first-gen airbags. Couple points from my research back then, which should also be applicable to the 996. The Porsche SRS system is very well designed and completes an internal auto diagnostic with every ignition cycle. So if the airbag light comes on and goes off after starting, the system is functioning as intended. Airbags don't really age out. This is a matter of some debate, but there is a reason there is no recommended service interval for airbags. MB stopped recommending replacement for vehicles after 1992, and Porsche never had a recommended replacement interval. Porsche used to recommend a dealership inspection every 2 years however that simply consisted of a visual check of the auto-diagnostic system. Older airbags aren't at increased risk of deployment. The Porsche system has both a peripheral and central trigger sensor and they both must close at the same time to fire the airbag. This can only happen with rapid deceleration, or acceleration in the case of a side impact. With Porsche brakes, tracked vehicles are at increased risk of accidental deployment but this is still pretty rare. Bottom line: if airbag light comes on and goes off and you don't exclusively track, you don't need to worry about this.

@sublm8 good info. Thanks. I have hung out around the track at PCA events since 2004 and never heard of one accidentally going off in any Porsche.

Sublm8 great explanation 👍 . Thank you

I emailed Porsche about this several years ago and, while I cannot locate the email, IIRC the reply was along the lines of the airbags being good for the expected lifetime of the car, functional as long as they are not damaged or altered in any way, no error codes and to have them inspected by a Dealer.

It's not "the porsche brakes" as to why tracked vehicles are at increased risk of accidental deployment. Even Porsche brakes, to put it more precisely even the tyres on a Porsche, are not able to generate the amount of g that is required (namely double digit) to deploy an airbag. If anything it would be the combo of hard braking, banging over the kerbs, rumble strips and 'sausages' that could yield the signals from the SRS sensors that pass the thresholds to set off airbag(s). Passenger car manufacturers test and make sure that such false positives do NOT set the airbags off but as they cannot prevent it entirely that's where and why the slight risks when tracking a car remains.

Ha! I drove 30 years without an airbag, so I think I’ll just risk it the rest of the to the finish line :-)

I had a friend of mine ( Randy) set off the "automatic roll bars" in his 99 Cab at Barber Motorsports Track this past fall. He has going down the back stretch and cut it to close in the "Kink" and hit the curb/rumble strips at over 90mph, this upset the suspension, and he over-corrected and went into a slide, first one way then the other..I heard the tires squalling but could not see the back stretch for the trees, but then I saw him come from behind the trees and stop. At first I was like what happened? Did the engine/trans lock up? But then he restarted and I herd him take off again, and knew he probably just lost it.. He came into the Paddock and the Roll Bars had deployed also ..LOL... Evidently he was very close to rolling over, may have even had a wheel or two off the ground... But the roll over protection worked as designed...I had to re-set the roll bars so he could do another session..