996 - Airbags - where & how many?

I will do some research but I thought I'd ask any 996 owners to answer my quick question please.  How many airbags does the 996 have? (other than the obvious driver steering wheel & I assume a passenger dash mount bag). Are there curtain airbags? are there airbags for the rear passengers?  I could imagine those pesky Germans rationalising, "'Zis is zee 911, You don carry pazzengers, vee muzt save zee veight". cheers, Jason E

Depends on year and then also model and options. All should have driver and passenger. I think from 1999 or 2000 they also all got side airbags in the door. My 2001 C4 has all four I've never seen rear but maybe they were an option?

Are they Takata bags?

Knowing my luck they probably are.  I will go to all the trouble of selling my 944 & buying a 996 only for her to say, "Well he's not getting in the back of that death trap"!!........

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Yeah 'cause that would be worse than a 944 wouldn't it............

There is a very wide recall going on at the moment- the trick is that there is no supply.  If you think about how many they have to replace ... and how long that takes to make them...and why would a bankrupt company do that....well, here we are. i think the fault is incredibly rare, how rare I don't know. And the big question nobody seems willing to answer - can you rely on 10,15,20 year old airbags to go off properly when needed anyway?  Nobody is gathering data on older vehicle airbag deployment as far as o know. Im driving a vehicle which is twenty years old next month and has 6 airbags.  I have no idea if they would ever deploy when needed, and nobody can say.  I'm wondering in the end will removal of the airbags be safer - but then that renders the car unroadworthy. classic cars just look more attractive all the time.

Probably is reasonably rare.....however a bloke was killed last month (here in Brisbane I think) when his airbag threw shrapnel through his neck.  Not so rare for him........... Don't try & fathom my wife's mind Tingy........

Here is a question , going back to the early " Air Bag Era" in Australia ( early 1990's  etc ) on some expensive ( when new ) cars  , I / we heard a lot of talk from car makers & Media to a degree of how Air Bags were good for 10 years ( Merc mentioned 15 years from memory ) & then should be replaced with new air bags etc , there " was at the time " a lot of talk about this ( pluck out of the blue at the time 10 or 15  year thing ) , but in the last 15 years we have heard nothing about it at all I think I know why its gone very quite on this subject, its that on  cars with lots of air bags & all the other items that have to be replaced at the same time , the expense would ( in most cases , would not be economically viable ( way way way too expensive ) Here is a small example on just two air bags , Porsche 993 R/H/D with black interior 1996 year model Drivers Air Bag    in black       $ 2,500 USD in the states ( I just put the part number in the Pelican Parts site for a quick guide ( nothing more ) Passengers air bag                $ 2,420 USD in the States ( I just put the part number in Pelican etc ) = quick guide ( nothing more ) So if the part prices are current ( ??? )  = $ 4,920 USD = $ 6,155 Aus Dollars + exchange rates differences + credit card fees + air freight + import duties etc etc etc etc There is a bit of a pickle for consumers & politicians alike , meaning could imagine if it became LAW that air bag systems had to replaced every ( say 10 years ) , this would completely destroy any used car value Regards Bruce B

Bruce - given the 944 and 993 were the first Porsches to get airbags, have you ever seen cars involved in accidents where they didn't deploy?  Or where they have deployed incorrectly? for the enthusiast trying to navigate this issue it's impossible to separate facts from fiction.

Not being a panel beater ( meaning us ) , the answer is no , because as a independent Porsche mechanical repairer we never ever get a chance to see a Porsche that has just been in an accident , because the said car goes straight to a panel shop for insurance assessment ( via the tow truck / flat bed ) & repairs if feasible So you will have to direct that question to quite a few panel shops to get some consensus on that very subject As a side note , the first Porsche's ( Australian delivered new ) that I / we saw the first air bags were } Porsche 928 GTS  1993 year model ( drivers side only air bag ) , meaning in the steering wheel Porsche 964  ( 911 )  1993 year model  ( drivers side air bag , meaning steering wheel Porsche 968  ( 944 variant ) 1993 year model ( drivers side air bag ) , meaning steering wheel With the 1993 year models in R/H/D being delivered new in Australia , I am not aware of a optional passengers side being available , never seen one for a 1993 year models , but it may of occurred as a rare option ? Regards Bruce B

My wife's 13 year old Volvo has a sticker inside the doors stating that the airbags need to be checked after 10 years, I doubt they were..m My 97 Merc E320 that met an unfortunate end 2 years ago had no airbags deploy were some clearly should have! The integrity of the Merc saved me. Every part of a car gets used regularly and it can be seen if it is working or not, all except the airbags... 10 to 15 years you can probably presume that they will still work? After that.... are we better off to disconnect them... ?? I know we are not allowed to but it may be safer??

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I spoke to Craig at Porsche Centre Brisbane who said he'd not heard of any issues with the European supplied airbags that are fitted in Porsches (I think he said they were manufactured in a Slovakian Gulag - or similar locality).  I did ask whether there were any Takata airbags & he was pretty emphatic about saying only European airbags were fitted. Of course in saying this he did say they didn't see many old transaxle cars.............

No Porsche's are listed on the Takata recall Here's the full list of recalls for the airbags in Australia. https://www.productsafety.gov.au/news/takata-airbag-recalls-affecting-australian-consumers Note that their are no VW's on the list either (they share a parts bin with Porsche). So I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that VW & Porsche use another airbag manufacturer.

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What's the worst that can happen if an old airbag fails?  It doesn't go "BANG!" or under-inflates.  A half inflated airbag is better than none.  Remember, it's a supplementary restraint. The seat belts, energy absorbing crush zones and protective structure in the car's body are still there to mitigate injury in a crash (not accidents-don't get me started on that one)  Always use a properly adjusted seat belt.

Well apparently the worst that can happen is they just go bang out of the blue. i still remember the top gear episode where Clarkson had a side airbag go off on a rutted road.  That was supposed to not be possible.

well one thing i do see in pictures of wrecked 996's that gumtree/etc put up, is their airbags have gone off. soooo.. it seems they work..