Jimny SRS details: airbags, seatbelt pretensioners
One of the big changes brought about with the generation 4 Jimny is the addition of a number of supplemental restraint system (SRS) features. While some (most?) gen3 Jimnys had one or two airbags, gen4 Jimnys can have up to 10 and also feature seatbelt pretensioner devices. There’s always some questions related to this, even if indirectly (e.g. ‘what seat covers should I get’) so I wanted to try to lay out some facts.
Note that some markets get fewer airbags than others. I don’t really want to go into these differences
Sections
- SRS features
- Common questions
- ‘I want to get seat covers, what do I need to think about?’
- ‘I want some roof height storage’
- ‘I’m removing my rear seats, what do I do about the seatbelts?’
- ‘I’m fiddling with something related to the airbags, what should I think about first?’
- ‘I’m installing a dash mat, do I have to worry about airbags?’
- ‘I want to install different seats’
SRS features
There are two main supplementary restraint system (SRS) components in the generation 4 Jimnys: airbags, and active seatbelt pretensioners.
You can get a good overview of just how many airbags there are and what they protect from the ANCAP test results.
The seatbelt pretensioners are harder to image in use; their function is to provide tension on the belt if an accident is detected, holding the driver and any passengers more in place. The seat belts also have a limiter function so they won’t hold you too tight, either.
Below I’ll go into a bit more detail about the Jimny’s SRS arrangement. Note that this syste,, like many cars, deploy mostly from force sensors rather than a simple impact switch and there’s a lot of smarts that go into the deployment timing that I’m not privvy to.
Seat airbags
A primary component of the Jimny’s side impact protection for drivers is the provision of airbags inside the front seats themselves. These deploy from the outside bolster of each front seat as needed (generally from side impacts).
There are some considerations around this seam that opens up when the airbag deploys if you are going to fit seat covers to your car. Other than that not really any considerations other than if you’re going to remove the seats for interior work, or, you want to look at changing seats.
Main driver and passenger airbags
These are the obvious airbags to most people (and what they’ve come to expect from a car). These airbags deploy from the centre of the steering wheel for the driver and from the large part of the dashboard.
Here’s a quick before and after I found via the ol’ ‘gram.
Interestingly, the steering wheel airbag comes out in a way where the Suzuki logo is not disturbed but instead breaks the centre cap in a sort of ⅔ / ⅓ sort of a way.
The Euro NCAP/ANCAP testing video really gives you an idea of how they deploy.
You can see how far out they deploy. Looking at the video you can also get a sense of how ‘wide’ they deploy and how that might interract with things you fit to the dashboard, especially to the 3 attachment M8 holes in the dashboard.
This previous picture shows them when they’re fully ‘out’ but not fully inflated, when they get much wider.
As you can see, they get quite a bit wider though neither driver or passenger airbag would interract with the attachment points under the air vents. The one on the other side of the passengers side grab handle might require some thinking (discussed below).
Not much else to say about these, really! Do be careful of the steering wheel centre airbag if you’re pulling the steering wheel off, and, be considerate of the air bag for the passenger if you fit a dash mat or dashboard accessories.
Curtain airbags
There are a couple of additional airbags in the car, being curtain airbags that deploy from the ceiling. They run the full length of the car, from the front to the back, and deploy even if there’s no-one in a rear seat on the side they need to deploy on.