Side air bag (if equipped)
Your vehicle is equipped with a side air bag in each front seat. The purpose of the air bag is to provide the vehicle's driver and the front passenger with additional protection than that offered by the seat belt alone.
The side air bags are designed to deploy only during certain side impact collisions, depending on the crash severity. The side air bags are not designed to deploy in all side impact situations.
Do not allow the passengers to lean their heads or bodies onto doors, put their arms on the doors, stretch their arms out of the window, or place objects between the doors and passengers when they are seated on seats equipped with side and air bags.
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The side air bag is supplemental to the seat belt systems and is not a substitute for them. Therefore your seat belts must be worn at all times while the vehicle is in motion. The air bags deploy only in certain side impact conditions severe enough to cause significant injury to the vehicle occupants.
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For best protection from the side air bag system and to avoid being injured by the deploying side air bag, both front and all rear (if equipped) seat occupants should sit in an upright position with the seat belt properly fastened.
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Do not use any accessory seat covers.
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Use of seat covers could reduce or prevent the effectiveness of the system.
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Do not install any accessories on the side or near the side air bag.
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Do not place any objects over the air bag or between the air bag and yourself. Also, do not attach any objects around the area the air bag inflates such as the door, side door glass, front and rear pillar.
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Do not place any objects (an umbrella, bag, etc.) between the front door and the front seat. Such objects may become dangerous projectiles and cause injury if the supplemental side air bag inflates.
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To prevent unexpected deployment of the side air bag that may result in personal injury, avoid impact to the side sensor when the ignition switch is on.
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If the seat or seat cover is damaged, have the system serviced by a professional workshop. Kia recommends to visit an authorized Kia dealer/service partner.
Why didn’t my air bag go off in a collision? (Inflation and non-inflation conditions of the air bag)
There are many types of accidents in which the air bag would not be expected to provide additional protection.
These include rear impacts, second or third collisions in multiple impact accidents, as well as low speed impacts. In other words, just because your vehicle is damaged and even if it is totally unusable, don’t be surprised that the air bags did not inflate.
Air bag collision sensors
* The actual air bag collision sensors in the vehicle may differ from the illustration.
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SRS control module
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Side impact sensor (if equipped)
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Do not hit or allow any objects to impact the locations where air bags or sensors are installed.
This may cause unexpected air bag deployment, which could result in serious personal injury or death.
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If the installation location or angle of the sensors is altered in any way, the air bags may deploy when they should not or they may not deploy when they should, causing severe injury or death.
Therefore, do not try to perform maintenance on or around the air bag sensors. Have the system serviced by a professional workshop. Kia recommends to visit an authorized Kia dealer/service partner.
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Problems may arise if the sensor installation angles are changed due to the deformation of the front bumper, body or B pillars where side collision sensors are installed. In this case, have the system serviced by a professional workshop. Kia recommends to visit an authorized Kia dealer/service partner.
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Your vehicle has been designed to absorb impact and deploy the air bag(s) in certain collisions. Use only Kia Genuine Parts or those of an equivalent standard to install bumper guards or replace a bumper. If not, it may adversely affect your vehicle`s collision and air bag deployment performance.
Air bag inflation conditions
Front air bags are designed to inflate in a frontal collision depending on the severity of impact of the front collision.
Side air bags are designed to inflate when an impact is detected by side collision sensors depending on the severity of impact resulting from a side impact collision.
Although the front air bags (driver’s and front passenger’s air bags) are designed to inflate only in frontal collisions, they also may inflate in other types of collisions. Side air bags are designed to inflate only in side impact collisions, but they may inflate in other collisions if the side impact sensors detect a sufficient impact.
If the vehicle chassis is impacted by bumps or objects on unimproved roads, the air bags may deploy. Drive carefully on unimproved roads or on surfaces not designed for vehicle traffic to prevent unintended air bag deployment.
Air bag non-inflation conditions
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In certain low-speed collisions the air bags may not deploy. The air bags are designed not to deploy in such cases because they may not provide benefits beyond the protection of the seat belts in such collisions.
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Frontal air bags are not designed to inflate in rear collisions, because occupants are moved backward by the force of the impact. In this case, inflated air bags would not be able to provide any additional benefit.
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Front air bags may not inflate in side impact collisions, because occupants move to the direction of the collision, and thus in side impacts, frontal air bag deployment would not provide additional occupant protection.
However, side air bags may inflate depending on the severity of impact.
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In an angled collision, the force of impact may direct the occupants in a direction where the air bags would not be able to provide any additional benefit, and thus the sensors may not deploy any air bags.
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Just before impact, drivers often brake heavily. Such heavy braking lowers the front portion of the vehicle causing it to “ride” under a vehicle with a higher ground clearance. Air bags may not inflate in this "under-ride" situation because deceleration forces that are detected by sensors may be significantly reduced by such “underride” colli-sions.
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Air bags may not inflate in rollover accidents because air bag deployment would not provide protection to the occupants.
However, side air bags may inflate when the vehicle is rolled over by a side impact collision, if the vehicle is equipped with side air bags.
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Air bags may not inflate if the vehicle collides with objects such as utility poles or trees, where the point of impact is concentrated to one area and the full force of the impact is not delivered to the sensors.