Occupant Restraints - Passive - Supplemental Air Bag System

SAFETY BELT PRETENSIONERS

As part of the supplemental restraint system (SRS), the safety belt buckles are equipped with pretensioners. The safety belt buckle pretensioners remove excess slack from the safety belt webbing. The pretensioners are activated by the restraints control module (RCM) when the module detects a frontal or side impact event exceeding a programmed limit and the safety belt is latched (buckled). The passenger safety belt pretensioner can deploy regardless of the passenger air bag deactivation (PAD) switch setting or the presence of an occupant if the front outboard passenger safety belt is latched (buckled).

SAFETY BELT TENSION SENSOR

The safety belt tension sensor:
- is part of the front outboard passenger safety belt and retractor assembly.
- is located at the safety belt anchor point.
- is used in conjunction with the occupant classification sensor (OCS) system.
- is a three-wire Hall-effect sensor that is part of the front passenger safety belt and retractor assembly.

The safety belt tension sensor is used by the OCS system to identify the presence of a child safety seat on the front outboard passenger seat, when the child safety seat is installed according to manufacturer instructions. The safety belt tension sensor senses the tension on the safety belt assembly then provides an output to the OCS system electronic control unit (ECU), indicating that the safety belt assembly is cinched. After sensing the weight applied to the seat by the occupant and using the safety belt tension sensor input, the OCS system determines how the occupant should be classified and communicates this information to the restraints control module (RCM). If the occupant is classified to be a child, the RCM will then automatically deactivate the passenger air bag module.