Boxster's passenger airbag deployed while at a standstill...???

The garage I've been using to service the boxster for the past 15 years called and said the Boxter's passenger airbag deployed while it was at a standstill right after starting the car. The car was in for a tie-rod replacement and just came back from being aligned. The place has always been great and I trust that they do what they say.

They don't want to restart the car for fear of other bags going off. They are checking with Porsche now, but any thoughts???



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2018 10:17AM by RainyDayGarage. (view changes)

The airbag does a self-diagnosis on startup and illuminates the light if there is a problem. Also, you can use a PST2 or PIWIS to read the "events" section of the Airbag module to see why it triggered.

There was a TSB (#6959) in 2003 about retrofitting the passenger side airbag with an improved version. I don't know what's better about it.

A lot of people pull out the Airbag bulb after repeated failure. And if it burns out they may not notice.

Am assuming you are referring to the Airbag warning light... I don't know. I never paid attention to it on startup, but I don't have the car at present at it is with the mechanic. They are waiting to hear from their insurance people. Internet search brought up only one other Porsche incident where startup caused the passenger air bag to deploy and the second startup caused the driver side to deploy!

Clearly this is not a common problem...

Just got off the phone with the mechanic… apparently the airbag going off also took out the inside panel of the passenger door. They are looking for the replacement part for that as well as figuring things out with the insurance company. Kind of a bummer of a series of events from failing a simple annual inspection!

Sorry to hear about this. Very strange.
On a lighter note: we finally have a good reason for having the ignition key on the left side: Le Mans start (or at least ignition on) helps avoid having the airbag deploy in your face...

It wasn't the front airbag, but the one on the passenger door... now it made more sense why they were looking to replace that panel.
I also saw the video of the "event"... clearly did not hit anything.

The tech was backing the car into a spot...couldn't really tell if the car was moving when it happen as the top was up.
But you could see the back plastic window "puff" and the tech getting out looking kind of dazed...poor guy!!!

Anyway, it will take a few days for the insurance companies to sort it out....and of course, no one there wants to start up the car.
They said there was no code, but I forgot to ask how they knew that if they haven't startup up the car since.

You just have to have the ignition on. Are they checking the Airbag events codes or just the MIL codes? I find it unlikely (though possible) that the Airbag went off without being triggered by an event that got stored.

I recall an event like this at nelsons racetrack in OH--probably 10 years ago--when a late 80's 944 had one deploy at the end of the back straight in the braking zone.
The driver got the car slowed without issue and got the car in, but was pretty shaken up--understandably.