KIA SOUL 2009 Repair Manual

Safety features of your vehicle
48
3
✽✽
NOTICE

349
Safety features of your vehicle
C040600AUN-U1
Side impact air bag (if equipped)
Your vehicle is equipped with a side
impact air bag in each front seat. The
purpose of the air bag is to provide the
vehicle's driver and/or the front passen-ger with additional protection than that
offered by the seat belt alone.
(Continued)
Even though your vehicle isequipped with the passenger's
front air bag ON/OFF switch, do
not install a child restraint sys-
tem in the front passenger's seat.
A child restraint system must
never be placed in the front seat.
Children who are too large for
child restraint systems should
always occupy the rear seat and
use the available lap/shoulder
belts. Children are afforded the
most safety in the event of an
accident when they are
restrained by a proper restraintsystem in the rear seat.
As soon as the child seat is no longer needed on the front pas-
senger's seat, reactivate the front
passenger's air bag.
OUN026141
OAM039029
WARNING
The driver is responsible for the proper position of the passen-
ger’s front air bag ON/OFF switch.
Deactivate the passenger's front air bag only when the ignition
switch is switched off, or the mal-
function may occur in the SRS
Control Module.
And there may be a danger that
the driver's and/or front passen-
ger’s and/or side and curtain air
bag may fail to trigger, or not trig-
ger correctly during a collision.
Never install a rearward facing child seat on the front passen-
ger's seat unless the passenger's
front air bag has been deactivat-
ed. The infant or child could be
severely injured or killed by an air
bag deployment in case of anaccident. (Continued)

Safety features of your vehicle
50
3
The side impact air bags are designed to
deploy only during certain side-impact
collisions, depending on the crash sever-
ity, angle, speed and point of impact. Theside impact air bags are not designed to
deploy in all side impact situations.(Continued)
Do not install any accessories on
the side or near the side impact
air bag.
Do not place any objects over the air bag or between the air bag
and yourself.
Do not place any objects (an umbrella, bag, etc.) between the
front door and the front seat.
Such objects may become dan-
gerous projectiles and cause
injury if the supplemental side
impact air bag inflates.
To prevent unexpected deploy- ment of the side impact air bag
that may result in personal injury,
avoid impact to the side impact
sensor when the ignition switchis on.
If seat or seat cover is damaged, have the vehicle checked and
repaired by an authorized KIA
dealer. Inform that your vehicle isequipped with side impact air
bags.WARNING
The side impact air bag is sup- plemental to the driver's and the
passenger's 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 condi-
tions severe enough to cause
significant injury to the vehicleoccupants.
For best protection from the side impact air bag system and to
avoid being injured by the
deploying side impact air bag,
both front seat occupants shouldsit in an upright position with the
seat belt properly fastened. Thedriver's hands should be placedon the steering wheel at the 9:00
and 3:00 positions. The passen-
ger's arms and hands should beplaced on their laps.
Do not use any accessory seat covers.
Use of seat covers could reduce or prevent the effectiveness ofthe system.
(Continued)

351
Safety features of your vehicle
C040700AUN-U1
Curtain air bag (if equipped)
Curtain air bags are located along both
sides of the roof rails above the front and
rear doors.
They are designed to help protect the heads of the front seat occupants andthe rear outboard seat occupants in cer-
tain side impact collisions.The curtain air bags are designed to
deploy only during certain side impact
collisions, depending on the crash sever-
ity, angle, speed and impact. The curtain
air bags are not designed to deploy in all
side impact situations, collisions from the
front or rear of the vehicle or in most
rollover situations.
WARNING
In order for side impact and cur- tain air bags to provide the best
protection, both front seat occu-
pants and both outboard rearoccupants should sit in anupright position with the seat
belts properly fastened.
Importantly, children should sit in
a proper child restraint system inthe rear seat.
(Continued)
(Continued)
When children are seated in therear outboard seats, they must be
seated in the proper child
restraint system. Make sure to
put the child restraint system as
far away from the door side as
possible, and secure the child
restraint system in a locked posi-tion.
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 passen-
gers when they are seated onseats equipped with side and/or
curtain air bags.
Never try to open or repair any components of the side curtain
air bag system. This should only
be done by an authorized KIA
dealer.
Failure to follow the above men-tioned instructions can result in
injury or death to the vehicle occu-pants in an accident.
OAM039034
OUN026091

Safety features of your vehicle
52
3
C040800AUN-C1
Why didn’t my air bag go off in a collision? (Inflation and non-infla-
tion conditions of the air bag)
There are many types of accidents in
which the air bag would not be expect-
ed 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
(1) SRS control module
(2) Front impact sensor
(3) Side impact sensor (if equipped)
OAM039030/OAM039031L/OAM039032/OAM039033
123

353
Safety features of your vehicle
C040801AUN
Air bag inflation conditions
Front air bags
Front air bags are designed to inflate in a frontal collision depending on the intensi-
ty, speed or angles of impact of the frontcollision.
1VQA2084
WARNING
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 injuryor death.
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 vehicle
checked and repaired by an
authorized KIA dealer.
(Continued)(Continued)
Problems may arise if the sensorinstallation angles are changed
due to the deformation of the
front bumper, body or B pillar
where side collision sensors are
installed. Have the vehicle
checked and repaired by an
authorized KIA dealer.
Your vehicle has been designed to absorb impact and deploy the
air bag(s) in certain collisions.
Installing aftermarket bumper
guards or replacing a bumper
with non-genuine parts may
adversely affect your vehicles
collision and air bag deployment
performance.

Safety features of your vehicle
54
3
Side air bags (if equipped)
Side air bags (side impact and/or curtain air bags) are designed to inflate when an
impact is detected by side collision sen-sors depending on the strength, speed orangles of impact resulting from a sideimpact 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 colli-sions if the front impact sensors detect a
sufficient impact. Side air bags (side
impact and/or curtain air bags) aredesigned to inflate only in side impact
collisions, but they may inflate in othercollisions if the side impact sensorsdetect a sufficient impact.
If the vehicle chassis is impacted by
bumps or objects on unimproved roads
or sidewalks, air bags may deploy. Drive
carefully on unimproved roads or on sur-
faces not designed for vehicle traffic to
prevent unintended air bag deployment.
C040802AUN
Air bag non-inflation conditions
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.
1VQA2086
OVQ036018N
OUN026090

355
Safety features of your vehicle
Frontal air bags are not designed toinflate in rear collisions, because occu-
pants are moved backward by the
force of the impact. In this case, inflat-
ed air bags would not be able to pro-
vide any additional benefit. 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 addi-tional occupant protection.
However, side impact or curtain air
bags may inflate depending on the
intensity, vehicle speed and angles ofimpact. In a slant or 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 bene-
fit, and thus the sensors may not
deploy any air bags.
1VQA2089OVQ036018NOUN036087

Safety features of your vehicle
56
3
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 signifi-
cantly reduced by such “under-ride”
collisions. Air bags may not inflate in rollover acci-
dents because air bag deployment
would not provide protection to the
occupants.
However, side and/or curtain air bags may inflate when the vehicle is rolled
over by a side impact collision, if the
vehicle is equipped with side impact air
bags and curtain air bags. 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 deliv-
ered to the sensors.
1VQA20901VQA20911VQA2092

357
Safety features of your vehicle
C041100AUN-C1 SRS Care
The SRS is virtually maintenance-free
and so there are no parts you can safely
service by yourself. If the SRS air bag
warning light does not illuminate, or con-
tinuously remains on, have your vehicle
immediately inspected by an authorized
KIA dealer.
Any work on the SRS system, such as
removing, installing, repairing, or any
work on the steering wheel must be per-
formed by an authorized KIA dealer.Improper handling of the SRS system
may result in serious personal injury.
WARNING
Modification to SRS components or wiring, including the addition
of any kind of badges to the pad
covers or modifications to the
body structure, can adversely
affect SRS performance and lead
to possible injury.
For cleaning the air bag pad cov- ers, use only a soft, dry cloth or
one which has been moistened
with plain water. Solvents or
cleaners could adversely affect
the air bag covers and proper
deployment of the system.

No objects should be placed over
or near the air bag modules on the
steering wheel, instrument panel,
and the front passenger's panel
above the glove box, because any
such object could cause harm if the
vehicle is in a crash severe enough
to cause the air bags to inflate.
(Continued)
(Continued)
If the air bags inflate, they must be replaced by an authorized KIA
dealer.
Do not tamper with or disconnect SRS wiring, or other components
of the SRS system. Doing so
could result in injury, due to acci-
dental inflation of the air bags or
by rendering the SRS inopera-
tive.
If components of the air bag sys- tem must be discarded, or if the
vehicle must be scrapped, certain
safety precautions must be
observed. An authorized KIA
dealer knows these precautions
and can give you the necessary
information. Failure to follow
these precautions and proce-dures could increase the risk of
personal injury.
If your car was flooded and has soaked carpeting or water on
flooring, you shouldn't try to start
the engine; have the car towed to
an authorized KIA dealer.