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The Aging Effect on Air Bags
Pictured below are the two drive axle air bags from the street side of our 96 Liberty. The left one is dated Jan 2000, the right one June of 2004. 4 1/2 yrs makes a big difference in their condition.
So far I’ve changed 5 of the 8 air bags, and none have been the originals. Weird, in a good way.
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1 Reply
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The brake chamber diaphragms you showed and the air bag photos both illustrate the impact of age on rubber.
When I had the conventional brake chambers I arbitrarily set 5 years as a date to replace them. Those diaphragms for whatever reason seemed to age poorly and a small crack would propogate quickly so for not much money I could have reliable brake chambers.
Air bags based solely on anecdotal evidence I set as a 10 year item. In some respects an air bag failure is more serious than a brake chamber failure. With he brake chamber a failed parking brake can be caged and the line capped, and a failed service brake can have the line plugged. But it an air bag bursts driving can be dangerous because handling is impacted, and unless the air line is capped or plugged your safety is dependent upon how good your protection valve(s) work.
We have other components also dependent upon aging rubber such as the Norgren valves so we all have to be vigilant to how everything works because the cost of on-road failures is often significant compared to planned repairs when at the home base.
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