Seat side airbags & wet Okole seatcovers

[rretter]

I just installed the bottom portion of Wet Okole seat covers on the front seats of our 2006 Prius. The covers ARE the ones that WO says work with seat-side airbags. But looking at the backrest portion of the covers, I am concerned about the cutout Wet Okole says is for the airbag.

Looking at the original seatcover, I can't see how the airbag deploys at all, short of the seatcover seams giving way and coming completely undone as the airbag deploys. Which may be what the Toyota safety engineers intend, as the seatcover being destroyed really couldn't matter less in a situation where the airbags are having to deploy.

But that leaves me wondering about whether the hole in the Wet Okole covers, placed on top of the existing covers, would hinder the airbag deployment. Particularly since side airbags are already right on the margins of time/space constraints, since side impacts are right there, with no engine compartment to crunch through on the way to the passenger area. That's the most pressing (argh, terrible unintended pun) issue for engineers in designing side-impact airbags -- there's just so little time and space in which the deployment must occur.

Anyway -- has anyone had the misfortune to actually see what happens when a seat airbag deploys under a Wet Okole seatcover, even those seatcovers theoretically intended to accomodate airbags? Or does anyone at least know that the WO people ever actually sat in a room with the Toyota safety people and reached a consensus on the issue?

Until I hear different, I'm only using the bottom and headrest portions of the seatcovers, and I'll probably just send the backrest portions back to WO. I suppose they can use them when the next Prius customer orders the color we happened to order....and is willing to take WO's word for it that the covers and airbags play nicely together.

[Brent]

Originally posted by rretter@Mar 12 2006, 04:48 PM
I just installed the bottom portion of Wet Okole seat covers on the front seats of our 2006 Prius.  The covers ARE the ones that WO says work with seat-side airbags.  But looking at the backrest portion of the covers, I am concerned about the cutout Wet Okole says is for the airbag.

Looking at the original seatcover, I can't see how the airbag deploys at all, short of the seatcover seams giving way and coming completely undone as the airbag deploys.  Which may be what the Toyota safety engineers intend, as the seatcover being destroyed really couldn't matter less in a situation where the airbags are having to deploy.

But that leaves me wondering about whether the hole in the Wet Okole covers, placed on top of the existing covers, would hinder the airbag deployment.  Particularly since side airbags are already right on the margins of time/space constraints, since side impacts are right there, with no engine compartment to crunch through on the way to the passenger area.  That's the most pressing (argh, terrible unintended pun) issue for engineers in designing side-impact airbags -- there's just so little time and space in which the deployment must occur.

Anyway -- has anyone had the misfortune to actually see what happens when a seat airbag deploys under a Wet Okole seatcover, even those seatcovers theoretically intended to accomodate airbags?  Or does anyone at least know that the WO people ever actually sat in a room with the Toyota safety people and reached a consensus on the issue?

Until I hear different, I'm only using the bottom and headrest portions of the seatcovers, and I'll probably just send the backrest portions back to WO.  I suppose they can use them when the next Prius customer orders the color we happened to order....and is willing to take WO's word for it that the covers and airbags play nicely together.

[snapback]223969[/snapback]

I went to the Wet Okole showroom in Costa Mesa before I bought my seat covers. They have videos of airbags deploying through their seat cover cutouts. I have zero concern about interference after watching the videos.

I've had my Wet Okoles for about a year - they are great! No wear & tear after 20,000 miles, no wrinkles... they look like a factory interior. I swear by them.

[koa]

Here's a link to the wetokole website showing a video of the airbags deploying.

http://wetokole.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc...&Store_Code=WOH

[Sufferin' Prius Envy]

The Topic Title had me laughing: Seat side airbags & wet Okole seatcovers, Can't see how they possibly work together . . .

Answer: Wetting of the seats and airbags deploying go hand in hand.