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Head Restraint


tsanabria@bellsouth.net

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Lawdog is right. It's a safety item. If you got "tapped" hard enough to set them off, make sure you get it thoroughly checked out, just to make sure there's no hidden damage.

Edited by rolly
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Does anyone know if the headrest once it has been deployed is there a way of closing . They opened when we were just tapped by another car.. Can they be put back together??

thank you!!!

They can be reset no problem (and are designed that way), the procedure is not difficult at all. If you need detailed directions let me know, or you can take it to the dealer of course.

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One of the most unread :shrug: books in the auto industry is the actual car's owners manual, for the car OWNER to read :idea: and understand :doh: your car. Resetting the headrests is noted in there, in the 2013 owners manual it is noted on page 57 and up. If you don't have the owner's manual it can be down loaded from Dodge.com.

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I was not aware it did that... and it looks painful and disturbing. Headrests are supposed to catch your head to prevent whiplash on impact. Not smack you in the back of the head...

Pretty sure that active restraint headrests are now mandatory on all new vehicles... I would assume that means that the appropriate testing has been done to prove safety.

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If you sit in the seat, you'll notice that there is a space between the headrest and the back of your head. In a severe enough accident, that space can turn into an impact zone and serious injury by impact (concussion) or whiplash. The new headrests are designed to deploy and give your head nowhere to go; your head gets "sandwiched" between the new style head rest deployment and the air bags (the one in the steering wheel and the curtain back in the upper rail). Very similar to the system first used and, now improved, by the NASCAR racing circuit. They even go so far as to strap the driver's helmets to the headrest/cradle so that they can't move away from it. Concussive blows to the head are just now being recognized for how much more serious they are than what was believed in my "younger days" (pre-dinosaur if you ask my son...).

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If you sit in the seat, you'll notice that there is a space between the headrest and the back of your head. In a severe enough accident, that space can turn into an impact zone and serious injury by impact (concussion) or whiplash. The new headrests are designed to deploy and give your head nowhere to go; your head gets "sandwiched" between the new style head rest deployment and the air bags (the one in the steering wheel and the curtain back in the upper rail). Very similar to the system first used and, now improved, by the NASCAR racing circuit. They even go so far as to strap the driver's helmets to the headrest/cradle so that they can't move away from it. Concussive blows to the head are just now being recognized for how much more serious they are than what was believed in my "younger days" (pre-dinosaur if you ask my son...).

The "sandwich" part makes sense if all other air bags deploy. But the OP said they were "tapped" by another car, leading me to believe the headrest just popped out on it's own. No air bag deployment. So I could just picture backing into another car at slow speed, like in a parking lot, and that thing popping out and smacking you on the back of the head.

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I'd be curious to see a high-speed camera video of one deploying with a crash-test dummy during a collision test. It just strikes me as something that would introduce unnecessary head trauma, but I'm certainly no crash-safety expert.

The "sandwich" part makes sense if all other air bags deploy. But the OP said they were "tapped" by another car, leading me to believe the headrest just popped out on it's own. No air bag deployment. So I could just picture backing into another car at slow speed, like in a parking lot, and that thing popping out and smacking you on the back of the head.

Actually, the head restraint should only activate in a rear collision. The force of your car moving forward after being hit causes damage to the soft neck tissues (whiplash). All that the headrest does is close the gap, leaving less distance for your head to travel and absorbing the force from your head impacting the head rest, thereby mitigating the risk of neck injuries due to rear impacts.

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  • 1 year later...

I can attest to the fact they work my wife and I were stopped at a light when a guy going about 45 mph hit us directly from behind. We both suffer injuries but the headrest deployed and saved our necks from being broken. We are now trying to find out from dodge at what energy level a car that weighs a certain amount takes to deploy them. My wife was the first one to notice that they had deployed. So I for one am a big fan of them now.

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  • 1 year later...
On 8/29/2014 at 6:02 PM, Milous said:

They can be reset no problem (and are designed that way), the procedure is not difficult at all. If you need detailed directions let me know, or you can take it to the dealer of course.

This happened in my Grand Caravan, however we were not in a collision. I think it deployed due to my kids horsing around. Anyway, my user's manual does not have these instructions.Could you provide me details instructions on how to reset, please?

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8 hours ago, Ramit said:

This happened in my Grand Caravan, however we were not in a collision. I think it deployed due to my kids horsing around. Anyway, my user's manual does not have these instructions.Could you provide me details instructions on how to reset, please?

 

So you need the instructions for a Caravan or a Journey? For the Journey, it is indeed in the manual how to reset:

Resetting Active Head Restraints (AHR)

If the Active Head Restraints are triggered in a collision, you must reset the head restraint on the driver’s and front passenger seat. You can recognize when the Active Head Restraint has been triggered by the fact that they have moved forward.

 

1. Grasp the deployed AHR from the rear seat

large.597b2fef98151_AHR1.png.729979a9309a2e41ea07823dbeaaa1b2.png

                                                                 Hand Positioning Points On AHR

2. Position the hands on the top of the deployed AHR at a comfortable position.

3. Pull down then rearward towards the rear of the vehicle then down to engage the locking mechanism.

large.597b2ff0915f9_AHR2.png.eab3a224edc441e3777903fc91abdf1d.png

                                                                          1 — Downward Movement

                                                                          2 — Rearward Movement

 

large.597b2ff1b6e15_AHR3.png.e82ee05a047e286f6ecc7a83fd0ae4f7.png

                                                 3 — Final Downward Movement To Engage Locking Mechanism

4. The AHR front soft foam and trim half should lock into the back decorative plastic half.

large.597b2ff280085_AHR4.png.26cbd36f17914aabca0ab7bcae346608.png

                                                                              AHR In Reset Position                                                                 

NOTE:

If you have difficulties or problems resetting the Active Head Restraints, see an authorized dealer.

For safety reasons, have the Active Head Restraints checked by a qualified specialist at an authorized dealer

 

Edited by jkeaton
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  • 2 months later...

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