NISSAN AIRBAG DEFECT - reclaim costs ?

facade

There is also that tape measure affair under the steering wheel that makes the connection as the wheel rotates.
Recently there have been a few failures reported to the Note club (yet they are working fine in 15+ year old cars of other types, maybe there is an "improved" design lately): a new one is not cheap, but this certainly wouldn't have been touched changing the airbag.

takman

I wouldn't have been paying £50 a time to reset an airbag light I would have wanted the fault fixed properly. £50 is a bit hight anyway because my local garage charges £25. But I have my own fault code reader that connects to my laptop. It only cost £55 from China and can the same things as the £2000 unit used in my local garage.

almillar

so my guess is that Nissan would have just told me I have to replace the entire unit and they would sting me for several hundred quid !

And if you'd done that, and kept the receipts, THEN you might have a case against them. Can you prove that the recall directly relates to whatever you think is faulty? You've got absolutely no evidence at this point to throw at them apart from 'it's an airbag light' and 'it's an airbag defect'.

And I wouldn't be paying the same garage £50 twice to do the same job - they fixed the symptom, not the problem.

bigjl

trivial wrote: »

The problem first happened before the official safety recall so my guess is that Nissan would have just told me I have to replace the entire unit and they would sting me for several hundred quid !

How would Nissan know about the problem if owners didn't go back to Nissan Dealers to fix the problem?

Why do you think you should be compensated?

The airbag was not made by Nissan anyway so you should sue the airbag manufacturer of you want to sue anybody.

facade

bigjl wrote: »

The airbag was not made by Nissan anyway so you should sue the airbag manufacturer of you want to sue anybody.

Make it quick though, Takata could be looking at replacing 35 million airbags in the USA alone, 7 million here no idea how many elsewhere, so they will likely go bust over it

trivial

Thanks all for your input.

Best thing I can do is to see if light comes back on in next few months but anyways I doubt that Nissan would compensate me because I can't prove the link and I haven't kept receipts.

One more question - is it possible (and legal) to disconnect the airbag altogether ? If so is it advisable ?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

trivial wrote: »

Thanks all for your input.

Best thing I can do is to see if light comes back on in next few months but anyways I doubt that Nissan would compensate me because I can't prove the link and I haven't kept receipts.

One more question - is it possible (and legal) to disconnect the airbag altogether ? If so is it advisable ?

Nope its not advisable to do this.


If the light fails to illuminate on the instrument cluster ignition or is constantly illuminated its MOT failure.

AdrianC

EdGasket wrote: »

Ref. "And paying £50 a go to put the light out?" Yes that would be a standard charge for a diagnostic connection and remedy. Air bag light on = MoT failure so what choice did the OP have?

They could always have fixed the problem properly.

Odds on it's the wiring under the seat to the pretensioners.

almillar

is it possible (and legal) to disconnect the airbag altogether ? If so is it advisable ?

If the airbag's disconnected, the light comes on! It tells you there's a problem, and plenty of people in this thread have actually said there could be a dodgy connection, and if true, you're effectively already driving with it disconnected. If you don't want the light to come on, you'll need to rewire the ECU or something.

dlm

Common on vehicles that have been on the road to have airbag light come on due to the connector under the driver seat. Much of the time it just needs pushing back together as they become loose with seat movements and vibration/crap being stowed under seats.

It is perfectly possible that after rectifying the fault, the mechanic realised the light was still on, so put his hand under the seat to check a connection and this cured your issue.

An Airbag light is there to tell you it isn't working and to take it to your dealer. You chose to ignore it and pay someone with little knowledge or care to turn it off every year, rather than get it looked into. It would have cost the same as turning it off, you disagnose the problem.