For the last 3-4 months of this year (2016) a service airbag message started coming on along with the front passenger side airbag coming on. I attributed it to my purse being placed in the seat and the seatbelt not being buckled because it was very sporadic. I thought it did not come on every time because my purse was heavier sometimes than others which triggered the problem. Ultimately the service message came on more and more often and eventually stayed on all the time. I decided it really needed to be checked out so I took it to my Buick dealership. There I was reminded that I brought it in on June 8, 2015, as a response to an “airbag connector product update” recall. The repair invoice shows that they replaced 8 clips (5297428) and 1 tube (12355010.) (I honestly didn’t remember this particular repair because there have been so many on this vehicle.) I asked if the service update was warranted and was told only up to a year or12,000 miles. I was about a week beyond the date and app 3000 miles over the mileage. I was told the problem might be something different than the recall repair anyway but it would cost me $88 for them to hook it up to their computer to get a repair code. I decided to do a little more research before shelling out almost $100 to get a code and lord knows how much for a repair. It was late in the day also and I remembered it taking over 3 hours to do the recall repair when I was told it would take an hour or less.
After doing lots of online research I’ve found this problem almost exclusively relates to the recall. However, it seems many people were charged for the repair prior to the recall at a cost of $900-$1500. It seems to me that had the repair been performed properly it would have needed repair after barely a year especially since my passenger seat is set in or moved very rarely…probably less than half a dozen times since the recall repair. Am I wrong in this thinking? I appreciate any/all suggestions/expertise. Thank you.
Look in your owners manual for the zone office. Give them a call to see if they can help you. Unfortunately you have an old car and at some point you do have to pay for repairs. But on a recalled safety item and just out of the service warranty the zone office might help you.
I have experienced safety recalls that had no time/mileage limits. Please contact your zone office. You may hear a different story.