So here is a quick summary of my story and now problem
- Bought the car last May w/ 62K miles. 2007 Coupe w/ 6 speed. Have not had any issues
- Takata airbag recalled shortly after buying it, no airbags available.
- Chrysler sent notice in mail in Feb so I setup appointment to have it swapped
- Swapped in 1 day and I picked it up and everything seemed fine
- Approximately 2 weeks go by (car driven maybe 40-50 miles) and SRS light comes on
- Kind of forgot about it and didn't call dealership back for a month, they said to bring it back in
- At dropoff they informed me if not related to recall or workmanship, they would charge $99 diag fee. I thought ok, but you guys were just working in the system.
- At dropoff also asked them to do my state inspection but he wasn't sure they could w/ SRS light on
- Later that day they informed me they didn't have the right SRS scan tool and would have to get one from another source
- 2 days go by, no contact
- 3rd day, dealership calls and says they couldn't pinpoint the issue and that scanner was not getting "good voltage in the SRS wiring" Stated they needed $688 to diag wiring further
- Told them no I would figure it out on my own and asked about the state inspection. The service writer said he forgot about it but asked someone while I was on the phone and said due to SRS light on, they couldn't do the inspection.
- Picked up the car the next day... Service department couldn't find keys or car for 30 minutes. Finally found it
- When I got in, realized 58 miles had been put on my car and the Mileage out was 27 miles less than it had.
- Asked the service writer why it was driven 58 miles, he did not know but initialed and wrote the correct mileage on my ticket
- Called the service manager and asked why they drove my car, she checked with the shop foreman and then said they had to for the state inspection to clear the "monitors"
- I advised them that the state inspection wasn't even done and that no check engine light was on, so there would not be any "monitors" or sensors to clear
- They did not have an answer and are still researching.

So in summary, I now have non functional airbags, I cannot confirm they even did a check on SRS system (I'm starting to believe they didn't). And it is looking more and more likely that they went joy riding in my car over 3 days while they were NOT looking into it!

Any recommendations? I'm worried that A)They damaged the clock spring or wiring if they didn't install new bag correctly or B) There is an issue with the new airbag communicating with control module and Chrysler nor Takata will want to investigate or admit responsibility

Any help would be appreciated

 

WoW, what a problem they created. I been holding off having airbag changed due to the horror stories! Hope someone could help you out.

 

thanks autumnmass. Yeah I was nervous to do it too and now I am in this mess! oh well

 

Call FCA customer hotline and start a file. Have your VIN handy.
(800-247-9753) 800-Chrysler
Good luck. I get my recall done Thurs.

 

MAKE SURE you video the SRS light on dash during a startup (SRS self check) before you let them have it, THEN have them verify no SRS light lit (after SRS self check) on the ticket. With the video, and in-checker statement on ticket, you are sure they messed it up if it is lit when you pick it up (which you should not pick up until fixed on THEIR dime). The SRS self-check WILL let you know the bulb works AND let you know the system IS WORKING correctly. Hearing a couple of horror stories before I brought mine in, I was prepared. The OP is going to have quite a hard time proving they screwed his car up, that's for sure.


They WILL hang you out to dry if ANY doubt is present since dealership management has to cover the repair out of their pockets. Be aware and prepared!

.

 

thanks harbor, I will see what they say. Good tip Graphiteghost, I should have done that to cover myself. I went in far too trusting and now face an uphill battle :-)

 

It is fairly common for most of these CDJR service centers to NOT have the proper scan tool to reset the SRS. Nearly all of them have to borrow a unit from another dealer or purchase a scanner to perform the SRS test / reset, if they need to after replacing the airbag module.

I would encourage those that haven't had the airbag recall performed to checkout the other threads on this issue. Many of the experiences some are having have already been encountered by those of us that went before you. Quite a few tips have been given to help avoid issues with planned recall repairs. Here's a thread that has quite a bit of information within it: Air Bag Recall

 

I'd almost rather take my chances with these airbags than deal with Chrysler dealerships.

I've already taken a hit to the face from one of them. Can confirm, didn't die

 

What year XF was it?

 

2005 Limited Coupe 6MT... per sig

 

Harbor, did you get your car back today? Update on me, I called FCA customer hotline, in a nice way they stated could not refund $99 diagnostic fee, and stated that they sided with the dealership that there is an external issue going on not related to the recall. I stated that I disagreed and he said he would "document" my concern. ha! so basically I'm out of luck. The dealership has not followed up with me either on the airbag or joyriding issue.

 

Yeah, I had mine done today without incident (so far).
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...tml#post885701
Try calling the hotline again and have them refer you to another metro Houston dealership, preferably with a XF tech.

 

Glad it went well. Ok, that's an idea, I'll try calling again. Thanks

 

So I spoke with a higher up service manager from the dealership yesterday and he was helpful. He seemed very concerned why they drove the car and did not actually test the srs system. He admitted that they did NOT hook it up to the Star scanner and that their dealership had to borrow/rent one from another dealership anytime they needed one. He stated he would refund me and look into getting the scanner. He mentioned they had another crossfire there also that had the recalled airbag swapped and that the SRS light also came on soon after. Uh oh, looks like we may have some bigger problems with this recall.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the replacement unit built for market claims has a line (or five) of code that doesn't jive with the OEM airbag control unit, and it's popping the code. With the ever-increasing complexity of systems in cars these days, it's a very common problem if the past-point-of-fit (PPOF) component is going into a 10+ year-old car.

A major supplier for lane-departure warning systems for Nissan struggles with this issue a LOT. I'm one of the guys that approves the Parts Submission Warrants for these SW changes, and ten times out of nine there are issues detected downstream when the factories overseas have to do PPOF replacements.

TL,DR version -- he needs to borrow Star-DAS to fix it. But it's fixable.

 

This is a step in the right direction, and you may want to consider sharing this info with the Chrysler hotline rep so they can document it in their file. At this point you have no idea what twists and turns are in store, and it'll be easier if FCA is the single point of truth. Keep us posted.

 

There have been quite a few of us that had the airbag module replacement recall completed without incident. I suspect the dealer's service department didn't complete the replacement per Chrysler recommended procedure. Many of us have removed the DS airbag & re-installed it without having the SRS lights come on. The key to this is disconnecting the negative battery cable and letting the car sit for 2-3 minutes to clear the system before starting the airbag repair. Even if the SRS light came back on afterwards, the system can be reset using the DRB or similar scanner tool. And your dealer already admitted they didn't have one and had to borrow/rent from another dealer. This also would verify to me that he knew what typically needed to be done, but tried to shortcut it since he didn't have the scanner tool. The fact the the Service Manager admitted they have the same problem on another Crossfire customer substantiates they do the repair wrong consistently!

This is interesting reading. Learning this from someone that provides this expertise with another car manufacturer could explain issues some of us are having with the airbag module recall. But I still suspect certain dealer service centers are performing the repair outside of the recommended procedure. They probably don't see these cars on a regular enough basis to remember how sensitive the on-board electronics operate.

 

I'm just going to say I think the dealership(s) is/are incompetent. I believe them hooking up the wrong test equipment MAY BE causing this problem for all the members. On The Job (OJT) training in the service bay is partly causing this problem, poorly written step-by-step instructions complete the problematic replacements. They give the box to a tech and let him/her go at it using the included instructions. IF the SRS system was not activated, the SRS 'test' step through their OBD computers, is not necessary. The people with SRS experience know the module just needs swapping correctly. If they leave that last step out (the SRS test) and simply swap it after leaving the NEG cable off for @ 2-3 minutes, then the system will work again when they reconnect the NEG cable (providing they did not 'pinch' a wire or break anything, which experienced techs do not usually do). If the replacement went bad because of any damage or breakage during removal/replacement, the system self-test will fail anyway. Hooking up the diagnostics will only point to a possible location in the process. So by whether the diagnostics point to a failure, or the SRS light shows an error, the problem happened after the service dept checked in the car. We know the air bag can be safely removed and installed without those OBD systems hooked into the car (way too many members have done it). When you bring your car in, video the SRS lamp during startup (showing the successful SELF-TEST), and make the tech document there is no SRS light lit by pointing out the SRS self test works correctly. That should put them on notice that they should have someone with experience do the work.

.

 

If this was true then every car would have this problem surely? I thought that the bag got its instruction from the air bag controller and the only instruction it would get is FIRE, no self checking ever.

 

I'd say you're probably bang-on with your assessment. We have the same struggles with our "certified" Nissan techs. Truth be told, the Crossfire airbag issue is likely a combination of both dealership OJT failures and minor abnormalities between airbag control module and the SW in the airbag control module. It would be interesting to see if 2006+ Crossfires use the exact same p/n airbag controller as the earlier Crossfires... IIRC the 2006+ had a minor change in the dash geometry; may or may not have affected passenger airbag dimensions and thus, warranted a different part number.

Yes and no -- it may be different with the Star-DAS airbag units from the time our Crossfires were produced, but in most cars, there is a code built into the airbag which "talks" to the control unit. It also receives the fire/no-fire command from the central control unit, but there is an additional code to validate whether or not it's a genuine part. Again, I don't work for FCA so this is merely speculation based on my work with Takata in the past for Nissan vehicles. The scenario I've listed above is probably an outlier; I'd say the hypothesis from GraphiteGhost is more likely