As a new member I wanted to relate my story and hear from anyone with their comments on what happened.

Last week I noticed my Airbag warning light was blinking. Not quickly, just steady. Naturally I checked the forums to investigate after I searched my Owner's Manual. I have an '08 Coupe. Newly purchased by me 3 months ago. Running perfectly and apparently very well taken care of. 58,000 miles.

I found the instructions for correcting the problem but also realize that if it is a true warning that there is a malfunction with airbags or seat restraint system, I should check it out at the dealership.

I went to my local dealer in Willow Grove PA. I have been there before to install LED running lights and spoke with a service rep so I was not unknown to them.This is not the dealer from which I purchased the car. That was a Cadillac dealer and I traded my '07 CTS.They are farther away in NJ so I opted to go to Infiniti as they will accept the extended warranty , they are closer and obviously know more about this car.

The rep took my car and "Put it on computer"...I was told.
The result was that " The Module for the SRS is bad and must be replaced at the cost of $700." I have an extended warranty. It involved "Seat removal , finding the module and replacing it. We will give you a loaner for the 4 hours we need to fix this".
The rep called my Warranty and they said they will not cover the problem even though it is a Full , bumper to Bumper"...I corrected that with the dealer in NJ and they told me not to worry . They will speak to the Warranty agent andcorrect that.

Meanwhile, I took the liberty of consulting some very experienced mechanics for a "Second Opinion". I am a doctor and I think everyone needs a second opinion .

I was told that it might just be a sensor glitch and to follow the Forum directions to turn out the light and then see if it recurs . I did that and it has not recurred. It is the opinion of all involved, that it is NOT a Module failure but simply a sensor glitch unless the light comes on again. So now, I have the unfortunate feeling that I was about to get ripped off by the Infiniti guys. We all know that the service reps work on a commission basis so how can I trust them to tell me the truth. I am PISSED.
I cancelled the appointent to fix the "Module" and will keep an eye on the idiot light. I guuess they call it an idiot light because anyone that believes that the light actually means huge repairs without first investigating the problem, is an idiot.

I think with Infiniti, as with cadillac, dealers have a certain number of customers that have NO car knowledge base. I think that these , possibly older, affluent people , have no time and no knowledge so they give their car to the dealer to "FIX THE PROBLEM" blindly. I think the dealer should not look at my gray hair and my age and figure i'm an idiot and have no car knowledge.

So, next visit I will discuss this incident and inform them that I know about the cars I drive and not to play the game with me.

What do you all think of the situation. As for the light, it has not come back on for two days and I have been doing some normal driving, both city and highway.

I understand that the light could recur so with that in mind , I am not saying anything more to the rep than an e-mail that the light is out and not recurring, cancel the appointment, and I will return to them if it should recur.

 

I do know that there is a open recall on the airbags for the 2008. When I bought mine I took it to the dealer just to have it checked over and they took care of the airbag issue no problem. Something about a resistor in the passenger side circuitry if I remember.

This may not be the source of your problem but it might give you extra ammunition should the issue arise again and you get hassled over costs.

 

It sounds like your 7 year bumper to bumper warranty is anything but that. It is also an issue I'd be leery to simply reset unless I knew why the light was on (eg you removed the seats and disconnected the wiring tripping the warning light when you reconnected it). Having reset it, now you'll never know if it was legit or a "glitch" unless it recurs. If it dies, you might want to have it fixed properly to avoid a potentially serious problem.

Welcome to the forum.

 

According to all mechanics I spoke with"If the light stays out, it was a sensor glitch NOT the entire system. If the light comes on again , blinking, something is wrong." I'll go with that for now. I'm not about to needlessly lay out that money . I think the Warranty will cover it once they have the entire story but that also remains to be seen.
My car was already seen for the recall..I traced that when I bought it 3 months ago. Apparently those modules don't fail very often , as exhibited by the fact the dealer does not stock them. The whole dealer thing was hokey from the Get Go... I think they thought they could make some bucks here .I'm not that stupid , as many of the Infiniti and Luxury car owners seem to be . "There's something wrong, please fix it " .
That is an invitation to steal money IMHO.Most of the owners of luxury cars that I have seen..I used to have a CTS...are just very much car morons. Like some Rolex watch owners I know, they really don't know what they have, but it looks good. I know a few that are still trying to change the watch battery when it stops after 2 days.
Thanks

 

you are lucky that they are only charging you 700.

My airbag light just came on and the dealer told me the exact expalanation as I search online about the recall. I told them they should take my car and fix it as a recall but they said my vin is not within one of those recall vehicle and to fix it I have to pay 5000cdn to replace the whole passenger sit. I have a 2007 g35 sedan. Can anyone help me on how to get them to check it again and accept it as a recall?

 

Mechanics rely on the computer way too much, I have two stories, first I had dash lights out on my car (not the G) and the dealer plugged the computer in and said, "nope, no lights out" ... I went nuts (couldn't believe they were actually saying I didn't see lights out) and grabbed one of those large rugs at the entrance to the shop, threw it over my car to black out all the windows, turned the lights on and, "I'll be darned, there is burnt out bulbs". Second (same car) was running horrible, dealer said we can't find anything, computer reports nothing. Took the car home, my neighbor ( a mechanic) came over that night with a test spark plug and a flashlight (that was almost dead) and found the issue in a few minutes (crack in dist cap and it was arching). I think many dealer mechanics have forgotten old school PD and rely way to much on the computer.

Separate note, where can I check if my '08 G VIN is part of the air bag recall?

 

UPDATED: Is your car on the Takata airbag recall list? | Autoweek

 

My previous 06 G35 had a similar issue of a repeated warning air bag light. It kept reoccurring and the module and other parts were replaced under warranty. The repeated problems occurred over a period of more than five years. I had the Elite Infiniti warranty but the last occurrence was at 137k miles. The warranty had expired and the dealer traced the trouble to the wiring harness. Only $2400 to replace it.
I argued with the dealer and Infiniti customer service over the fact that they failed to discover the wiring harness issue during the previous five dealer visits while under warranty.
We ended up splitting the cost three ways so it ended up costing me a little over $700.00
Hope you don't have a similar problem
The trouble never reoccurred after the harness was replaced. I kept the vehicle up to 171796 miles

The wiring harness.
I had a loaner for a month.



Telcoman

 

You shouldn't have had to pay anthing; that was a recurring problem that they failed to correct...

 

The FSM has a series of steps to be followed when troubleshooting this issue. I have the four volume paper copy of the 06 FSM.

Infiniti Customer Service originally said no way.
The Service Manager spoke to someone higher up for me and we agreed upon a settlement.
Hiring a lawyer is expensive with no guarantees of the outcome after possible years of litigation.
I had a brand new loaner for a month and put two thousand miles on it.
The $700 was a reasonable outcome for me.
I purchased my second and current Infiniti G37S from the same dealer and have been satisfied overall with their service.



Telcoman

 

First of all, it's a Safety issue...They should automatically take care of it if you have any warranty at all....Next, they are full of it. I turned out the light and it never came back on. My cousin is an Acura mechanic who specializes in NSX. He told me, and I repeat...if something is wrong the light will come back on. If it stays off, it was just a sensor that got tripped.Remember, these cars are better than ever before. The money the dealer makes is from repairs and paid by the factory. If they can get you to pay them it's even better. If your doctor pulled that crap on you , you'd report him. I don't take "Crap" from dealers.I may not be an automotive whiz kid but i'm smart enough not to give these idiots a blank check. Service reps don't really know about cars unless they are factory trained mechanics.......they are sales people with some car sense...My cousin is a Factory trained mechanic with 35 or more years of experience. I'd trust him because he's never been wrong about anything on any of my cars yet.

 

My 2009 had the same issue, the passenger airbag light blinking. I brought it to the dealer and was told it was "a $2000 fix, if the parts could be found because Infiniti doesn't make those parts anymore." I went to youtube and found a reset procedure and that worked for about 5 months, then it recurred, and no resetting was successful for more than one trip or so. In addition, an LED in the dash behind the tach went out.
I traded the car in, though I really really liked it otherwise.

 

Ha, I also have a 2009 with the blinking airbag light and the LED behind the tach gone out... must be a batch of faulty parts for the 2009