Drive air bag recall - issues

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SteveDolan

New member
Joined
Dec 17, 2015
Messages
3
My leaf was part of the airbag recall last year and the drivers side sensors were replaced. A few weeks later I got a letter from Nissan explaining the repair and saying that if the sensor fails within the next 15 years they will do a 1 time replacement.

4 months ago it failed and I have a flashing red idiot light. So we went to the local Nissan dealership expecting it to be fixed.

Hahahahahahahahaha! How stupid was that.

First off they said it was the passenger side, so we had to pay $99 for diagnostics and surprise, surprise (I knew it was drivers side as I looked in the manual) its the sensor replaced in the recall.

So back we went to get it fixed. But they wanted us to pay $499 for it to be fixed. We said it was covered under warranty. They said my warranty (the 5 yr one) had run out the week before so we have to pay. We pointed out that when we first brought the car in it was still within the 5 yr - but too bad.

So we dug out the letter from Nissan from last year. Problem solved? Nope - we've been back and forth over the past 2 months and they insist that we have to pay because they say its not covered. under any warranty.

At this stage (this is not the first issue with Nissan) I'm done with the leaf. The way Nissan corporate are managing the whole replacement battery (which I need and now costs more than the car is worth), it's lack of range and the way we're treated by the dealer network. My local dealer Marin Nissan closed down and they were appalling - now we're having these issues with Petaluma.

So I wanted to ask if anyone else has has the airbag recall 'fix' fail and did they have any issues getting it repaired?
 
Gosh, that's awful. Best of luck to you.

As I understood the recall, the problem was on the 13+ Leaf and was the passenger occupancy sensor, which is in the passenger seat. It controls the passenger airbag by checking that the person in that seat weighs enough. But you're saying you had a driver side sensor issue?

What codes is your Leaf throwing now? Can you check them with Leafspy? What year is your Leaf?

Doing a little research on this issue, I see the 3 airbag recalls here:
https://www.cars.com/recalls/nissan-leaf-2013/

All 3 are related to the OCS sensor in the front passenger seat. The driver seat isn't involved that I can tell--if you had a driver side sensor issue, that would have been something unrelated to the public recalls... If it is the passenger OCS airbag sensor, I would try to contact Nissan customer service (at the number listed below) as well as the EV helpline, not just the dealer. It sounds like you've already done that, but the EV help line was very kind, intelligent, and understanding when I talked to them. The mechanics at the dealership weren't very knowledgeable about the car.

From that page:

Nissan will notify their owners. Chevrolet City Express owners will be notified by General Motors. Dealers will reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue, and Sentra vehicles, and replace the OCS ECU in LEAF, NV200, NV200 Taxi, Pathfinder, Infiniti Q50, JX35, and QX60 and Chevrolet City Express vehicles, free of charge. Interim notices were sent to owners on May 31, 2016. Owners will receive a second notice when remedy parts become available. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669, Infiniti customer service at 1-888-833-3216 or Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020.


[Edited to add Recall info]

I just dealt with an OCS failure on my 2011 Leaf, which I resolved by using electronic contact cleaner on the connection under the seat. I unplugged it, cleaned it out, and reconnected it, then cleared the codes. It's been fine for the last week--we'll see if it holds up. I would *NOT* recommend that in a 2013+, however, as it has a faulty part, and your airbag may not deploy properly in a crash.

If it is the passenger OCS, Nissan should fix it, period. An alternative is to buy an airbag emulator device from airbag360.com. I don't know the legality around such devices, but they are technically dangerous because they will ALWAYS deploy the passenger airbag in a collision. Thus, seating a small child in the front passenger seat could be deadly--although you're not supposed to do this already. You'll also have to always have the passenger seat belt plugged because the car believes the seat is occupied.

Again, if you get me the codes from LeafSpy, I would be more than happy to help diagnose which part has actually failed, and whether it's covered by the recall.
 
Hi Lothsahn,

Its a 2013. I don't have the codes, I do have the letter from Nissan that I hope has the codes on it. TBH when I posted yesterday I was at work (as I am now) so didn't have the documentation. The dealership did agree that it was the recall one (whichever that was) but I'll check when I have the chance and post the details here.

Thanks
Steve
 
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