nickboardman1039 said:
I'm having the same problem on a 2013 LeafSL. Few years ago I had the recall done on the OCS, nothing is outstanding now but since I know have the problem again (since they changed the part no. or some BS liket that) the Nissan dealer is giving me the run around to fix the problem and wants to charge $2400 for full seat replacement. I got on to Nissan consumer affairs, they did offer to pay half but this is not enough considering the value of the car!
I am considering the bypass box from the company in Ireland but concerned about it's overall effectiveness and safety.
What did you guys do to resolve the problem? Any info. appreciated.
Nick
I love how they won't sell the OCS as a component outside the recall. Just buy a whole new seat. That's really awesome.
You have a few options to fix it:
1) Let the dealer deal with it for $1200 (half paid by Nissan)
2) You may be able to argue that the recall did not sufficiently repair the problem and have Nissan pay for the repair. Might involve taking them to court, and I have no idea how successful you may or may not be.
3) Buy a used seat from a Junkyard and have it installed in your car. The dealer will still have to pair the new seat to the car because they contain airbags. You'd want to verify that your dealer would agree to such a thing before you did this.
4) Drive the car as is. I don't know if the passenger airbag would deploy in a collision. I would NOT recommend this unless you never have a passenger.
5) Install the airbag360 Ireland thing you mentioned. If you do this, the behavior of the car will be that it thinks someone is always sitting in the seat. This means if you get into a crash, the passenger airbag will always deploy. As long as you never put kids in the front seat, this would be safe. However, if you got in a collision without a passenger you could end up in a fight with your insurance. The passenger airbag would deploy unnecessarily, causing damage to the dashboard and other expenses.
It also means that the Leaf will always yell at you to buckle the passenger seat belt and put up the red triangle on the dash. You'll need to either always buckle the passenger seat belt or buy a seat belt defeat device (basically a seat-belt buckle without a strap) to silence this error. You can find these devices on ebay--please don't ever use them outside of this situation.
IANAL, and this is NOT legal advice: Also, while modifying the safety restraint systems in your car does not violate federal law, it may violate state law. For instance, California has jail time and a fine ($5000?) for modifying car safety restraint systems, IFIRC. This is a well-intentioned law to prevent people from selling improperly repaired cars to buyers; however, this law may affect you. You will need to look up and decide how the laws may or may not affect you.
If you choose option 4, it should be easy to install. You would need to be careful to not damage the airbag plug located under the passenger seat, and the box would just plug right in. Nothing else is required.