tell me about safety recall on used cars...

[rsfeller]

I'm rather curious to how car companies are liable with defined saftey recalls for used (2nd owner) or older (10 years old) cars. Seems to me they would be concerned with liablity and "doing the right thing" regardless of age or ownership.

I have the common airbag error for the driver's side seat buckle failure. I have reset it about once a month since having the car but needed it twice this week. I really hate the idea of going to the dealer unless I know I can get this done for free!

Otherwise I'll do it myself...

I've tried the contactor cleaner and am ready for the real fix.

What experience have others had getting this fixed on used cars. Seems Porsche would be really concerned about a silly failure that may deactive the airbag system!

Shawn

[wvicary]

Several of my customer have asked Porsche to help with costs for the airbag update with no success. I'm not sure what Porsche considers a recall.... one example I have is they have paid for the parts needed for the 944 fuel lines while the customer pays for the labor, it didn't matter year or mileage in those cases.

[Tool Pants]

This is not a Honda or Toyota. Porsche is the most profitable car company in the world for a reason.

Ask your dealer what they will do. If you are lucky they will offer to pay for the buckle/ground wire kit, and you pay for labor. If there has been a history of prior fixes then they might split it.

[rsfeller]

Several of my customer have asked Porsche to help with costs for the airbag update with no success. I'm not sure what Porsche considers a recall.... one example I have is they have paid for the parts needed for the 944 fuel lines while the customer pays for the labor, it didn't matter year or mileage in those cases.

ah! so it may not even have been a recall! i thought i read that somewhere in my internet travels. So I just checked the NHTSA website it and it not for my year (1997) but I will check some other shortly. Worth mentioning there is a recall on the ignition switch that so many of us have had to deal with but interestingly Porsche didn't tell me when I had mine in for this very issue...which I chose to do myself.

Here is the info:

Recall Number: 98V113000 Summary: VEHICLE DESCRIPTION: PASSENGER VEHICLES. THE IGNITION SWITCH CAN CRACK AND CAUSE ELECTRICAL FAILURES. Consequence: THIS CONDITION CAN CAUSE FAILURE OF THE AIR CONDITIONING, HEATER BLOWER, HEADLAMPS, AND WINDSHIELD WIPERS. Remedy: DEALERS WILL INSTALL A NEW TYPE IGNITION SWITCH. Notes: OWNER NOTIFICATION IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN JUNE 8, 1998. OWNERS WHO TAKE THEIR VEHICLES TO AN AUTHORIZED DEALER ON AN AGREED UPON SERVICE DATE AND DO NOT RECEIVE THE FREE REMEDY WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME SHOULD CONTACT PORSCHE AT 1-800-545-8039. ALSO CONTACT THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION'S AUTO SAFETY HOTLINE AT 1-888-DASH-2-DOT (1-888-327-4236).

[rsfeller]

This is not a Honda or Toyota. Porsche is the most profitable car company in the world for a reason.

Ask your dealer what they will do. If you are lucky they will offer to pay for the buckle/ground wire kit, and you pay for labor. If there has been a history of prior fixes then they might split it.

We'll based on what I read from this board and others we/they know there is a "history of prior fixes"! I'm willing to do the work myself but I doubt they would cough up the part...they want my labor dollars!

So Porsche is now the most profitable car company in the world? If so it's amazing what this Boxster did for them! Then again they could adopt this policy because many of the ownes have more $$ then desire to get stuff fixed for free!

Do you know if the ABS light indicated the bag system is turned off from this error, or will it still "fire"?

[Tool Pants]

I may not have made it clear. There has never been a recall for the air bag light.

The ignition switch recall was only for about 3,200 1997 North American Boxsters. A lot more than 3,200 1997s were sold. The problem with that style switch continued to 2003 when Porsche abandoned the original design.

My January 1997 had the switch replaced around 1998. The recall came out in 1999. I got the notice. My VIN was on the list. I waited a few years to have it replaced a second time because I had no problems with the switch that was put in in 1998.

The reason I finally took the car in for the ignition switch recall years after the recall notice sent was ... my air bag light would not stay off. My car had had a prior air bag fix.

I have preached this before and I will again. I consider these 2 items safety related, but Porsche seems to be immune from voluntary recalls (aka service actions) and if there has been a single recall forced by the government on Porsche then I don't know about it. I think Porsche makes too few cars compare to other companies, so there are few complaints to the government. Plus recalls/service actions cost money.

The air bags will still work with the warning light on per Peter Smith. So I drove for a few years with my light on, then off, as Peter would turn it off, then it would come back on. But I cannot remember if they fire with less or full force when the light is on, because the control unit thinks you are not belted in.

Here are the 3 ignition switch notices I received.

[rsfeller]

great info.

I was very curious why the SRS system cares if you are "belted" in. Seems it has two levels of trigger, eh?

Another interesting point you make is that only a very small percentage of cars had the recall related to ignition switch yet 10s of thousands have had a similar but common failure to. Most who have replaced their faulty ignition switches shared the same failure points the recall mentions!

your comment on Porsche being immune to saftey recall makes sense. Their entire model line in one year doesn't equal one model of car from Chevy or Ford! Our government puts their resources where they get the most bang for the buck...

plus we know many Porsche owners can be conned into paying for service that should be free or less expensive! (oh, did i just say that out loud?)

[mikefocke]

TSB #692450102.80TU

You should be covered by a dealer warranty on their service if the same failure keeps re-occuring.

[rsfeller]

TSB #692450102.80TU

You should be covered by a dealer warranty on their service if the same failure keeps re-occuring.

We'll I way out of warranty and I didn't make a claim it had been done and returned. I was just curious if this was considered a saftey recall and thus covered regardless of ownership and year. I had a Jetta and Jeep both as a 2nd owner and was able to get recall work for saftey items.

TSB doesn't mean recall, does it?

Shawn

[wvicary]

TBS is Techincal Service Bulletin. It deals with know issues and how to resolve said issues, it is not a recall or campaign as far as I understand.

[Loren]

New site feature (Acronym). You can find it on the lower left of the posting screen.

Mouse over the underlined term (below)

TSB

[PTEC]

There has never been an official recall for the airbag light issue. There have been instances though where Porsche has assisted people in paying for repairs after the original warranty is up but these are on a case by case basis. If there is a TSB that covers an issue, such as is the case with this one, it doesnt mean that Porsche is responsible for paying for repairs after the warranty is up. Official recalls from Porsche are assigned campaign number and will look something like "A502" or "A311." These are things that Porsche will fix after reguardless of mileage or age of the car or if you are the original owner. An example of a campaign is the 993 cabtop locking motors and the engine wire harness. Any Porsche dealer can run your VIN and tell you if there are any open campaigns on your vehicle.

[rsfeller]

yea but it still seams odd that Porsche can get away with a TSB on an item releated to Air Bag deployment system and it not be a recall!

[PTEC]

I agree in that it should have been a recall ... a lot of people have been left out in the wind to pay for airbag light repairs. Its a shame but pretty much all you can do is hope you'll get some assistance from Porsche and bite the bullet.

[Tool Pants]

I was very curious why the SRS system cares if you are "belted" in. Seems it has two levels of trigger, eh?

Peter thought there were 2 force levels. If you are belted it fires with X force. If you are not belted in the it fires with more than X force. What I cannot remember is if this force changes with the air bag light on.

Just because there is a TSB does not mean a recall. Take the ignition switch. The only TSB was when Porsche abandoned the old design. There is no TSB to tell the mechanic how to replace the old style defective switch - the mechanic is supposed to know how to replace a switch. Same thing for the plastic tank - no TSB.

There were actually several TSBs for the air bag light - 3 I seem to remember.