When we bought our M3, the seller–an old friend of ours–mentioned that this car had been caught up in the recent Takata airbag mishap. The passenger airbag had already bee replaced, he said, but so far the driver side only received the interim update. He gave us a letter detailing the final update.
And then we lost the letter.
Fortunately …
Hadn't heard about Riff, hate that happened to him. The airbag deal is no joke.
conesare2seconds wrote: Hadn't heard about Riff, hate that happened to him. The airbag deal is no joke.
A friend's car has been at the dealership since August waiting on an airbag. Since he needs it for work, they put him in a rental. So, yeah, he's been in a rental since summer.
Airbags that throw shrapnel at you in a manner that is often fatal when they are supposed to be protecting you is a bit of a big deal. If not addressed, it undermines a safety system that has been proven to save lives.
Takata has an issue with the type of propellant they used. Here is one of the more informative articles that I have come across. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/business/takatas-switch-to-cheaper-airbag-propellant-is-at-center-of-crisis.html?_r=0
Plus they made a TON of them, so ramping up production to cope with both new cars and replacing the millions of old ones (somewhere around 30 million units in the US alone and growing) is a challenge to that industry. Plus, you take a design that used one propellant to allow it to be smaller and try to design with a different propellant... Now add that they are looking at some other airbags from ARC...
An inconvenience, but at least your airbags will protect you in a crash rather than having a chance of sending a hunk of metal through your face/neck/chest.
Plus, some of them stand a pretty good chance of hurting you when they should be saving you. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/nhtsa-says-313-000-honda-vehicles-have-high-risk-takata-air-bags
Thanks for another reminder that I should schedule an appt for the my 330. Got the letter that they finally have part availability.
Didn't think about it until the other day when a car turned left onto a divided highway, where there isn't a cut-through, directly into my lane. Head on at 65mph would have hurt even without the shrapnel.
Since, to the best of my knowledge, it's a combination of actual age and environmental induced aging that determines the likelihood of failure, I think it currently spans the full spectrum from minor inconvenience to big deal. I did get the "exploding shrapnel device" replaced on our Fit. But since life is nothing but a series of calculated risks, I decided that the probability of a newer car in a lesser aging climate having such a failure was low enough that it wasn't worth altering my usage of the car up until a fix was made available. So more of a 'minor inconvenience' for me. That being said, my wife still didn't appreciate when I referenced it as "the death trap" in conversation.
Good reminder. I still need to bring my wagon in for the recall.
Thanks for the reminder! It hadn't occurred to me that my new to me 325iT might be under the recall. I used the BMW link you provided and, sure enough, both front airbags are subject. I just called the local dealer, they have both in stock and can see me Monday morning!
...And am I the only one who took the bait on thinking 'Why the berk would GRM stance an M3?"
My buddy has a E46 wagon on bags. They're actually pretty awesome.
Tyler - did you get my request for pics of your ARC-8s? I'm thinking about that wheel for my Touring.
Took at least 6 months for the parts to come in for my Legacy. Upside was when they put the dash back together they fixed a rattle in the dash that has been there for seven years. But the radio reception now sucks. No free lunch.
dyintorace wrote: Tyler - did you get my request for pics of your ARC-8s? I'm thinking about that wheel for my Touring.
Sent you a message. Great wheel. 18x9 et30 is an aggressive offset for an e46 non-m, but perfect for e9x.
FWIW Subaru told me months ago that: Yes, my 06 STI was part of the recall; The passenger airbag is the one that poses the danger; I really shouldn't let anybody sit in the passenger seat until the recall is done; AND The parts won't be in until sometime in 1Q 2017. If this wasn't my autocross car which has nobody else in it other than an occasional ride-along at an event, I would be /very/ upset that Subaru was depriving me of the use of my car.
Got my 2002 M5 done last month. They gave me a loaner X1 for the day, then it turns out they forgot to order a part for some related work I requested. So I got to keep the loaner. Not a great trade, honestly.
That night, it snowed like crazy in Denver. It would have been a hassle in the M5 to put it mildly, but the X1 is good at donuts in 8" of snow. Then I drove the 260 miles back to Grand Junction over a few 10,000' passes through some weather. And kept driving the X1 for a couple of weeks until the dealership drove the M5 over to me and picked up the loaner.
Not bad service for a 15 year old car. Folks, go to Schomp BMW in Denver.
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