Air Bag Problem on my 360, please help!

2002 360
10,500 miles

Brought the car to the dealer to get front and rear sway bar change to make the car tighter.
After a almost $2000 bill they told me that while the car is there, the air bag light went on and they can not clear it.
They concluded that it was the actual driver side bag that was the problem. They did put a tester to make sure the connection and sensors are all fine but as soon as they put the bag on, the light came on.

I have searched all over the forum here and no one has had this problem and I spoke to a few Ferrari techs outside of this dealer and they all said they never seen it gone bad before.

Can anyone advise me on this? the dealer basically said it is a stroke of Bad Luck........... and the air bag suppose to be changed every 10 years anyway.

 

If it went on then its their problem, what they hell did they do to it to cause that break a sensor?

Air bags just dont go bad without an issue

 

That is what everyone said, it is not like a piece of a fruit that will go bad over time......
This is also a very reputable dealer too! I suggested that they report this to FNA to get a answer or some sort.

 

Yes report it to everyone including the state.

I am sure they screwed something up. During repairs I have seen airbag problems arise from improper repair methods.

Is the car still there and or do you have it in writing the light is one?

 

I told them I am not going to pay anything for this problem and they told me to take the car back. Should I just leave it there till some sort of conclusion come out of this? Just afraid that it might snow soon and not able to get the car back safely. nothing in writing yet but there at least 3 tech that know about this plus the service advisor

 

Does anyone have any phone numbers to FNA? I want to make sure they hear it directly from me.
Thanks

 

I am not saying that they may not have been culpable but air bags do have a specified lifespan and yes, it is 10 years. Plus, it could have just been bad timing/luck and had nothing to do with them, coincidences do happen.

For example: I had a BMW in the shop and when I got it back the tail light was out and I know it wasn't before. I took it back and complained because they had done some work back there and I suspected that they damaged the wiring harness. The shop owner checked it out and was back in less than 3 minutes, all fixed. The bulb had burned out. In that case they wouldn't let me pay but I was more than glad to pay since it wasn't their doing.

 

Make sure you get something in writing that the air bag light is now on. Just the techs knowing of it is nto good enough, Get it in writing and bring it to another dealer for an estimate then small claims in worst case.

I managed a dealership for close to 20 years before retiring and if I did that to a customer the factory would rip me a new one big time. They need to correct this.

 

thanks, but a Air bag gone bad exactly during the same time the car was in for service really is a bid more severe than a burned light bulb and yes it did happen to me as well.
Does anyone ever had to replace a bad air bag? even on a 1999 car?

 

While the above is true...I'm a nobody and I know these airbag lights come on. I have been told that the airbags are very subject to voltage surges. An example of one would be if a worker left the doors open and drained the battery. Then someone hooked the battery to a charger and tried to jump it = airbag death. Do a search for jumping battery and airbag. There have been several of those situations posted here. It is pretty common knowledge to not jump a ferrari or you have a good change of killing the airbag.

 

Is there any record that would store in the computer inside the car indicating a recent jump start? You think it is the largest Ferrari dealer in the North East they would know better not to do that.
another thought, would it fry only the air bag or the sensors also? from what they are saying, it is only the bag that is bad. They did say that only thing I needed was a new airbag and the cost is $3500 plus labor of putting it in.

 

I do not know. But those who posted here on the subject had to buy new airbags iirc.
I'm just a one owner voice who has not experienced that first hand. Do a search on the subject and you will read about other owner's woes.

 

Sorry Ken. I didn't mean to imply that the airbag and taillight bulb are equivalent. I was only pointing out that coincidences happen you don't have enough information yet to determine that they were definitively at fault. Like you I am suspect but keep an open mind until you get proof.

FBB is right about the cars overall sensitivity to electrical surges. Airbags are only one sensitive component; you can add instrument panel and a bunch of other stuff to that list.

To the best of my knowledge the computer doesn't record a jump start. No obvious way to detect that situation. I would either take the car to a different shop or work with the one in question to understand the issue. If you talk to the manager you should be able to reach some reasonable resolution. Good luck.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. Apparently my air bag problem is the first in the U.S and as time goes on, more of you guys will start seeing this (I hope not) The dealer suggested that we change our air bags every 10 years and since it is way out of warranty$$$$$$ it will be a very costly part.


Stay tuned, this is about to get really interesting! Let's see how the dealer is going to handle this. Before it is done, no names will be mentioned. I will make a full report when this is over.

 

The information will be valuable to many here.

Yours,

Tom

 

Good luck with them

This is a simple test if you want to see how an airbag is checked, no its not me



http://youtu.be/uAklUlvAIrs

 

Picking up the car tonight and driving in the rain without a functional air bag, just hope it wont pop on its own and cause a problem, wish me luck guys!

 

OK, for those of you who followed this thread you are going to love this adventure of how a Ferrari dealer is over rated and how you should not take your car to a dealer ever again unless you have too much money.

This dealer is Miller Motors located in Greenwich Connecticut.

1. As previously posted, the car went in for suspension work came out with the air bag light on.

2, Miller motors concluded that the air bag is faulty and need to be replaced and the cost for a new airbag is over $3500

3, I phoned Tino at Ferrari North America and he said there is nothing they can do since the car is 10 years old and Ferrari recommend replacing the airbag after 10 years. (the car has 10,000 miles)

4, Tino spoke with Miller Motor Service Manager Don Pintavalle and see if they can give me a break since this happen at the dealer. The price came down to $2375 (see attached written statement from miller)

5, I phoned Don and told him that the cost for them to get the airbag from Ferrari NA is only $1805 and why is he trying to make over $500 from me plus labor and tax, this is a unfortunate incident that happen at the dealer at least they can just charge me just the labor and not make money on the part. His response was "what is wrong with making money out of this" and he went on to say that if you don't want to get the airbag and do the job, pick up your car today, we don't have enough room for your car here.

6, I was so pissed off so I pick up the car and came back home. (driving in the rain, dark and no airbag)

7, I phoned Daniel at Ricambi and told him the story and he gave me a few contacts of Ferrari gurus in North America and all of them has never hear of a faulty airbag in a 360.

8, Thanks to fellow forum member's recommendation to watch a video from Chris at Airbag systems on how to test your air bag, I follow the steps and contacted Chris in TX. He guided me and we tested the airbag and turned out it was perfect functional airbag with the proper resistance of 2.2. Chris went on and said that in his many years of business he has yet to see a perfectly normal airbag gone bad just by sitting there.

9, Now that I know the airbag is good, I brought the car back to Classic Coach where they have taken care of the car before I moved. Felix the technician right away called out the problem being a failed spiral contact even without looking at the car. He then took out the SD 2 machine and cleared the code and as soon as he turned the steering wheel, the light came back on. here is video clip I filmed.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IGXt1q4eKo[/ame]

10, I ask them to order a spiral contact and Felix installed it for me today in less than an hour, clear the code, Perfection! the light is gone and everything is back to normal.
Here is a video after the installation.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J98nXfSTgos[/ame]

11, Total Cost for the job at Classic Coach was only $326 instead of over $3000 at Miller Motors and even after they installed a new airbag, they will still need to replace the spiral contact.

Conclusion:
Never Ever trust the dealer when things smell funny or does not make sense, they might have the fancy training but often lack common sense or they just want to F**k with your intelligence. What gets me mad is the way they treat you if you question them or disagree with them. After all, we are driving a Ferrari, not a ice cream truck that you can just rob whenever you like. This whole experience has knock a serious dent on my trust for the dealers, I will be sending Tino at FNA a complete report of this incident and see what he has to say.

Take a look at the bottom with the PDF files of the difference invoice between Miller Motors and Classic Coach

Thanks to All of you who is reading this and have contributed valuable info in the past.
Thanks to Daniel at Ricambi- you are the best and the most honest source for Ferrari info. Thanks to all of you guru's out there that got my frantic calls, you have certainly lead me to the right direction. Thanks to Chris McNutt at Airbag Systems for your expert knowledge of the airbag, I almost throw away a perfectly fine one.
Finally, Thanks to the folks at Classic Coach for taking the time to listen to my frustration and took care of the problem in less than 60 minutes, you guys are the best!
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View attachment miller motors.pdf
View attachment classic coach.pdf
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Those dealer f*ckers!! Sometimes I think that they just go with the easy solution. In this case they would have done all that and still had the light on and then back came to you scratching their heads asking for more money.

Glad you got it resolved at a decent price. So the question remains, could they have done something to mess up that spiral sensor or was its failure just a coincidence?

 

As far as I know from fellow chatters here, these spiral contacts do go bad after a while, I think other makes such as Lambo or Alfa also have this problem.

Funny thing is that FNA also suggest that we change out our airbags after 10 years! Cost:$3600 retail.

 

Glad to hear it was simple!

Why on earth would anyone bill some one $500...


When you could bill them $3500 and hope that they pay it? ;-)


I had an issue with my Boxster a few years back. I got this whine/buzzing sound in corners. Sounded like it was coming from the right front wheel. So I bring it in to the stealership and they tell me they had trouble finding the sound, so they changed the tires with other Boxsters on the lot, and eventually replicated the sound and replaced the bearing. I pick it up and get a 1100 bill to diagnose and replace a bearing. The tech tells me that they also "just topped things up as well". Sound gone for 12 months.
Then it comes back... short story it turns out to be low power steering fluid level needed topping off. A slow leak somewhere leads to air in the system and a buzz in the steering pump. Diagnosed by yours truly. 10$ of Pentosin and hasn't been an issue. I haven't been back.

So why bill someone $10 when you can bill $1100 and get away with it... sad.

 

This just reinforces the fact that a smart, savvy tech, be they at a dealer or independent, is priceless. The unfortunate thing is that when they are not, often the person who literally pays for their lack of competence is you... unless the car is under warranty. Years ago I had a difficult to diagnose driveability problem on my then DD. The car went back to the dealer several times over the course of 7-8 months and they couldn't find the problem. I finally told them it had to be a fuel delivery problem and the intermittent nature pointed to a faulty fuel pump. They at first told me there were no codes or indication of such a problem, but I insisted they check the pump output and even told them I'd pay for a new pump with my own money even though the car was still under warranty. They finally did that and found the output fluctuated widely. Fixed. At least it only cost me time, annoyance, and suffering with a poorly driving new car for the better part of a year!

As for the OP, after hearing the final diagnosis and repair, I think the airbag light problem was just coincidence, as I don't see how a sway bar replacement job could have caused the spiral contact to fail (unless somebody maybe spilled coffee or another liquid into the steering column). I am glad it all worked out, however.

 

Great thread and resolution to your problem!

This is exactly why I never used a porsche or now Ferrari dealer. Not only is the price of the work a multiple of a great independant, but they seem to know less about "older/non-current" models. My ferrari was 9 years old when I bought it and I never considered going to the dealer with it (same with my porsches- all older with the exception of a cayenne we bought new).

I had put together a list of 3-4 highly recommended Ferrari independents (from here and from other people I had met at our local C&C) before acquiring my 360, and have been EXTREMELY happy with my mechanic (Vinny Latino at Auto Elite). By the way, the couple of other highly recommended independents in our area are classic coach, Steve Arena and New Vernon Coach. Well "our area" being NJ, but you're not too far from some from CT. Any of these are great- of course I'm sticking w/Auto Elite, but just to give you options vs. that dealer that tried to rip you off for $3-4K!

-Andrew

 

My 360 spider has polit airbag warning light on, checked it should be the faulty spiral contact.
Anyone knows the difference between Maserati spiral contact and the Ferrari one? They carry the same part number but price is 4 times more for Ferrari.

 

FWIW...
This is the label I made for every battery I have put in my 360. I tend to believe repair shops and Dealers can be lazy and we all know that these cars of ours are very sensitive to voltage.

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