Front passenger airbag recall

[Banshee]

I'm due for this when the parts become available... It was listed on the sheet as being applicable, (along with the J24 towbar recall), when I had the clockspring done.

In light of the possibilities, does anyone know of a way to disable it easily?

Faulty airbag at centre of recall to blame for death of Sydney man

TLDR: 54yo man had a crash. Piece of metal from the airbag hit him in the neck & he died at the scene.

Now, I haven't run into anyone in a couple of decades, but it is one of my kids who is likely to be in the front seat if I do. Or me when they finally get their L's. (The eldest is 17 this year. )

[Banshee]

https://www.productsafety.gov.au/rec...2010-dodge-ram

Oh, look! The recall was published on 11 Jul 2016. It's only been just over a year, and still waiting...

[Kiwi Jeeper]

I was informed mine needed in Nov '16 and got it done two weeks ago. Parts only arrived just in July.

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

[Banshee]

Congratulations!

[danieljames]

I've been waiting months now. Called the dealer again yesterday and they have no idea.

A bit ridiculous. Not sure how safe the car is

[Kiwi Jeeper]

I had actually initially asked FCA NZ with a concern for safety, mine and my passengers. They then got the dealer to do handle everything for me. Still took from Nov '16 to Jul '17.

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

[StuieG]

So I just called my local dealer, Suttons Rosebery, who are useless at the best of times, and they had no ETA of when the airbags would be in stock.

She did however give me the JEEP customer service number, 1300 133 079 and told me to call them who may have a better idea.

As you can probably guess, they also don't have an ETA. The girl, who was pretty much reading from a script and was almost as useless as the dealer said "we're hoping to know about a delivery next month but it may be the month after...."

NOTE: Thats just to be given an estimate of having the parts in stock. The parts could be 2 weeks or 20 weeks after they even know the ETA!

My next question to her was "what can be done in the meantime given that you can't get me a new airbag immediately and the one installed in my car is potentially fatal to my passenger" to which she replied...

"the risk of injury or potential fatality is considered extremely low and as such JEEP won't do anything"

My response was "nobody wants to be a statistic, so in the event that I am driving my vehicle that you have just told me is perfectly safe to drive and someone pulls out in front of me, I hit them, the passenger airbag detonates and injures or kills my girlfriend, friend or even myself, what kind of compensation will FCA organise for these cases? There must be some sort of contingency plan?"

and her broken repsonse was "I am not in a position discuss such details with anyone..."

We went back-and-forth for some time about her claiming the vehicle is safe and me claiming it's not - just look at what happens to it - and I literally got nowhere...

I even asked about removing the airbag myself, but she said that the car would then be deemed not fit for purpose due to not having the intended safety devices. The safety device that takes your face off.....

All-in-all, the whole situation is ridiculous. In the past 2.5 years I reckon I have personally changed around 500 airbags due to that recall (not on Jeeps), now to discover that the ones I was fitting will need to again be replaced. Yet the whole world is going crazy because VAG and Bosch got a little bit frisky with some diesel fuel maps.

I really don't know what to do, I guess I'm looking for inspiration from others on whether to leave it or rip it out, but I do know I am seriously concerned about the safety of it.

I don't know if it will help or just irritate them but take the phone number above and give them an earful. They have to come up with something other than "we still don't know about parts..."