car repair shop knowlingly diabled my airbag

[jhson114]

Hello,
I'm here to get some advice on my current situation. Here's the situation. It was about a year ago, I was out of the country for few months, and my brother was driving my car. One day when he came home and tried turning off the car, the key would not turn (ignition turning is stuck) and he couldn't turn off my car. My brother called some of his friend for help, and one of them recommended him this shop to get it fixed. So he dropped the car off, and some time later, he received a phone call from the shop stating that some wires needed to be cut to fix the car. He agreeded to it since he doesn't know anything about cars. Well the car was fixed but the airbag light was on in the car. He asked if the airbag still works even though the light is on, and they told him that it works just fine and it's just the light that's on, nothing to worry about. They told him that it would cost him extra $100 to turn the light off. He said it was fine since the airbag still works.

I came back to the country after 1-2 months after the fix and when I started my car, I obviously noticed that the airbag light was on, and about another month later, the horn was not working also (I rarely use the horn often so it took some time to realize this). I first asked him about the airbag, and knowning some stuff about cars, I know that when you remove the airbag from the car without disconnecting the battery and waiting at least 20 min, the light automatically comes on. I asked him if the airbag still works, and he said it works. When I found the horn problem, I told my brother to contact the shop about this, he did but received no help. I didn't worry too much about the horn since I dont use it and since the airbag still "works" I was okay with the light being on and didn't want to pay 100 at the dealer tor reset it.

It was a few days ago, bulbs in the instrument cluster went out. Now, me knowing stuff about cars and usually fixing my own problems with my car, I diconnected the battery, took off the airbag, took off the steering wheel to take out the instrument cluster when I noticed that they had cut 3 of the 4 wires connecting to the steering wheel. Understand that my brother did not tell me that any wires were cut. I was very worried about it and posted on a forum I visit often to ask for some help. The forum posting is here:
[url]http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=483524[/url]
It seems that the wires they had cut were both airbag and the horn and only left the ground intact - the airbag DOES NOT WORK. If for any reason I were to have got in an accident, the airbag would not have inflated. What the shop has done is unbelievable, they knowingly diabled my airbag, lied and said the airbag still functions, and put me, my brother, and my family's life in danger. I can't believe when take your car to have it fixed, they make it worse. It is horrifying to imagine what would have happened if I did get in an accident.

I want to ask the professional what my options are. I do understand that the federal law probihits shops from disabling the airbag. It has been a year since the car was done, but would that make a significant difference? I'm in washington state if this makes any difference.

Any advice, inputs, or help would be very helpful.
Thank You

[You Are Guilty]

You, (or whomever paid the bill) is entitled to a refund of the money spent to fix the key problem. You have no legally viable claim for any money beyond that.

[justalayman]

Originally Posted by You Are Guilty

You, (or whomever paid the bill) is entitled to a refund of the money spent to fix the key problem. You have no legally viable claim for any money beyond that.

YAG: why would the OP have no claim to the costs of repairing the damages caused by the garage? I'll agree to the lack of no claim to possible injury damages due to no air bag, but the garage should be held liable to pay for the repairs they caused to be needed.

To the OP: unless you are familiar with working on airbags, leave this repair to a qualified technician. An airbag going off is not something you want to experience. They can be triggered inadvertantly when working on the activation circuit.

The repair shop was given permission by an authorized individual to repair a problem, to which they did...The repair shop created another problem by doing so. The op isn't entitled to a refund.
The op should document the problem that exists, take the car to another repair shop & have it fixed, send the 1st repair shop an demand letter for the cost of the repairs for their neglect, if non-compliance by the shop then take them to small claims...If you want, you could have an attorney draft & send the demand letter for arround $100.00 to $150.00

[You Are Guilty]

Originally Posted by justalayman

YAG: why would the OP have no claim to the costs of repairing the damages caused by the garage? I'll agree to the lack of no claim to possible injury damages due to no air bag, but the garage should be held liable to pay for the repairs they caused to be needed.

To the OP: unless you are familiar with working on airbags, leave this repair to a qualified technician. An airbag going off is not something you want to experience. They can be triggered inadvertantly when working on the activation circuit.

You are correct and I thought that's what I said, but I see that my response was ambiguous. "Fix the key problem" was meant to include fixing the cut wires as well, i.e. put the car back to the way it was when it was brought in.

Now, the problem is that the shop is going to say, "we fixed it normally one year ago, and this guy, who admits he works on cars, now brings it back to us in a condition that we didn't leave it in. We're not responsible for his screwups." Then the real fun begins.