Side Airbag randomly going off

[Robsport]

Ahh.

I was driving home tonight with the girlfriend when the passenger side seat airbag randomly went off. We were only doing about 35mph when I drove over a pothole on the drivers side and BANG. The passenger seat belt tightened up and the car turned itself off as well.

When it first happened I thought a tyre might have blown out or something, but after a second I realised what had happened. Luckily there was no one else on the road, but if there had been i think we could've caused an accident...

We're both ok although I think the girlfriend may have some bruising across her chest tomorrow.

I'm just wondered if anyone else has had anything like this happen to them? and any ideas what might have happened? Is this going to have to go to a dealer to be fixed? as the nearest one from me is about 30 miles along winding lanes and I don't fancy driving the car there without power steering!

Gonna ring SEAT tomorrow to see what they say about it.

Anyone know how much this is gonna cost to replace?

 

[T. Spark]

Id go crazy... only way tbh... same thing happen to me, tho true I did sorta hit a kerp But no where near enough force to make the airbag go off, at the time I didnt know, but it seems like it isnt unheard off.

If I was you, id ring Seat Assistance in the morning/now if you can be bothered to be up all night, tell them the car is undrivable (isnt safe as you dont have a seat belt/airbag) they come pick it up, take it to a garage you get a car from them (AA) for 3 days, in the mean time, write to Seat, talk to your local garage also forwarding on the fact it isnt "just" your car that has done this!

You shouldnt have to pay a penny. Hope it gets sorted out for you mate.

Oh and try a search, im sure this has been mentioned before, you might find more info that way.

Hope that helps a little at this late hour!

 

[Fl@pper]

Anyone know how much this is gonna cost to replace?

shouldt cost you anything or be warranty - contact the local council about compensation and dont forget to get details of area and pics of the pothole first before they hide it all

roads are shite enough as it is without the local council getting away with stuff like this

last time i heard of similar was a mazda 323 when a guy didnt see a speed bump and set both front ones off (passenger blew the front screen out too)

yes they are that big round ere


just had a thought (well mrs has) as a better bit of back up and legal coverage call your insurance company asap

 

[Robsport]

Thanks Flapper/T. Spark, gonna go out today and take some pics of the road and the car - the road surface really is bad but i stil don't think it should've set the airbag off.

I think I'm going to have trouble getting anyone to cough up for repairs, the council will just say no one else has had this problem and SEAT will probably come up with some excuse. I just hope its not going to be too expensive

 

[j.a.kelly]

Seat may try to blame ur dif wheels, so id get them off if ya can

im worried bout this happening now, every time i hit a big pothole i cringe waiting for a bang! seems to be happening a little too often!!

Hope ya get it sorted, like mark said (TSpark) kick off big time, it should not happen imo. Let us know how u get on bud

JK

 

[Mattyh87]

Umm the Ibiza has a system which automatically hits your airbag, collapses your pedals and the steering coloumn, does your hazard lights and switches off your car and unlocks your doors in the event of an accident, suppose it could be a bit of a hinderance if triggered at the wrong time!

If it did it seems an unlucky thing to happen, ive hit a deep pothole in the middle of a crossroads going about 30 mph! Seems im a lucky un then!

 

[T. Spark]

suppose it could be a bit of a hinderance if triggered at the wrong time!

Hinderance isnt really the word Id use...

As for J.K, tbh I would take off the alloys if u have the OEM ones, but as they are Seat Cupra wheels, I cant see it being a problem, but you never know, they will try and worm there way out of anything!

 

[Robsport]

Yeah, I've swaped back to the old wheels now although not been able to sort anything out today. Its been a little frustrating knowing that my cars undrivable and there's nothing I can do about it.

I rang my insurance company to let them know what happened, but they said as I wasn't filing a claim they didn't need to know anything about it - they didn't even add a note to my file so I hope I can get everything sorted out without them!

 

[yellowperil]

I had a very similar thing 6 weeks ago in my ibiza cupra tdi. Hit something in the road and it popped passenger seat airbag and seatbelt. The power steering can be turned back on with vag-com.
Car went into body shop to be repaired by insurance and 6 weeks later its still not returned.
They claim the cupra seat cover is on back order!
Hope your is quicker to be repaired than mine mate!

 

[Robsport]

6 weeks? wow I'll be gutted if it takes that long to sort out, hope you get it back soon mate.

Did you actually hit something mate or was it just a pothole?

How were your insurance company with it all as i think mine will be funny cause I didn't actually have any sort of accident or anthing...

Anyone near Wrexham got vag-com?

 

[yellowperil]

I hit something in the road like a brick or rubble.

Insurance is with NIG and they never complained just organised to collect it and dropped of a fiat punto hire car!

I flashed my software back to standard, maybe you should look into this if its not declared to the insurance company!

 

[Fl@pper]

I rang my insurance company to let them know what happened, but they said as I wasn't filing a claim they didn't need to know anything about it - they didn't even add a note to my file so I hope I can get everything sorted out without them!

what about the legal expenses extras etc you pay for ?

 

[yellowperil]

Just a quick note to let you know i received my cupra back today after 6 weeks but they have made a great job. Remapped it tonight it its so fast after the punto hire car!

 

[Robsport]

Good to know you finally got the car back and you're happy with it again. I'm taking mine in to the dealers on Wednesday so they can 'investigate' why the airbag went off. It's costing me £50 an hour labour though, and I bet they only use Vag-Com.

I spoke to the local council today and they it seemed like they're use to getting claims for damage to cars so I got the name and address of the person I should write and I've already sent a letter..

I'll let you know what SEAT say about my car later in the week

 

[Robsport]

Finally a decision

Well after a huge amount of messing around and phone calls everyday, SEAT have finally told me that I cannot get the car repaired under warranty. Apparently the safety system isn't clever enough to determine whether a jolt is caused by an accident or a pothole etc etc so the system was functioning normally. I'm not really surprised, but the amount of hassle I've had to go through to get this decision has really astounded me.

I don't really have a choice but to get the car repaired as the fault codes keep activating due to the airbag activation but it's going to cost me about £700 . I'm going to try and claim from the local council so fingers crossed that they don't mess me about as much...

To add insult to injury, the dealers told me I can't have a courtesy car until mid june at the earliest, I know they've got other customers to worry about but thats ridiculous, they've had my car nearly a week now!

All this hassle with SEAT has caused me such a headache that I'm thinking about selling the car once its repaired, can anyone give me an idea on how much I should sell it for? It's an 02 reg TDI sport (130PD) with about 55,000 miles. It's got a remap and strut brace.

 

[davidol]

get a solicitor involved if i were you, seat cannot sell cars which cannot determine between a accident and a pothole in the road

 

[Mattyh87]

seat cannot sell cars which cannot determine between a accident and a pothole in the road

The council is liable for the damage as they have not maintained the road to a sufficent standard, not SEAT.

 

[JimyFloyd]

Well after a huge amount of messing around and phone calls everyday, SEAT have finally told me that I cannot get the car repaired under warranty. Apparently the safety system isn't clever enough to determine whether a jolt is caused by an accident or a pothole etc etc so the system was functioning normally. I'm not really surprised, but the amount of hassle I've had to go through to get this decision has really astounded me.

What a load of bullsh!t!! You don't see merc/bmw/ferrari/porsche etc etc having their airbags going off over potholes!

 

[Robsport]

I'm almost beginning to wish I'd been in some sort of accident because of the power loss and power steering turning off after the airbag had gone off, then I think I could probably sue them!

Think I'm going to make a formal complaint against the dealer. They've messed me around since I took it there last week and It took them 5 days to get the fault codes off the car which they used to make their decision. Just wondering whether I should do it before or after they do the repairs!!

 

[LEON_FR]

Ahh.

I was driving home tonight with the girlfriend when the passenger side seat airbag randomly went off. We were only doing about 35mph when I drove over a pothole on the drivers side and BANG. The passenger seat belt tightened up and the car turned itself off as well.

When it first happened I thought a tyre might have blown out or something, but after a second I realised what had happened. Luckily there was no one else on the road, but if there had been i think we could've caused an accident...

We're both ok although I think the girlfriend may have some bruising across her chest tomorrow.

I'm just wondered if anyone else has had anything like this happen to them? and any ideas what might have happened? Is this going to have to go to a dealer to be fixed? as the nearest one from me is about 30 miles along winding lanes and I don't fancy driving the car there without power steering!

Gonna ring SEAT tomorrow to see what they say about it.

Anyone know how much this is gonna cost to replace?

**** me mate thats bad news!
I would go SEAT and kick off like they have never seen before not to mention no way you should pay to have the airbag replaced!
Also i would write to SEAT...