I have a 2001 PTC, 5 speed, 61k miles, only owner. No accidents or hits. Extended warranty (4yr/50k) expired in Feb 2005.
In June 2005 my air bag light stayed on and chimed when starting. Went to a local dealer. Diagnosed problem as bad harness. Said that only the passenger side air bag would not deploy. Estimated $700-800 range to fix. I declined due to lack of money at the time and that I rarely had a passenger.
In Aug 2006 decided to have it fixed as I might sell the car early next year. I went to a second dealer. They diagnosed same problem. Gave me option of harness replacement at around $800, or to hardwire it for $338. Went with the second option. 6 weeks later in Oct air bag came back on intermittently. Went back to dealer (90 day warranty on repairs). Since the light was not on at the time I brought it in the second time, they could not diagnose the problem, but did confirm that the air bag fault codes were in the computer to show that air bag light had gone off since the repair attempt. They told me to come in when the light was on. Did this yesterday over three weeks since second visit. They gave me an estimated repair cost (parts, labor, taxes) of $4900 or $4600 when subtracting my previous repair costs for this problem. They reset the computer fault codes and that light is off now. But for how long? I was told by dealer two?s service department that when the air bag light is on, none of the air bags would work in a crash. Not a pleasant thought.
What should I do about this? I think this is absurd. A major safety system failure that requires about ¼ of the value of what I paid for the car new. The service department admitted that they were only eight of one of the required parts in Chrysler?s entire parts inventory and that this failure was unheard of by him.
I feel I should not be stuck for this much to repair a manufacturer fault. Does anyone know the name/address of the regional Chrysler manager? I live in Las Vegas Nevada.
Thanks for any help and suggestions.