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Defective instrument cluster?

Hey,

Need some advice regarding my '00 Beetle. Has about 48k miles on it. Yellow. Nice car.

Some months ago, my air bag warning light came on for no apparent reason. I was in the middle of moving and changing jobs at the time, so I ignored it. Later, I continued to ignore it for no good reason whatsoever. Finally, I relented and brought my car in to a VW dealer this morning to have it looked at.

They told me that I have a defective instrument cluster, and that I should replace it at a cost of about $400. I'm not even sure what an instrument cluster is. I thought it was a whole panel of dials and stuff behind your dashboard, but obviously they're not proposing to replace the entire dashboard for 400 bucks. What's the deal?

Curiously, my airbag light was no longer lit up after I got my car back, even though they didn't actually fix anything. What should I do?

Thanks, Frank

Reply to
Frank LaRosa
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Hmmm, I've not seen an instrument cluster as the source of the airbag light. Did you get a copy of the DTCs? Since your car is out of warrenty, the dealer isn't going to be required to print out a hard copy, so there may not be any.

If you did have your instrument cluster replaced, you are correct in thinking is the panel of dails, but not the whole dash. VW dealers do not service instrument clusters (as in open them up and tinker around with the guts).

As for the airbag light, I would be willing to be a box of day old doughnutz that the DTC was :

01217 - Igniter for side airbag (N199), Resistance to high - Sporatic

Now if I'm correct (and I tend to be at random), then the best course of action for you at this point is to do nothing. Now if the light comes back on, get a copy of the DTC report. The fix for 01217 tends to be replacing the wiring harness for that side airbag (have to pull the seat cover off).

Later.

Reply to
Pencilneck

Yes it could be the cluster causing the air bag lamp to come on. Some of the early NB's clusters had problems due to software levels for the cluster that would set a "no communications" fault between the cluster and air bag control unit. If you don't want to spend the money now and the light is out just drive the car and see how long it takes for the light to come back on. Might be a few days or months or years!

BY software level one could compare it to keeping Windows XP up to date with downloads, but with your cluster the only way is to replace it.

Reply to
Woodchuck

Thanks to both of you for the replies. Doing nothing seems like a pretty good option, particularly since the price is right.

Do you think there's any real possibility that (a) my airbags might fail in a crash, or (b) they might spontaneously deploy while I'm driving?

Thanks.

Frank

Reply to
Frank LaRosa

If the airbag light is on, it is "unknown" if the airbag system will work. I've not found any statement from VW on this, hence it is "unknown". Now if the light is off, then the airbag system has passed it's own self test and I see no reason for then not to work when needed.

As for spontaneously deploying while driving, I guess if you spontaneously hit a tree then they could, but air bag are not known for deploying for no reason. More people are hit by lighting in a given year than hit by random airbags, yet we don't live in fear of lighting.

Reply to
Pencilneck

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