Airbag light on when I left servicing. Foul play?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by pruis_jess, Feb 16, 2013.

  1. pruis_jess

    pruis_jess New Member

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    I need some help understanding what happened to my car at servicing at a toyota dealership. I don't know much about cars, but this situation seems very suspicious to me.

    I dropped my car off two Thursdays ago for servicing. I planned to leave the car with them overnight because I needed the 150,000 mi servicing, the steering extension shaft recall, an oil change, and a new battery. The technicians performed a safety check as per the 150,000 mi servicing and reported nothing wrong with the airbag system.

    I picked my car up at the end of the following day. When I started up my car, I noticed that the read air bag light was on in the car. Since the servicing center was closing and they had reported to me that my car was safe, I did not think there was a safety issue. I left with my car and parked it in my driveway for the weekend. On Monday, while driving, I noticed that the lights in my steering wheel were not on and none of the buttons worked (cruise control, volume, temperature, ect.). I called the Toyota dealership that afternoon and left a message. They called me back on Tuesday and scheduled me to come in on Thursday.

    The dealership called me later that day to tell me that the electronic component to my spiral cable had shorted out and that it was just an unlucky "coincidence" that it happened right after servicing the vehicle. There are a few confusions that I have regarding this statement:

    1) the technician who drove my car around stated that he did not see my airbag light on (and would not have let me leave the lot with this safety issue), which would mean that the light had to turn on after he parked the car and gave me my keys. The light was on when I turned on my vehicle. I know that this part can break during normal driving, but can the spiral cable break while in park (as the dealership is asking me to believe)?

    2) The technicians and manager are stating that the work on my car was not done near my steering wheel, where the spiral cable is located. I had the steering intermediate extension shaft recall done and it states on the Toyota recall website that the metal splines that were replaced "complete the connection from steering wheel to steering gear". Also, my steering was adjusted as part of this recall. The dealership continued to state that the work was no where near my steering wheel. I called the toyota headquarters and asked them about the work and they stated that some of the replacement work has to be done within the steering wheel. I spoke again with the manager at Toyota, who was not happy with me for insinuating that he was lying. He essentially told me I could have the work done there or come and remove my (unsafe) car from the lot.

    I have spoken to three different people at the dealership, who have each given me three different quotes for the work. This entire situation seems very shady to me, but I wanted to get some advice before I proceed.
     
    #1 pruis_jess, Feb 16, 2013
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    The spiral cable is located within the steering wheel hub. Meanwhile, the intermediate extension shaft recall work is performed down in the area where the steering shaft goes through the passenger cabin floor on its way to the steering gear.

    The purpose of the spiral cable is to provide electrical connections to the various switches on the steering wheel and the driver's airbag. The cable is continuously flexing when the steering wheel is rotated. Other owners have reported this part failing, from time to time.

    After logging 150K miles, it seems reasonable that the cable might fail. I think that you had an unlucky incident with regards to the sequence of events leading up to the cable failure.

    One possibility might be for you to obtain a used spiral cable from a salvage yard and have an independent install it, if you find the dealer's repair quote to be excessive.
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, Feb 17, 2013
  3. toyotechwv

    toyotechwv Toyota Technician

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    If they actually had to replace the steering shaft and not just the bolt they could very easily damage the spiral cable. When the shaft is replaced the steering column is no longer attached to the rack until the new shaft is installed. This will allow the steering wheel to spin freely if not properly locked in place (wrapping seatbelt around the wheel is easiest way). The spiral cable has limited travel, 5 revolutions lock to lock. So it is very likely they allowed the wheel to spin too far and when they drove the car inadvertently over rotated the cable and caused it to fail. I would absolutely make them cover the repair.

    SPH-D710 ? 2
     
    #3 toyotechwv, Feb 17, 2013
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  4. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    ^ I agree 100% with this. It's one of the things explicitly outlined in the recall procedure, if you aren't careful to ensure that the steering wheel isn't inadvertently rotated while the shaft is disconnected then you are likely get the exact damage that the OP experienced!

    Sure it can just break at random, but let's look at the realistic chances of that. It wont break just sitting there, so we are supposed to believe that despite the recall procedure being done correctly that it perhaps broke in the last few seconds as they were parking the car and they didn't notice it. Lets estimate that one Prius in say 50 might have that problem per year at this age and mileage (surely an overestimate of the failure rate or we'd see tons more than the one or two cases reported here, but lets go with that figure and work out the probability).

    That's an average of one failure in 50 pruis-years of regular driving versus the probabilty that it randomly failed due to no fault of the service dept in the last 15 seconds or something that when they were parking it. You can work this one out easily enough and it comes out at about 100 million to 1 (serious estimate, not an exaggeration) that it was just a random failure as they parked it. :(
     
    #4 uart, Feb 17, 2013
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  5. boppo

    boppo Active Member

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    My vote is the dealer did it and wants u to pay for it. U got to love those guys.
     
    #5 boppo, Feb 17, 2013
  6. IMkenNY

    IMkenNY Im just being nosy

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    This damage was most certainly caused by the work you had done!

    There is no doubt in my mind the steering wheel was not secured properly during your recall work and the spiral cable was not centered properly upon completion.

    And this can all happen under the hood with no work done on the steering wheel!
     
    #6 IMkenNY, Feb 17, 2013
  7. pruis_jess

    pruis_jess New Member

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    Thank you for your reply. In the work notes, it says that the technician inspected bolt hole, replaced the extension shaft, replaced 3 bolts, and adjusted steering. Could this work have caused the spiral cable to fail? If so, and if the dealership refuses to take ownership of this, how should I proceed?
     
    #7 pruis_jess, Feb 17, 2013
  8. pruis_jess

    pruis_jess New Member

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    I teach probability, so I was thinking along the same lines. Chances are this item did not fail in park while I waited to get my car back, especially when the service department did work in the area that could damage the part. Sensibly, this part was broken during the repair work.
     
    #8 pruis_jess, Feb 17, 2013
  9. IMkenNY

    IMkenNY Im just being nosy

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    Here is a link that explains how a spiral cable (clock spring works):
    http://www.airbagsolutions.com/docs/1C.pdf

    Hand him a print out the above PDF and and explain to him the steering shaft was rotated by accident during the recall work causing the spiral cable to no longer be centered.

    If they don't take care of this for you please post who did this to your car.
     
    #9 IMkenNY, Feb 17, 2013
  10. toyotechwv

    toyotechwv Toyota Technician

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    It's easy to do if you are not paying attention. In my early years, I broke one once. But I owned up to it and the dealer covered the repair and I learned a lesson. Call the Customer Experience Center and tell them you feel this damage was caused by improper completion of the service campaign. If the tech that did it had any character it would already be fixed at no cost to you. Too many "parts changers" in this line of work destroying the perception of all of us.

    "Character is doing what is right when no one else is watching."

    SPH-D710 ? 2
     
    #10 toyotechwv, Feb 17, 2013
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  11. pruis_jess

    pruis_jess New Member

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    I contacted the general manager yesterday and told him what happened and how I suspected it was due to the work I had done. He indicated that he could not determine that his technicians were at fault, but he would cover the cost of the repair.

    Thank you all for your help. It was your information that made me knowledgeable and confident when I spoke with this manager.
     
    #11 pruis_jess, Feb 19, 2013
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