Were absolutely ALL R50s from 2002 to 2004 using Takata airbags?

[EricCR]

Hi folks,

 

Recently BMW issued a "stop driving" for any car that hasn't had its Takata airbag replaced, which made me think I have never checked my R50 since I got it 2.5 years ago. Turns out, mine falls under the range of having a faulty passenger inflator. If true, I'm sure it has never been replaced. I contacted my local Nissan dealer and they claim that my specific car is unaffected (supposedly after checking the VIN), however if I go to the NHTSA recalls website it states it needs an airbag replacement: https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls (VIN: JN8DR09Y03W803820).

 

I don't fully trust the dealer and I suspect they just want to avoid the work but I can't deny they may have more accurate tools/software to check a specific VIN. So my question is: For those of you with Pathy's in the 2002-2004 range: Has anyone been told with proof that your cars were safe and didn't need an inflator replacement?

 

I live in what's probably the worst place for these faulty inflators to exist (hot, humid) and the one sitting on the passenger side is usually my wife, so I'm incredibly concerned. I reached out to Nissan USA since my car was originally sold there and they seem to be siding with me.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by EricCR

[03TroutFinder]

Can’t answer your specific question, but I continued to receive messages, mail flyers, etc regularly for over a year or two.

Nissan ended up sending someone directly to my house-They gave a courtesy call first-to change them out. The guy showed up within a few minutes of making the call so I’m sure he was staged up the street to make the call.

Point is, based on my experience if your vehicle was impacted, you’d be fully aware.

Edited May 10, 2023 by 03TroutFinder

[EricCR]

The same rules don't apply to third world countries I'm afraid. Even worse if a given car was not sold by that dealer. My Pathy was imported from the US back in 2011, so that's 4 years before the first news about Takata explosions came to light, circa 2015. This means that this R50 I own was already outside of the US by the time the recalls happened and the owner who imported it never cared to have the airbag replaced.

 

I asked on Reddit what's the usual dealer stance on these cases and it seems some dealerships in the US also push back if you own, say, a Canadian-spec car or something you imported from Japan. Of course you're not expected to ship it to its country of origin just to have the airbag serviced, that'd be incredibly stupid for any manufacturer to do. My train of thought is: if my passenger's get seriously injured or dies, what's going to show up in the news is that a Nissan was involved and people don't care what Nissan or what year it was. It damages the brand. Remember the Explorer/Firestone debacle? It wasn't easy for both companies to get over that back in the 90's. Even if the real culprit is Takata, they are well dead and buried now.

 

So I don't think anyone is going to contact me as: 1. The car was not sold locally and 2. The dealer seems to be trying to avoid free labor on a car they didn't sell. I see Nissan US taking some responsibility and trying to make things right, but honestly I'd have expected the local dealer to do this without any external pressure. So when I'm the one who initiated the conversation and they claim "my car is safe" of course I don't believe them.

 

This is the part that casts doubt and perhaps the dealer is right. Nissan's own recall bulletin doesn't say "ALL 2002-2004" but instead states "certain specific ones":

Edited May 10, 2023 by EricCR

[hawairish]

My hunch is the dealer may have a better idea on what to look for by now, since this recall effort is a few years old. I have an 04 and took it to the dealer long ago and looks like they just inspected it and ok’d it. They didn’t change out the air bag. Hope to never find out if that was a bad thing. 
 

On a related note, I just randomly received a check last week for $114 as final settlement payout for the recall. First check came long ago, so this was a pleasant surprise. 

[Slartibartfast]

Nissan has their own recall lookup, might give that a go. 

[EricCR]

8 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Nissan has their own recall lookup, might give that a go. 

 

I checked that a few days ago. My VIN shows no recalls so I tried about 20 different 2002-2004 US R50 VINs I found randomly on the Internet. Absolutely none of them showed pending recalls, which I find suspicious since several of those VINs were for R50s in junkyards which I'm sure had no airbag replacement done. I don't think that tool is working anymore. I'm sure all these manufacturer websites were properly maintained for a few years after 2015, but we're nearing 10 years since the recalls now.

 

12 hours ago, hawairish said:

have an 04 and took it to the dealer long ago and looks like they just inspected it and ok’d it

 

Interesting, so that does confirm it's not 100% of R50s in that year range. I'll wait until I hear back from the Nissan US rep and I'll go by what he says.

Edited May 11, 2023 by EricCR

[The_Oregonian]

Not sure about your specific situation, however FWIW with my 2002 SE the recall only applied to the passenger side airbag (not the driver's side). 

 

Dealer was happy to do the work here in the US. Are there any other Nissan dealers in Costa Rica you could try?

[EricCR]

Yup, I believe for all affected R50s it's always only the passenger side inflator.

 

As the population and area of the whole country doesn't even get close to rival that of the smallest state in the US, most car brands are usually served by one dealer with branches in other provinces. Interestingly enough, Nissan at some point had two different dealers but one merged and went on to sell something else so we're back to just one and I'm screwed.

 

Locally they are insisting all checks on the VIN come up as being safe. The Nissan US rep told me to sit tight and they would take care of talking to whatever dealer is rejecting the replacement, which leads me to think they checked the VIN. If there is an internal database at Nissan with more accurate data than what the NHTSA or Nissan's public website output, then I'd love to have at least an screenshot of that, alas, I don't have anything.

 

I'll give Nissan US another week or so and the next step after that is going to the dealer personally to get some evidence of where they claim my VIN is showing up as safe.

Edited May 16, 2023 by EricCR