I was told yesterday by the Ford Mechanic the Airbag light had a TSB Technical Service Bulletin on the airbag light problem and it was covered under the warranty. Today I was called by the service manager and was told that it was not covered under warranty and would cost me $715 to fix it. Do I just ignore the light and ride around with a thousand pillows in my truck in case of an accident? This is a safety product defect that could and will cause serious injuries in a crash by not having any of the airbags deployed. This does not appear an isolated incident. The problem should be fixed at Ford's expense. How can FORD ignore such a potentially deadly issue?
This is a known issue by Ford, as they have issued TSB it. My Explorer Sport is 4 months over the 5 year/60,000 mile power train warranty, so I contacted Assurant Solutions because I bought a 72 month/75,000 mile extended warranty through USAA on 1/6/2016. This was my first claim and they denied the claim because they said that “Safety Restraint Systems†was an “excluded itemâ€! What’s infuriating is that they cover electrical assembly, interior electronics and power train electronics, but NOT “safety†electrical components!!
I raised Cain with the General Manager of the Ford Dealership and they went back to Ford for a “goodwill†warranty coverage and they agreed to pay for all but $261 of the repair. While I sincerely appreciate the goodwill offer, Ford lost any future business from me for not proactively offering the goodwill coverage from the start before I had to pursue other options.
Shame on Ford!! It doesn’t rise to the level of a full recall, but it is a known defect with a critical safety feature, so they should have covered it from the start when presented with the air bag light coming on!
To my surprise, I had been driving my car for months with no airbag protection. The part had to be ordered and it ended up that my car was not repaired until 9/21/2016.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I was told yesterday by the Ford Mechanic the Airbag light had a TSB Technical Service Bulletin on the airbag light problem and it was covered under the warranty. Today I was called by the service manager and was told that it was not covered under warranty and would cost me $715 to fix it. Do I just ignore the light and ride around with a thousand pillows in my truck in case of an accident? This is a safety product defect that could and will cause serious injuries in a crash by not having any of the airbags deployed. This does not appear an isolated incident. The problem should be fixed at Ford's expense. How can FORD ignore such a potentially deadly issue?
- Lorenzo V., Bowie, MD, US