Wife’s 2014 Nissan Rogue rebuilt title NASTY airbag surprise.

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Location
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My wife bought this car a year before we were married. She knows nothing about cars (doesnt even know when she changes the oil).

So we tried getting then rogue registered in the state of Georgia where we are now. The DMV said we need an inspection for an out of state vehicle with a rebuilt title.

Then rogue then failed the inspection because the airbag light was on. For all the years we owned this car, we ignored it because I’m lazy and cheap. So I began digging into the airbag light.

I bought a foxwell scanner meant for SRS airbags. It gave me an avalanche of codes.

I was overwhelmed, so I took it to a dealer.

They quoted me $1800 and refused to do the job because one of the parts was no longer available (clock spring). So rather than junking this thing, I’ve decided to try and fix it. This being a Nissan rogue with the dreaded CVT, this may prove to be a terrible idea.

So I downloaded Nissan’s factory workshop manual, and it has a very comprehensive and easy to follow instruction for srs airbag diagnostics and repair procedures. To sum up the repair, the new parts are:

Airbag
Clockspring
Seatbelt pretensioners
New (or reset) diagnostics module
Front crash sensor
Passenger airbag module

Now that I had begun tearing things apart, the reprehensible behavior of the used car dealership became clear. They basically glued leather look-alike over the remains of the airbag deployment. The entire dash has glued fake leather to cover up the passenger airbag fracture.

What creeps. Con artists. Swindlers.

Total cost for me to do this repair is about $900. I hope this Nissan lasts a couple years after this. It’s only got 90k miles and has a decent maintenance history (including CVT).

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That sucks.

OEM clock springs are on indefinite back order for quite a few Nissans. You have to use aftermarket if you can't find a good used one.
 
I made the mistake of scrolling down to the photos before I read all the text, and I was not thinking nice things about who drove that Rogue !! Now that 'nose snot' looking airbag all makes sense. Good luck with the repairs.
 
That sucks.

OEM clock springs are on indefinite back order for quite a few Nissans. You have to use aftermarket if you can't find a good used one.
Yeah, I had to go to eBay to get one. $25. It’s just a wire in a rotating plastic hub. As long as the airbag computer reports no issues, it should work fine.
 
My wife bought this car a year before we were married. She knows nothing about cars (doesnt even know when she changes the oil).

So we tried getting then rogue registered in the state of Georgia where we are now. The DMV said we need an inspection for an out of state vehicle with a rebuilt title.

Then rogue then failed the inspection because the airbag light was on. For all the years we owned this car, we ignored it because I’m lazy and cheap. So I began digging into the airbag light.

I bought a foxwell scanner meant for SRS airbags. It gave me an avalanche of codes.

I was overwhelmed, so I took it to a dealer.

They quoted me $1800 and refused to do the job because one of the parts was no longer available (clock spring). So rather than junking this thing, I’ve decided to try and fix it. This being a Nissan rogue with the dreaded CVT, this may prove to be a terrible idea.

So I downloaded Nissan’s factory workshop manual, and it has a very comprehensive and easy to follow instruction for srs airbag diagnostics and repair procedures. To sum up the repair, the new parts are:

Airbag
Clockspring
Seatbelt pretensioners
New (or reset) diagnostics module
Front crash sensor
Passenger airbag module

Now that I had begun tearing things apart, the reprehensible behavior of the used car dealership became clear. They basically glued leather look-alike over the remains of the airbag deployment. The entire dash has glued fake leather to cover up the passenger airbag fracture.

What creeps. Con artists. Swindlers.

Total cost for me to do this repair is about $900. I hope this Nissan lasts a couple years after this. It’s only got 90k miles and has a decent maintenance history (including CVT).

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Very sorry this happened.

What state was the car's title in?
 
I'm not surprised, unfortunately
It's one thing to cut corners on the paint finish or using an aftermarket bumper cover on a rebuild

But the safety items have to be right
Appalling would be an understatement if this car was in front of me, and I could track down the person who sold it 🤬

I hate to put you on the spot, or maybe it's because I'm unnecessarily perceptive
But that leather finish didn't catch your eye?
The lack of SRS or Horn embossing didn't stand out?
They couldn't have wrapped under the badge neatly
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Glad you uncovered this before anyone got hurt 😔
What's even worse, is that for a 100% bodge job, you can buy just the cover/shell, no gluing or upholstery work required 🙄
Just put an airbag simulator in the empty shell, and no one's the wiser 🤬

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The audacity of some people 😤
 
I bet it wasn't the dealer, or "wasn't the dealer" but an anonymous middleman who did this. Still unethical for the dealer to sell a car with an airbag light on.
 
What good is replacing an airbag if the sensors in the front of the car are probably deployed/done for after the car has been in a wreck?
 
I bet it wasn't the dealer, or "wasn't the dealer" but an anonymous middleman who did this. Still unethical for the dealer to sell a car with an airbag light on.
No, it would be unethical if the dealer sold the car AND disabled, or even worse, monkeyed with the light so it came on and went off as its normally supposed to. When the airbag light is on, it's puts the driver on alert that there is something wrong with the system. OP choose to ignore that warning for years. A state safety inspection would have uncovered this years ago, but assume the state it was in doesn't have that?
 
What good is replacing an airbag if the sensors in the front of the car are probably deployed/done for after the car has been in a wreck?
The sensor is one nut to replace. It sits just below the hood latch. $25 to replace. But there’s no diagnostic trouble code showing for it, so it’s probably fine.

The car has no structural damage beneath the bumper. I have no idea why they chose to write this off.
 
If it runs and drives good, plenty of people wouldn't care if it doesn't have airbags and would pay more than junk value. Just make sure you tell them about it.
You have to find another state to sell where air bag light does not impact inspection . A potential selling hassle with low value vehicle if not close.
 
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