Consumer Complaint Detail

NISSAN / MAXIMA / 1999

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 004292258 Incident Date: Jul, 19 2004
Consumer's City: BERTHOUD Consumer's State: CO
Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN Manufacturers Name: Nissan North America, Inc.
Model Name: MAXIMA Model Year: 1999
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Air bags:frontal:driver side:inflator module
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: JN1CA21A2XT Date added to File: May, 25 2021
Date Complaint Received: Aug, 03 2004 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Apr, 01 2002
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 6 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: I own a 1999 nissan maxima. the airbag light started to flash for no apparent reason. vehicle was taken to tynans nissan in ft. collins, co on july 2, 2004 for diagnostics. was informed that a module was defective, authorized ordering new module ($450). returned on 7/20/04 for replacement, was told that the error was misdiagnosed and a service bulletin (ntb00-043) stated that " if a 1998 or 1999 maxima has the srs light flashing... install a srs side air bag module of the type indicated in the parts information to resolve this incident. this new side air bag module (with long harness) replaces both the air bag module and the seat sub-harness." i refused to authorize this repair, the dealership then replaced the original parts. the problem then went away. root cause is the manufacturer originally used a two piece wire harness that may (in my case does) become disconnected when the seat is moved throughout its range of motion. the replacement harness is longer and has a direct connection according to nissan. i strongly feel that this safety issue should be the responsibility of the oem not the consumer due to the flaw in design. if someone not as technical as myself (electronics and manufacturing engineer) was to have this problem they would be responsible for over $1000 in cost due to nissans poor design. *ak