airbag recall mishap?

[teej]

hi - so I finally got around to taking my gt in for the airbag recalls. trouble is when i got in the car to leave the dealer the interior fan was not working. So they took it back in, and then told me the airbag replacement had nothing to do with it, but the module that controls the fan, which happens to be right behind the airbag and the wiring harness seems to be intertwined with the airbag, is now "defective". They would hold and twist the module and the fan would come on, but them let go and the fan would lose power.

So, obviously I'm not too happy.

My question to the tech minds out here is: could they have damaged the unit when replacing the airbag or while removing and reinstalling the lower dash?

pic attached of the module hanging.

thanks in advance

 

[twobjshelbys]

Sounds like they tugged on an adjacent harness and broke something

 

[Beach-GT]

I just checked a picture of my dash with the airbag module removed and all I see in the hole is a connector plug for the airbag module. The fan module is not visible and does not look as though anything would be damaged by replacing the airbag. It seems odd that twisting the module will make it work. I would suspect just a broken connection maybe where the wiring is. I would thoroughly check it out before buying a new module. I had a fuel pump relay quit on a Mercedes once and it was just a broken solder joint on a relay inside the box. Saved $300. Sometimes solder joints fail around high current connections because the lead is not secured properly. The fan would be a high current device so the wire joint could fail from use and just need proper soldering.

 

[PeteK]

Ditto Beach-GT's comments, plus my own: I have resuscitated a number of old Mercedes and VW electronic parts, particularly the climate controls, and re-soldering the circuit traces did the trick. It's usually obvious which ones are bad, although you might need a magnifying glass to take a close look. It's almost always the high-current connections in things like fan controllers, which heat the solder joints, and after many cycles of thermal stress they crack.

If it works intermittently, DEFINITELY make sure the connectors to the module are good. Wiggling them will generally reveal a problem. Chances are high that's your problem.