Himura357

I have a safety question.

A friend bought a car where the car had an SRS light on. The dealer told him that the light was due to an Airbag recall, and a local Honda dealer will do the fix for free and that will take care of the light.
Of course, that was not the case, as the light was diagnosed by Honda as a SRS unit failure, and that the airbag recalls on this car were already done. Basically, the dealer lied/was mistaken. The unit is over $1000 at Honda. New safety standards say that the SRS must be in working condition and in this case with a faulty SRS unit, Honda says they will not deploy.

The dealer says he will try and fix it, but has had the car 5 days already with no luck. Things are looking like the dealer is going to give up and doesn't want to pay for a replacement. The car was sold with a valid safety that the owner himself wrote, and the car was brought back 14 days after the sale. The 36 days are still not up.

Question is: Do dealers have to repair any items that were not safe on a car that left their shop with a valid safety? I am getting mixed answers. Some say yes, others say they don't have to pay for anything, and even the MTO or OMVIC cannot make them pay. (OMVIC has a fund to help pay consumers for this exact scenario). Apparently most will do the repair out of good faith, but there are those who will still say it's not their problem.

Follow up question: If it is true that the dealer doesn't actually have to pay for repairs for a bum safety, why do we even have these certificates if they can't be enforced? It's basically fraud in my eyes.

I know some of you are techs, so what is the real word on this?

fernando.

What car?

1. The dealer should have never said the light is on due to the recall. Wtf. Unless it's specifically for that recall, like some 2008-2010 Accords that need SRS unit replacements due to corrosion.

2. In theory ANY repair needed to bring the car back to passing grade should be done FOR FREE within the 36 day period. I personally got burned with this as I had to replace a wheel bearing for free on a car 20 days after doing a safety - regardless of the fact that I can't foresee the life expectancy of a wheel bearing. Lol. I didn't get any labour to install it.

But yes, if the car was purchased from X location with a valid safety, that shop MUST repair anything that goes wrong within with 36 days that is a safety related concern. If your A/C stops working or a speaker blows within 36 days, well, sorry but you're SOL.

Himura357

Thanks Fernando.

Let's say a shop tells you they are not going to fix it, or "can't" fix it. What kind of repercussions can come their way? Who will hold them accountable? OMVIC? Ministry of Transportation?

fernando.

MTO runs the show on safety.

Basically the MTO will come down and investigate themselves, like when the safety was written, inspection notes, ect. and ultimately force the shop to do the repair or the shops license to be a repair facility will be revoked. Techs won't really lose their personal license unless they sign something and flat out know it fails, but in a case where it's a come-back then the tech has a little more wiggle room since it's the dealership saying they won't do the repair and he wouldn't have known the SRS light would come on 14 days later.

Unless I misunderstood and you're saying he signed the safety with the SRS light on and that's how it was sold. If so, yikes, I feel bad for that tech.

Himura357

That is exactly right. Sold it (and safety) with the SRS light on, said Honda would fix it for free as it was just a recall, when in fact Honda says it is a failed SRS unit. The tech was also the owner.

fernando.

Honda will goodwill any SRS components since it's safety. Not sure if this is supposed to be public knowledge or if I'll get in shit for saying this, LOL.

I'm not sure how this would work now since you're saying it was taken to a Honda dealership, not purchased from a Honda dealership as I thought originally. Even though Honda can goodwill SRS components they in theory don't really have to since the vehicle was not sold by them or serviced there at the time of incident. The OG shop the car was purchased from will most likely have to pay out of pocket for an SRS unit to be installed by Honda or himself.

What kinda car is it by the way? I'm just curious on the model.

Himura357

The car was bought at an independent small dealer and then taken to Honda 2 weeks later to double check the safety. It is a CRV.

fernando.

Interesting. I've never replaced an SRS module due to it being faulty, only ever replaced them because of accidents. They don't really go bad on their own.

Regardless, good luck and PM me if you have anymore questions or concerns while the issue is being addressed.

d1000rr

What exactly did OMVIC say?

Himura357

MTO said he can be fined $200 - $50,000. They cannot make him pay for a repair. You have to go to court. After the court case, if you didn't win, OMVIC can help reimburse some cost.