Air bag sensor corroded, dealer wants to change entire harness, $2700

Hello, the driver side air bag connector is apparently corroded and the dealer wants to change the entire harness. $2700 plus installation. Has anyone ever cleaned a connector and if so how do I proceed?

Thanks!

 

Uh. warranty?

 

What year? What are the Federal Safety laws concerning airbags in Canada?

 

You can buy the connectors from: myairbags.com

As long as we are talking about the steering wheel air bag connectors.

 

I think they mean the sensors....pretty sure you can buy just the sensors as well. I'd check your own wiring and see if its corroded or not

 

As for your next step. If you can get away with cleaning them do it with a little pick style brush and from that point apply a liberal amount of dielectric great inside of them. That problem will never happen again.

 

SRS warranty is 5 years / 100,000 km in Canada, a hair longer than in the US (60,000 mi). Pierrefonds may or may not be covered depending on when the truck was put in service and current milage.

 

Buy a spray can of Deoxit. Disconnect the connector spray both connections plug it back in, done.

 

Are you talking about 1 of the 2 front bumper air bag sensors? If so...

My abs light came on about a year ago. I checked the code and got a faulty driver side front air bag sensor. Switched the sensor to the passenger side and checked the code again... The code then switched to the passenger side. That explained it! Faulty sensor. Bought one on eBay for $40 and all was good. $40 compared to what? $2700? Dealers are absolute thieves.

However! My abs light came on again recently and its throwing the code for the same sensor. Looks like I'm gonna have to pull it out and clean, scrape, grease it up as suggested in this thread. Hopefully I can get it to last a few more months til I trade it in. Good luck!

 

How well does this actually work?

 

Thanks for the replies. 2010 US truck brought to Canada, not under warranty even after filing a dispute with Toyota. Dealer claims it is driver side front sensor, just behind the bumper, connector is corroded. Local garage is worried cleaning the connector will set off the airbags when the battery is reconnected.

 

Discount the battery, discharge the system, clean the connector yourself, plug it back in, double check the connection, check it again, reconnect battery, done deal.


Try not to set off your airbags.

 

Can't win with these goons! I sure as hell WOULD NOT pay $2700 out of pocket to fix it. I dealt with this pretty extensively about a year ago when I did mine. Here's what you gotta do...
Do you know how to do the little jumper wire in your OBD? To get codes and whatnot? Do some research on that... it's very helpful and you can do it from home.
Get a couple free hours to work on your truck
Unplug the battery for a good 10 mins before doing any kind of ABS work
Unhook the harness from the driver side sensor and check for corrosion
Remove 2 sensor 10mm bolts
Check sensor and harness... If you have green bullshit on there, scrape, clean and apply that Deoxit shit like ^he said.
Refasten sensor, reconnect harness... reconnect battery.
Turn truck on...

If that doesn't relieve the ABS light... switch the driver side sensor with the passenger side sensor (ALWAYS UNPLUG BATTERY BEFORE POKING AT THESE THINGS)
Check the OBD code... if it switches to the passenger side being faulty, you know you just have a faulty sensor. They are on ebay right now for $75.

Try to fix them, try to switch them, if that fails, replace. 2 bolts and a harness.. easy peasy!

If this fails and your harness is completely shot, well then you're screwed. Personally, I still wouldn't take it to them... I'd find a junk yard and yank the harness and wires out of the truck and replace mine with it. The absolute last thing I would do is pay someone $2700 to fix it. That is absolutely ludicrous. Good luck bro.

 

That is what it was designed for it does not do any thing else it works amazingly well on some pretty nasty connections especially on small connections that are hard to get to as I assume the OP is dealing with. I have used this stuff for years on all things electronic I don't know what's in it but it does leave a slightly oily protective film. Be advised it's not cheap you don't get a lot but it goes a long way. Some auto parts stores carry it but most will give you a dumb look if there is an electrical parts outfit around they will have it

 

They have to be powered to deploy. If that was the case when ever you replaced a battery you would set off the air bags. As far as the sensor being corroded with out looking at it it's just a guess maybe it's some thing they have seen before either way in their case repairing some thing like that could result in a huge liability on their part.

 

Is it the sensor or the wire harness connection? Sensors are easily replaced. Wire harness abs connections should not be replaced. You then would need a new w/h.

 

ABS = Anti-Lock Brake System
SRS = Supplemental Restraint System (ie. Airbags)

OP.... Disconnect the battery then take some muriatic acid and swab it in the connector contacts with a q-tip. Rinse with water and repeat if necessary. Follow up with dielectric grease and reinstall.

 

Muriatic acid will attack the copper.

 

I

I meant airbags. I know the difference, I build Toyotas. And I know that Toyota or the "SRS" manufacturer will not replace a connection on those ends. They will replace the harness every time.

 

Bad info right there, regardless of how well you think it's rinsed off.