Hi all,

tl;dr I've pumped about $4k into a car that apparently as "unresolvable" airbag error codes(says GM experts) with the end goal of disposing of the car. Are there such circumstances as "unresolvable" error codes? If it can't be fixed, is the car a writeoff and should I just go through insurance and cut my losses?

Back in February 2013 I was in an accident in my '07 Cobalt SS - 100% my fault so I avoided taking the car through insurance and opted to pay out of pocket to fix my expenses. The long and short of it was that I spun out a hit a barrier with impact to the drivers front side, deploy the steering wheel airbag.

I took the car for aesthetic repairs and all was repaired without a hitch. For the remainder of the repairs, I took the car in to a family friend who would help with the airbag, sensor, seat belt, and control module repairs. Now that we've replaced all of the parts, we encountered a number of issues along the way:

1) The air bag replacement was reading that the resistance was too little and was therefore throwing a check airbag code. We remedied this by installing two resistors which apparently fixed the problem, but the swap was for an airbag out of another 2007 Chevy Cobalt SS. This puzzled me, but we moved forward.
2) The replacement control module was throwing a handful of various codes, one of which fired the passenger seat belt lock one it was installed. I ended up replacing the seat belt which wasn't an issue, but it was an annoyance nonetheless.
3) The control module was telling us that the impact sensors needing replacing, so we replaced those but that code still hasn't gone away.

The long and short of is that I continue to sink in money for apparently remedies to the various codes the computer is throwing, but without being technically savvy to all of this myself, I'm really not sure what the best route to go with my Cobalt. The close family friend has brought out GM expert upon GM expert to help with this situation but the end results have offered me little resolution and more costs. What I'm hearing now is that there are no further resolutions to getting these remaining codes resolved as Cobalts have been known to be finicky in this department.

I intend to sell it once all is said and done, so disposal at the end of this is the outcome. My question isn't technical - it's purely value-based. At this point I have probably sunk in approximately $4000 in expenses to this car. Black book value looks to be approximately $8500. Should I just take the car through insurance in hopes that it's a writeoff? Are there solutions to this problem that aren't going to cost me an arm and a leg? Should I just sell it as-is in hopes that some poor soul takes this car off my hands and is able to fix it themselves? She only has about 65,000 km's on her and has been gently driven (aside from this mishap) so I'd hate to see her go to scrap, but at this point I can't afford to have $4,000 sitting in my driveway with bills long past due.



Any and all help is appreciated!

Cheers,

bitshiftr

 

Can it be inspected like that in Canada?

 

In Texas the only issue would be the Airbag light, and Most of the time I have found places tend to over look that stuff.

 

Yikes. You got into an accident where the airbags popped, in a car worth maybe $10k at the time, and you didn't hand it over to the insurance why? When the drivers airbag and belts popped in my car, two bodyshops quoted about $3k alone just to reset the bag, belts, sensors and computer. That accident would have totaled your car and the only thing you would have lost would have been your deductible. Now you are thousands in, and I don't think you'll be able to claim it on your insurance anymore. Good luck selling it, very few people are willing to take an airbag risk like that. What if you get into another accident and the airbag doesn't deploy?

Idk what you should do now. Best of luck though.

 

Well, that's not necessarily correct that all I'd lose is my deductible. My premiums would also increase and I'd pay off $6k in premium increases, so hypothetically I could spend up to that much and turn profit on resale. The point is could I theoretically have my car written off for a check airbag light? Do I have recourse to have this addressed by another shop or is this error completely beyond repair?

 

Did you check all the wiring for broken wire?

 

The current place the car is at has checked the wiring. I'm not sure if they don't have the appropriate software/hardware to read all the error codes or know how to address them.

 

if you are having a steering air bag issues i know that i got those codes if you dont put the cpa (center position assurance) clips back in the connectors there should be 2 connectors and they both need them. if you dont mind posting the codes maybe we can lead you in the right direction.

 

Just put a momo on it. Call it a day.

 

This and a 4 point harness