Barry45RPM

Left my car at the body shop for 6 days when I was away for a few days to have a horizontal, backing up SUV crease repaired in the LR quarter. Lo and behold! Come back, start the car up at the body shop & the SRS light (and warning) pop on! Makes you wonder how a car that was unused gets sick like that! To the "workshop" Monday where they will probably just re set the light.


Still love the car, though! I just have to park an additional 800 feet away.

Did you ever wonder why when you park far away in the middle of a lot, with no one arround you, when you come out of the store, there in the middle of the lot parked next to the only car in the area is a little blond in an GMC Suburban unloading 2 sticky kids & one stroller on one side & a multi colored pick up truck, with no grille, and a dangling parking light parked next to the only other car in the lot... a 2004 E 500 that was an island of loneliness just minutes before!

MB Fanatic

They could have messed with the rear door mounted airbag, you never know though.

Baby Jocko

It never fails! That's why I try to minimize the potential dings by always attempting to park on the farthest right end spot. That way, the worst that could happen would be a raggedy-*** vehicle that parks on the left side and happens to have a passenger.

Barry45RPM

...and then you find out after you open the door some moron planted some scragly, stumpy little shrub in the first inch of dirt behind the curb, or the curb is 10 inches high & scrapes all the paint off the bottom of the door edge.

How about the damn fool passengers who get into a parked Benz's passenger seat, and as their body weight causes the car to sink down just a bit so that the door now rests on the TOP of the curb, commence to yanking on the arm rest repeatedly trying to drag the door closed across all of the top of the curb. My in-laws have this maneuver patented! Why do people make me scream at the? What do they think an arm rest is attached to the car with?????

cte430

I was talking to my sales guy one day and talking about how complex these cars are. He told me that the body shop they work with will sometimes "borrow" a brand new car to see how it's put back together! Bad enough for mechanics to work on these cars, but never realized what body shops most go through.

And yes the parking thing is a pet peeve of mine also. I go thru great pains to park my car far away from others and am constantly amazed how often I come back, with dozens of spots all around me, to find someone next to me. One time I parked with at least 50 spots around me. I come out and find a piece of crap car so close to me I couldn't open my door all the way Not to generalize, but it is usually a woman. In this case I noticed the seat way up forward and decided to wait for the owner. I waited about 15 minutes and saw her coming towards the car. As she approached I asked her if it was her car, she said yes why? I asked her if there was any reason she parked right next to me with all the open spots around me. She looked at me like I was nuts. Got in and drove off.

paulhu

Funny, my in-laws must learned that from your in-laws. My in-laws got this door-on-curb patented. It happened not once, but TWICE. First time on driver side rear door, second time on passenger side rear door. If you guys see scrape marks on any curb, my in-laws were there. Luckily, I only let my in-laws ride the OLD 1989 420SEL and my 1987 BMW.

DWP

Instead of yelling "Stop, you moron", or something equally appropriate and equally likely to get you in trouble with the uxor, try yelling "Wait! Let me raise it up for you" and hit the Airmatic up-button. This assumes that you've anticipated the scrape and have left the engine running. If executed properly, you amaze the in-laws instead of offending them. If they're like my in-laws, they may even mutter something about sorcery and cross themselves.

SAguirre

Aside from all the things here being unbelievably true, what never failed me is when people in my old AUDI and in my old 124, would get out of the back seat, they would not let the seatbelt retract. With the seatbelt buckle still in the jam, they proceeded to slam the door as many times as needed to close it with the piece of steel still in it!!!! Even my mother did it 4 times in the same day! Then my father sat in the back seat for the rest of the trip. Bare in mind here that there was nothing wrong with the retractor spring.

Now that I have my 40 E320 I make it a point to park it as close to the front of the parking lots as possible! I also park it next to other cars. So far no dings! I hope that I don't jinx myself now.

My friend’s MDX got a huge dent in the driver's door when he parked away from everyone. The car was 4 days old! He also parks it in the main areas now and he has not gotten any new ones. I really think that idiots really go out of their way to park next to a nice car to ding it up when it is isolated. I really think that this is a fact!

Steve A.

glojo

Hi Barry,
I hope I am not spoiling a very nice conspiracy theory, but it could simply be that the workshop disconnected the battery whilst the ignition was turned on.

This will cause the problem you have described. Sorry about that.

Regards,
John
A sunny morning in Torquay

Barry45RPM

That would be nice if all they have to do is reset the light! Now I have the car parked in my garage for a couple of days with all the windows & sunroof open to evacuate the new paint smell. I can't park my car like that at work, so in the garage it soes!

glojo

Hi Barry,
From what I gather it is a quick 'plug into the computer jobbies' In other words just a computer reset.

I am surprised though that the bodyshop 'a' allowed it to happen and 'b' failed to notice it on completion of the work.

Good luck,
John

Barry45RPM

Its an independent body shop. They wouldn't have the MB Laptop anyway...
reset & go sounds good to me, but why would disconnecting the battery only show a SRS light? That's the only thing that being powerless affects?

glojo

Hi Barry,

This is an extract I have found from another forum

****The SRS monitoring system does not like any SRS component being disconnected when the ignition is switched on. The result is a lit fault light. It's so easy to make this mistake if you leave your ignition on whilst doing bit-and-bob jobs on your car.

The bad news is that my dealer charges the 'minimum labour charge' to do this two minute reset job - it cost me about $72 each time. If you have a service looming, then I suppose you could wait until then, and have it reset as part of the service - it would probably work out cheaper.*****

Disconnecting the battery Is a 'bits and bobs' type job.

Does your bodywork warranty allow repairs to be carried out by 'anyone'?

Sadly your 'independent' might not reimburse you for the computer re-set IF the dealer decides to charge you for a couple of minutes work?


I am off now to locate the film crew responsible for the filming of the first Moon Landing (I am reliably informed they have just filmed Lord Lucan taking part in the New York Marathon)

Good luck,
John
A cool sunny morning in Torquay

Barry45RPM

I don't really care about any "body warranty" from MB... I won't have the car longer than 4 years, anyway. The body damage was only a crease in the rear quarter panel, no body panels were replaced.

I don't plan on telling the dealer that the car was in the body shop, so the light being on and the reset will be N/C, the car is less than a year old. I assure you, the dealer would be lucky to send their body work to the place that I brought the car to. The work is always undetectable, and they only allow certain people to work on any of my family's vehicles because they know what a nit picking, **** retentive car owner I am.

ATS

Haha..

MadManAboutTown

My recommendation - if possible, always park uphill from the store.


Not only does it greatly reduce a runaway cart from smashing into your vehicle, but my belief is that people are just too lazy to have to walk up any incline at all to get back to their car

ToyCollector

Barry, you need to understand the psychie. These folks are more worried about their bubble gum, ding infested contraption getting ripped off. It is all about parking right next to something more expensive so the thief chooses your car instead.

P.S. I use parking as my only exercise routine by choosing the furthest spot from the door.

Petmerctech

The SRS light will not come on if the battery is disconnected with the ignition on. However, it will come on if the ignition is on and any SRS related component is disconnected.

glojo

Hi Peter,
I respect your technical knowledge but surely any SRS component will become disconnected when the battery is disconnected?

(With the ignition switched on I understand you are activating a lot of electronic systems?)

SPURS ONE arsenal NIL (not quite half time)

Regards,
John

Petmerctech

I believe how it works is that the SRS light turns on whenever a change of resistance is detected in the circuit. If the battery is disconnected, there is no power to the airbag module and it cannot perform this check of resistance change. I believe this is how it works for all cars with SRS/airbag components. If the SRS/airbag light would turn on with a battery disconnect, anyone who changes their own battery would be left with an illuminated SRS/airbag light and no way to turn it off unless they go to a dealer or have a scan tool with SRS/airbag diagnosis.

fazooley

Thank god I have my handicap pass. This has proved to be one of the best "NO DING" car protection items available. The spots are at least double the size with a nice 3ft spacer on each side of the car for wheelchair access; lol.

Fazooley

Barry45RPM

12606 Disconnected airbag Squib connector. Perform startest, code 9263, R&R L/R door panel to inspect wiring, found connector unplugged, reconnected and checked connector security (OK) Cleared Codes

...Yeah, sure. I'm sure all they did was clear the code & test. But, the idiot light is OFF.