My B was 10 year old last year and a sticker on the sun visor states that the airbag (only 1 on my car on drivers side) was due for renewal in 2007. I mentioned this to the independent mechanic who services the car and he said I should not bother replacing the airbag and to leave well alone working on the basis if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Is it OK to not bother replacing or is there the possibility of the airbag activating when it should not or indeed not activating when it should? Maybe it's just a ploy by Fiat to extract more money out of us.
Any advice would be appreciated. Have any of you had an airbag replaced and if so at what cost?

I think that the reason for changing it is more to do with it not going off or the material having degraded over time and not working/opening when its deployed.

The sensors that fire the airbag are slightly more worrying, I had an urgent recall on my Jeep when sensors began to rust and fire off the airbacgs randomly. While the local Jeep garage was changing the sensors I asked why airbag's have a 'sell by' date, he confirmed that it was to do with the potential for the material to degrade over time rather than go off randomly.

Thanks. So, would you replace the sensors and/or the airbag on a 11 year old car. Having sensors going off when driving sounds a but hairy.

I dont think you replace the actual airbag but the gas that inflates the airbag and the triggering sensor .

Unofficial advice from my local Fiat garage for my 11 year old Barchetta was don't bother as it's too expensive. I believe that the only risk is that it won't go off or won't inflate properly.

Thanks, in that case I will leave it alone.

Often wondered whether the insurance companies would use this as an excuse for not paying out for personal injury in the event of an accident.

Perhaps they could argue that you had contributed to the injury by not complying with manufacturers safety recommendation to replace the airbags after 10 years.

Dave.

Davren said:

Often wondered whether the insurance companies would use this as an excuse for not paying out for personal injury in the event of an accident.

Perhaps they could argue that you had contributed to the injury by not complying with manufacturers safety recommendation to replace the airbags after 10 years.

Dave.

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Good point. Insurance companies use all sorts of tricks to avoid meeting claims.

I don't think they could do that. For a start they'd have to prove the garage informed you of it at the service and you said no.

I've never heard of this sort of thing being a problem. Anyone else?