I'm a little annoyed. I've only owned my '02 for 14 days, and of that - it's been in the shop for 6 days. :rolleyes:

The seat belt pre-tensioner light wouldn't stop blinking. I took it to the dealer and they replaced a spiral cable within the airbag system. I picked up the car on Tuesday morning, and by Tuesday afternoon, the light was blinking again. I took it back to the shop yesterday and now the technicians can't figure out what the problem is.

Now, it involves Nissan directly. Apparantly, they need to do a technical Q&A with Nissan and try some things that Nissan suggests before they can fix the problem.

Does anyone feel my pain? Has this happened to anyone else? I really want to enjoy my X and I'm having separation anxiety.

Leah

Welcome aboard! I hope you get the X back ASAP. For the life of me, in the past 8 months I've been here, I don't remember anything like this...

BTW- Call the X a car again and you're likely to be tar & feathered

I've never heard of anyone else having this problem either. However tis a serious one,it would worry me a tad. The seatbelt pre-tensioners are actually either a gas/chemical or strictly gas charged cylinder that triggers on a severe impact, pulling you to your seat. A faulty one could be scary(I'm sure they have a well designed system though) I've often wondered about both airbags and pretentioners going off while i'm picking my nose!

That's the closest I've had to milk come out of my nose in years! Thanks.

Dayspring: My Bad. Not used to having such a cool and classy automobile as the "X". I will never refer to it as a car again!

Evansxterr: The nose picking reference was hilarious. Thanks for the laugh.

I was scared to death to drive it again when the light started blinking the second time. I know it is serious, so I don't mind them taking their time to fix it. I'll keep you posted on the problem/fix. It just figures I'm the only one that would have this problem. :rolleyes:

Nice to meet you all. I'll get the swing of this board thing one of these days. I'm glad I found this club.

I wouldn't be too concerned, the inertial seatbelt catch is incredibly sensitive on the Xterra. Even if the pre-tensioners didn't fire and take up the slack, you wouldn't make it far before the belts caught you. I have trouble even pulling the belt out in gentle turns or on a slightly rough road.

Brent

ha, the passenger side one in rrdstarr's truck won't let me move even on smooth roads and trying to release it makes it tighter. The damn thing was trying to strangle me last time I rode with him! Yeah, they catch pretty easily!

Does anyone know where the pre-tensioners are in the Xterra? When I got trained for vehicle extracation these things scared the sh*t out of me. Just imagine cutting through one if these things.

They are on the seatbelt assembly behind the B-pillars, they have a yellow plug with a small black lock. There is a screw you can loosen on top to bend it out a little if you have to get to it. If you are brave enough to mess with any part of this system (air bags,pre-tensioner,spiral cable, or any of the other numerous items) ALWAYS disconnect both battery cables and wait at least 2 minutes before starting.

The steering wheel and air bag must be removed to replace a spiral cord. I'm not aware of a "pre-tensioner light", so I assume your talking about the seat belt idiot light? Have a look at the seat belt plugs (small white plugs mounted under both front seats) to check to see if they lock or for damage. If so, this will cause a stage 3 air bag failure also. Keep us informed on what they find. Air bag problems are a real bitch to find.

I never bothered to re-connect the seatbelt wires under the seats after I pulled the seats out to vacuum the interior a while back. Are you saying that would cause the airbags not to fire? Guess I should get under there and reconnect 'em...

Brent

02's only have the 2 plugs. 00 & 01 have the plug under the drivers seat only. I don't know if they will go off or not, I'm just saying they will cause an air bag code to register as a failure.

Understatement of the year....

In my '01 I would get red marks on my left shoulder blade it was so bad. I couldn't stand wearing a seatbelt at anytime...hell a roadkill thumpin' would throw my whole body in a tizzy. I fore-went safety to leave the bruises off my shoulder.

now, the 2002--I wear it with pride(not lookin' for the no dash light mod). No marks, no jerks, no prob.

Sure, it locks up now and again but either the material is more user friendly or it has more comfortable give/slippage. What do you guys think

Firefighter,..As far as I know the pretensioners are located on the bottom third of the B-pillar. Almost all pretentioners are in this location. Always make your cuts up high on the B-pillars,just make sure to avoid the seatbelt mounts. I've been to many extrication classes lately,and to tell you the truth, if its new and German....be afraid...be very afraid. They have airbags everywhere, some Mercades have a high pressure cylinder up high on the c-pillar of all places!! I run on a lot of MVA's with my department and so far we've been fortunate that the cars airbags have been deployed during the accidents (lots o high speed road). Airbags and pretentioners are great and save lives but, everytime i'm cutting I am just waiting for somthing to blow up or shoot out of some platic orafice!

Hi Gang.

Okay, I got my X back and it is great. First of all, when they replaced the spiral cable on the driver side, they didn't bother checking the passenger side to see if it too had an existing problem. This is why it had to be returned to the shop.

I have an invoice infront of me that has a bunch of codes, but doesn't really tell me much about how the problem was fixed. I think it was a fluke, like someone suggested.

Anyway, if I can figure out what the second part is taht was ordered, I'll let you know. Otherwise, I'm a pretty happy camper now that I can enjoy my new car with out problems.

BTW - the light that was flashing was the light next to the brake light. It has the seatbelt icon with a big red circle infront of it - representing the airbag.

Leah

Is this the light that I have been thinking is the air bag light> top center between the rpm and speedo? if so mine is blinking also. the passenger side seat belt locks and will not extract some times????????? I wonder if this is the problem you are having?

Strike two!!!!

Just kidding man.. Glad to see you got your problem fixed..

[/qb] Strike two!!!!

Oops. It's only been 19 days!

Originally posted by O'Polka:
"Is this the light that I have been thinking is the air bag light> top center between the rpm and speedo? if so mine is blinking also. the passenger side seat belt locks and will not extract some times????????? I wonder if this is the problem you are having??"

You have a '00 or '01 - right? I'm not sure if the icon is in the same location as the '02's, but I do know it is considered the airbag light. According to the dealer, this is a safety issue and you should take your car in asap. I was led to believe that the airbags could release at the slightest sneeze. I don't need that kind of luck.