2002 Airbag System Repairs Complete !!

:grinyes: I recently bought a 2002 NB GLS Turbo, got a great price since it had an airbag warning light set. I hoped it was a simple fix, but it wasn't. Ended up that the airbag controller had a fault, "internal error". I posted this a while back. Following several pieces of great advice and a contact generated through this forum, I removed the controller and sent it to:

Airbag Systems, Inc. (Chris McNutt e-mail: chris@airbagsystems.com)

They had it repaired and back to me within a week. Besides the internal error, there was some corrosion on the connector. I cleaned the vehicle connector, they did the module. I put it all back together today and everything is perfect. Checked out fine with my VAG-COM tool, too.

I highly recommend Airbag Systems, Inc. Their price was $100.00 plus shipping and every contact was professional and very helpful to a novice at this type repair. I am very satisfied and even quite happy with my vehicle.

Disassembly/reassembly of the console was painstaking, but doable following the Bentley manual.

Well done! Care to hazard a guess at how much it would have cost for VW to fix???

This really is a guess because the "technician" at the local dealership only gives broad estimates. He did not hesitate real long with an initial "approximately $800.00 plus parts for that type of airbag repairs." New factory control modules are "around $550.00".
That is the starting point here because he did say that they would never start with replacing the control module. They would only install a factory new module, no rebuilds or removed serviceable.
So who really knows? I'm certain with the unavoidable labor to remove the module, I would have been out several hundred before they acknowledged I had actually broken their code with a VAG-COM computer hookup.
Bottom line is it probably would have been closer to $2000.00 than $200. Besides the costs for repairs and shipping above, there have been no other costs.