Most car manufacturers issue “OEM Position Statements” to car repair shops that outline their expectations of how repairs should be performed.   INFINITI has issued a statement about the air bags in their vehicles and how only new OEM parts should be used during repairs, instead of salvaged or used air bag components.  

“The installation and use of a salvaged or used Supplemental Restraint System component in an INFINITI vehicle may compromise the intended performance of the vehicle’s air bag system, as there is no certainty of the history, quality, condition, compatibility, environmental or other degradation prior to salvage of a recycled or used air bag system component.”

What INFINITI is saying is that they can only vouch for the air bag components that their engineers have designed, tested, and manufactured.   Original Equipment Manufacturer parts are made of the highest quality materials, designed to fit that specific manufacturer’s vehicles.

While you might be able to find salvaged or used OEM air bag components to use on your INFINITI, those parts might already be compromised.   For instance, the vehicles they came from might have been in a collision previously.   No matter what the vehicle’s history is, if the parts aren’t new, their integrity is automatically questionable.

When it comes to the parts of the car that are designed to save a life in the event of a collision, brand new OEM parts are more important than ever.   The last thing you want is for your air bag to fail in the event of a collision.   The use of used or salvaged parts can put you at risk of this happening.

Here’s what INFINITI says about pre- and post-repair scans:

“When repairing an INFINITI Supplemental Restraint System, INFINITI strongly encourages pre- repair system scans where appropriate, and requires post-repair system scans to ensure internal trouble codes are addressed.”

It is generally a standard procedure to scan a vehicle for trouble codes prior to a repair and it is equally important to scan for trouble codes after a repair is completed.   This allows a technician to determine whether the repairs have been conducted properly.

Using any other parts besides new OEM parts on your INFINITI can void your warranty:

“INFINITI’s New Vehicle Limited Warranty, and Limited Warranty on replacement parts do not apply to any parts other than genuine original equipment parts.   INFINITI will not be responsible for any subsequent repair costs associated with a vehicle and/or part failure caused by the use of parts other than genuine replacement parts.”

Because they can’t vouch for the integrity of used or salvaged parts, INFINITI will void your warranty if you choose to use anything other than new OEM air bag components.  

Unfortunately, some shops choose to cut corners and use salvaged air bag components, in spite of the recommendations clearly expressed in the INFINITI Position Statement to use ONLY new OEM components.   They can get away with this because they are not required to do as INFINITI suggests, even though it can be detrimental to the customer to ignore the manufacturer’s guidelines.  

When you bring your car to us, you can rest assured that we will adhere to the position statement in using only new OEM air bag components and performing both pre- and post-repair scans.   We do this because we care about the integrity of our work, of course.  

More importantly, we care about the safety and wellbeing of our customers.  

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