My mom has had this 2005 XKR for about 6 months now, but lately the airbag light has been coming on intermittently. She took it 4 hours to the Houston Jaguar dealership, and they told her it was the seat covers she installed. They said the metalclips were grabbing the wiring and shorted it out. They said you cant get parts for the seat, but you can buy a whole new seat for $10,000!!! I am a master certified technician and work aviation avionics. I took the seats out and inspected them for wiring damage and found nothing. They told her the jaguar buys back wrecked seats and rebuilds them and reuses them so you cant get a used seat, and they said the wiring is gold. On inspection I found that the wiring is copper, not gold. I think we are being scammed and they don't want to fix it since it is still under warranty. I can't even find where the clips could have been grabbing to where it would cause damage to the seat. What do you think?

 

Ok, looked at the receipt for the work and here is the code the car gave. B2295[29] Driver Air Bag Side - Open Circuit (Flash 22). It just says seat cover strap wrapped around wiring harness but they didnt actually find a source for the problem. In the event of an airbag or seat belt failure, the manufacturer must repair it. There is no damage to the seat wiring that I see. This issue is apparently for the side airbag which would have been blocked by the seat covers which are now removed. What do you think guys?

 

Well, I talked to the service manager at the shop, Motorcars LTD. and he tried to talk his way out of everything. He said his mechanic found a yellow wire towards the front of the seat that was pulled out of the connector. Its a two wire yellow connector that hooks to the wiring on the floor. He says they plugged it back in, and the light was still on and they believe the wire being pulled caused a short in the harness. I saw that same wire when I took the seat out, so I peeled back some of the coating and found no break so then I did a continuity check and that was good. To take the pin out, I had to use a pick to remove the red lock, then I had to use the pick to keep the plastic clip up while I pulled on the wire. I can't see how the loose strap could have enough force to pull the double locked pin. Its a pretty secure setup. I also saw no bare metal or arching or anything around that area so I rule out nuking something farther up the chain.
Furthermore, they told my parents the car had no warranty and thats why they charged them for the fuel injection servicing and fuel filter change. The car also was running a little rough, and stalled a couple times backing out of the sloped driveway. They did a $281 fuel injection servicing with BG cleaner. And then they replaced the fuel filter for $130. Fuel injection is covered under the warranty, specifically stated in the book. And the servicing was performed to fix a fuel injection malfunction; clogged injectors leading to misfiring. So it wasnt routine maintenance. As for the fuel filter, its required at 60,000, the car currently has 34,000. So that wasn't routine either.
I think the seat should be repaired under the warranty, and I think they should be reimbursed for the fuel injection servicing and the fuel filter. I called 1 800 4 JAGUARS, and they verified the warranty is good till Jan '09.