Hi everyone:

I have been enjoying my slightly used (when I bought it) Outlander XLS for several years, but just today I've encountered some issues that have me scratching my head. It's been very cold in New York City; last night the temperature got down to about 3, with a wind chill in the negative teens. This morning I let the engine warm up for about ten minutes before I left home, and everything appeared fine. Then some jerk cut me off.

I applied the horn (this is New York after all); it beeped for about two seconds and then stopped. After that it was completely dead, no horn at all. Otherwise the car and everything in it worked fine.

I stopped at the neighborhood garage near my work and asked them to look at it. A couple hours later I got a call that it was a blown fuse, no biggie.

When I picked the car up and started it, the "Service Airbag" alert showed in the dash, the airbag light came on, and the passenger seatbelt warning light came on even though nobody was riding with me. I went back in and talked to the mechanic, who said "oh yeah it started doing that but we hooked the car up to our machine and the airbag's fine; it's probably the cold. Bring it back tomorrow if it stays lit"

So, I drive home (about 30 miles or so, in stop-and-start traffic). The airbag and seatbelt lights never go off. I stop at a market for maybe five minutes. Wehn I restart the car the battery and "check engine" light are illuminated, and when I shift the car into gear nothing happens. Although the proper letter ("D", "R") show on the center panel, the car doesn't budge, doesn't seem to move out of park. I turn the engine off and on, it happens again. Third time, the car starts, no battery or check engine light, and the gears engage, but the passenger seatbelt and airbag lights are still on.

Just to be clear, I've had the car four years and it has never given me ANY serious trouble before.

My questions are:

1 - What the heck is going on? Anybody have any ideas?
2 - Is it safe to drive the car the 30 miles back to my usual garage?
3 - Is it possible the mechanics inadvertently got some wires crossed, shorted something out, or left something disconnected?

Thanks for any and all advice, suggestions or help. Sorry for such a long post!

Roy

 

reset the computer

 

How old is your battery?

Outlanders are VERY sensitive to low batteries.

You may need a new one.

 

The battery was replaced in December, so that shouldn't be an issue unless I got a lemon.

As an update, I left the car at the garage today, and even after resetting the computer the airbag service alert still shows up. The garage guys say the airbags are still functional and will deploy in an accident, but the sensor in the passenger seat is having problems. Sound right?

 

cold + battery = less battery.

if he's run diagnostics and come back with that, then i'd take his word for it.