This is the dizzying amount of work Ford techs will put into your Takata Air bag replacement when you bring in your Fusion and Milan.
Reddit user JoeKingSince90, presumably a Ford tech himself, shared a photo on Reddit earlier yesterday (Apr. 6,2019) of the sheer amount of work he has to go through for one single Takata airbag replacement for the Ford Fusion (and subsequently, the badge-engineered Mercury Milan) and it honestly looks like a nightmare. You’d think that with the passenger airbag located on the dashboard in front of you perhaps the most you’d have to do is careful jimmy it out of its recess but you’d be wrong. Check out the herculean effort your Ford tech will have to go through to take out a single airbag.
Love these recalls! Ford fusion passenger airbag replacement. from r/Justrolledintotheshop
Of course, when Ford engineers designed the airbag system on the Fusion, Milan, and every vehicle equipped with airbags since they were a thing, no engineer designs it to be removed en masse on this level. With the rare case of a defective unit, it could be done but it wouldn’t certainly cause much trouble for the day-to-day operations of a Ford Service center.
Enter the Takata airbag recall that shocked the automotive industry in 2013. Now, once a rare repair suddenly became routine for techs whose car manufactures partnered with Takata for their airbag needs.
Ford issued the recall for the Fusion, Milan as well as other Ford cars, crossovers, and SUVs in 2016 and as you can see by this Reddit post, techs are STILL wrenching on recalled cars three years later. The Airbag recall has hit car manufacturers for worse on varying levels.
As his post shows, you have to take out the entire dash which means loosening, fiddling, and unfastening dozens of plastic clips, screws, and other misc. fasteners.
If it offers any solace to your Fusion or Milan coming in for recall work, as per this Reddit thread, techs have been doing this procedure so many times that, according to one tech, “I can go through the whole process in my head right now.”
I reckon that by the time the Ford tech’s done with your Fusion or Milan, you won’t even know it’s been touched.
Have you had recall work done on your car lately, specifically dealing with these Takata airbags? How was your experience? Did you think it’d be this bad? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Reddit
