EmmaS

Hello, and thank you in advance for any help.

I had a remote car starter installed last week in my 2009 Malibu. When I got back to the shop, they told me they had to boost my car to get it into the garage. This seemed very odd to me, as it has been colder than -20 C once or twice already this year and I've started the car absolutely fine every time. Never have had any issues. They said I had a "very weak" battery and should get it replaced.

The same day, I went to get my battery tested. The first two passes were absolutely fine. The man doing the test gave it a third shot, at which point the battery did dip a bit. He told me it would be a good idea to get it changed for when it got colder, but that it wasn't really too bad. If it were spring or summer, I'd probably get a few more months out of it. I had them change the battery then just to save me hastle later.

A couple days later, my "Service Air Bags" light comes on and stays on while I'm driving. I went back to the shop that sold me the remote car starter and they looked at the car and pulled three error codes: B1000 00, B0083 71, and B0084 71. I haven't been in any collisions and I checked that the passenger air bag sensor correctly recognizes when I have a passenger in the seat. They tried to clear the codes. However, they wouldn't clear and they told me I'd have to pay a diagnostic fee plus any charges related to fixing whatever the issue is.

I feel like it is highly coincidental that I should have all these issues suddenly spring up after they installed the remote starter. I am also concerned that they told me they had to jump start my vehicle right after I left. Considering it was hot from driving 40 minutes on the highway and had NEVER had issues starting before, it does not seem likely...

Any thoughts on what might be the problem here, and/or if the shop that installed my car starter could be at fault? Thank you very much for your time!

Update: Apparently now the B0083 and B0084 error codes are in history, but my service air bag light is still on and the B1000 is still present. They tried to reformat the air bag module but it would not let them. Also, they only jump started the vehicle when it was in the shop and had to charge it for 20 minutes. Even still, the battery wasn't bad when we tested it afterward. I'm guessing part of the problem is that the battery got drained while they were working on the car...