[Wibblebum]

Hi all, I'm after a bit of urgentish advice!

My car (V50 '08 plate) is due a washer bottle recall and is goig in on Monday. I'm wondering what the symptoms of the issues are, as I'm having major problems with the car and I suspect they may be related.

My 2 issues are:
My airbag warning light came on a few weeks ago with an SRS Urgent Service warning (or something similar) on the display.

A couple of weeks later and I start having problems starting the car. It was sluggish starting / turning over (although intermittently started fine), but would eventually catch and then was fine. Last weekend I broke down. The car wouldn't start at all. There was a single click on turning the ignition (solenoid?) but otherwise nothing. The breakdown guy got me started very easily by turning off all the electrics and depressing the clutch. How stupid did I look...! However he did comment on the slow turnover being sluggish, and said it could be battery or starter motor.

I took the car to my local independent garage on Tuesday (the dealer is 20 odd miles away stuck in the back end of nowhere on a trading estate with crappy transport links) who plugged it in, and suggested the battery was on the way out, so fitted a new one. I was still a little sluggish starting, however seemed better, and got me around without any problems however still wasn't right. I took it back to the garage yesterday morning, and he told me to bring it back that evening and he'd check the current over the starter motor. I did pop in but he didn't have time to see me, but the car did seemingly nearly shake itself to dealth starting up as I was leaving. However after driving home, I had to pop to the vets to pick the dog up. The car wouldn't start or turn over (at all) even after turning off all the electrics. Battery was clearly fine as all lights were blazing and no warning light. I had to go to a garage next to the vets to ask them if they could push start me (and they charged £20 for the pleasure). Even that nearly didn't work.

So basically my car is parked on a hill so I can roll start it but I've taken today off work as there aren't any hills there and I doubt the car will start!

I understand that some of the issues that may be encountered because of this recall are around the Electrics, so water affecting wiring loom and the CEM (or whatever its called?), so that may (probably will) account for the airbag light. One of the dealer mechanics suggested this might be the case, one of them tried to wriggle his way out, so I don't massively trust the dealer to tell me the truth and not try to charge me stupid amounts of money. Might the recall issues also account for the starting problems? I did read somewhere that one symptom was that cars wouldn't start, and I'm fairly sure the dealer service people said the same.

Basically, if the problems aren't likely to be recall related, I can take the car to the local garage now and get them to look at it. However I've already been charged £100 for a new battery it seems I didn't actually need.

Or I can leave it till Monday, be carless for the weekend, hope to god it starts, and get the dealer to look at it, but if its not to do with the recall, they'll charge me dealer prices.

Any help appreciated!!