Hey All.

The warning light on the speedo for airbag system came on suddenly. The car had been sitting for a couple of months. Light came on 20 minutes into a spirited drive in the country close by. Nothing has been modified and all I did was climb in and drive. The car is at 40k miles and has no history of electrical issues. The only thing I did was turn off traction control right after startup. Is this a dealer only thing or will it throw a code to show what it needs. Sensor? Bad ground. Or is the car pissed because I haven't been paying attention to it??? I just realized I forgot to mention I had to honk the horn at a deer in the road. Could that have moved something or maybe shorted something?
Cheers!

 

There should be a code. The most common failure seems to be the passenger occupancy sensor.

 

That was a 1st gen issue with a factory recall. A local stealership took care of mine. Check with yours to see if there still is one, something like this shouldn't fall on one's shoulders.

 

Thanks for that. I will check with the dealer in Seattle. Hopefully, it's covered. Cheers!

 

Yep if they dont cover here are the internal part numbers, those are not in MINI ETK

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...pancy-mat.html

 

Thanks, but is that for passenger side? That light is not the one on. It's the red light on speedo. It happened after I used the horn.

 

Ok, its the airbag itself then. Possible the contacts. I would have them check it out first. That's for the passenger side 1/2005+ when they started doing the OC3 sensor for the passenger side.

 

I found an independent garage that knows MINI right in my backyard! They took the time to clear the code (it took a while). They said "drive it and see if it comes back." No charge! I've put about 200 miles on it and the light goes out right after startup and stays off. They definitely earned my business for any maintenance I need.