I recently bought a 2011 Mini convertible and when I got home I noticed that one of the front speaker grills was mismatched. I called my salesman and emailed him a picture of the mismatched grill and he ordered a replacement.

Today I went by the dealership to get it installed and the service advisor told me that I would have to bring the car back next week and drop it off because in order to replace the speaker grill the entire door panel needed to be removed. That part made sense but he also told me that removing the door panel meant that the airbag had to be disconnected and would require resetting the airbag and the car's computer.

At first I didn't think anything of it but as I was driving home I started thinking that that didn't make any sense. On the convertibles the side airbags are in the seat, not in the door, and also, I've read threads where people talk about installing new speakers in their doors, which requires removing the door panels, and none of them mentioned any issues with airbags or having to reset the car's computer.

Is the service advisor right or does what I understood from him not make any sense?

I'm also curious because one of the first things I plan on doing to this car is having the front speakers upgraded and I want to make sure that when the installer removes the door panels he's not going to somehow mess up the functioning of the airbags.

 

So there’s no airbag in the door itself?? I can’t imagine why removing the door panel has anything to do with the airbag if there’s not one in the door.

Being in the bodyshop business, that just doesn’t make sense to me.

Mark

 

As far as I know, the convertibles have the airbag in the side panel of the seats.

 

Though I may be missing something, there shouldn’t be any reason for the dealer to be correct.... but hey, I’ve been wrong before.


Mark

 

I don't think there is an airbag in the door. However, even if there is an airbag in the door you are safe if you disconnect the car battery before pulling the panel. As long as you get everything connected back before you reconnect the battery you will not have an airbag light set!!!


This goes for the pretensioners in the seat (don't unplug the seat harnesses before disconnecting the battery) and all of the other airbags.