Hi guys,

New to the Mini Cooper world. Recently bought my daughter a slightly damaged R56 2007 Mini Cooper. Was not hit hard, but did damage the radiator support enough to cause the drivers airbag to go off. Ordered a new airbag from Mini of St. Louis, and they sent a 3 spoke wheel to my suprise.(ours is/was a two spoke). After many phone calls back and forth, the dealer insisted that this car is supposed to have a 3 spoke wheel based on the VIN, and that someone had changed it. So I ended up buying a new wheel and airbag.

My question is, does anyone know which models this steering wheel fits? I want to list it on ebay and sell it, but want to get as much as possible out of it and dont think I will be successful unless I can tell people what it belongs on.

 

Pretty sure it will fit a MC or MCS car without Multifunction Steering wheel controls MFSW.

 

Yeah, what I was looking for more specifically is what years. Obviously it fit my 07, I was trying to figure out if it came out factory on a particular range of years. I've looked on ebay at a few and cant really come up with any models that have this particular wheel, and was trying to find some history on it and what it comes on.

 

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do

RealOEM is my source for all details such as what fits what.

 

That's the R56 2-spoke base steering wheel. In the US, it was initially standard on non-S Cooper models (3-spoke was optional). By 2008, MINIUSA upgraded the non-S Cooper steering wheel to 3-spoke as standard.

So the 2-spoke wheel hasn't been offered for a while in the US, but it is still standard for some lower models (e.g. MINI One) in other parts of the world. It should be physically compatible across all 2nd gen MINI models. I'm surprised that the airbag isn't also compatible.

 

Sounds like what you are telling me is the dealer didnt know what he was talking about. I argued with him for ten minutes, trying to tell him that the car did not look tampered with, and steering wheel appeared to have not ever been removed, then he told me that they havent offered a two spoke wheel on these cars since 2002-3.

This is in fact a non S car. The issue I had trying to fit the three spoke airbag, is obviously there was a cutout in the airbag for the third spoke, which looked awkward, but even worse, the cutouts for the side spokes did not match the spokes on the wheel, and the tabs on the backside where it snaps in were in different spots.

I basically gave up trying to argue, and just ordered a three spoke wheel and airbag, as he could not find a two spoke wheel to send me.

So basically this will fit any R56 sounds like?

 

The 2 spoke he is talking about looks like this from 2001-to early 2004

 

It didn't occur to me that the spokes might require different cutouts in the airbag module. Yes, that would be a problem.

It should fit any R56, however the new owner would also need a matching airbag.

 

No, he's talking about the R56 2 spoke wheel that is common outside the US but was here for only a short time in 2007 as standard for non-S Cooper.

 

Yep, rkw has got it right. Completely different from the first gen wheel. But I think Braminator was referring to the dealer assuming it was an older wheel, which was incorrect.

I finally found it on the RealOEM site, you have to choose One for the model, then it pops up. Anything else shows the three spoke for the r56.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

This is why I answered the way I did. The dealer was talking about the type I showed a picture of.

 

 

Yeah that is the 2nd gen 2 spoke wheel offered in early early 07 that was pretty much discontinued by the end of 08. When I was retrofitting MFSW that is what kept popping up in my searches and also what the service bulletin was bringing up. Shortly after the R56 came out in the US there was a problem where several 100 people ordered MFSW and that is what came on their car prompting MINI to have to come with how to replace and reprogram the MINI to except the MFSW.