Hi Group,

I have an 07 MCS and would like to swap the driver and passenger seats as the driver seat has some wear and tear on it. My main concern is the Advanced Frontal Air Bags. If I unplug all the electronics and replug everything back in after the swap, will the Airbag system still work the same. I ask this because my 10 year old like riding in the front and I would still like his airbag off when he does. Thanks Keith

 

I'm guessing that left and right seats are not interchangeable because the airbags will be in the wrong positions.

 

The driver and passenger seats are not compatible and don't even have the same number of plugs (in the US). Perhaps you could get the driver seat upholstery covers repaired or replaced.

I'm surprised that the airbag would be disabled for a 10 year old. I thought the cutoff weight was around 40 lbs. Does the passenger airbag disabled light turn on? The passenger side airbag adjusts deployment force based on the weight sensor in the seat bottom.

 

I'm pretty positive that you couldn't even swap the trims from one seat to the other since there should be an airbag chute in the trim. Your best bet is to get a replacement for the driver's seat, but it is probably going to be very expensive :(

 

Oh, man do I feel dumb. Thanks

 

Yes, he disables the airbag at his current weight. Not sure what he weighs but it's over 55lbs

 

Maybe search car-part.com for a used driver seat to replace your worn one with instead.

 

Amazingly enough, I saw a rental car (it was from Enterprise, if you care) that had TWO passenger seats in it. So the driver's side airbag would inflate at the passenger. Amazing...and from a business, that is a lawsuit waiting to happen. The seats were even a little different in style, maybe a different year. In other words, don't beat yourself up too bad Did I mention that I work at a seating company? My former boss worked on MINI seats even!

For your son, I recently got a recall notice for the weight detection sensor on my 2007 MCS hardtop, so maybe it would be a good time to check in to that! I'm not sure what the fault is, but maybe it isn't getting triggered at the correct weight.

Pelican parts also has a good idea with looking for a good used seat.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll call on Monday about the recall.

 

Hey Keith,
This is the recall I was talking about, but now that I look at it, it doesn't include R56's. I did look at the "complaints" and there are several people with early R56's that seem to have similar problems. So anyway, I guess my point is that I have looked at this recall I got, (and am not really sure why I got it now...) and I don't think that MINI is going to fix it :( Maybe you can add your problem to the complaints, I'm not sure (but maybe could find out...) if the sensors are the same between the 2 models.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/...tsa_ids=15V205

Sorry,
Howard