Have not been on here in a long, long time. Need a little help here. I have a 2006 Cooper S I have owned since new that the heated leatherette seats have a little cracking. I found a set of leather seats from a 2003 that are in excellent condition. I mean barely used looking. They are also heated and side airbags are still in them.

What I need to find out is can I swap the 2003 seats into a 2006 MINI. As mentioned they are heated and are basically the same seats I have but leather and with lumbar support. I know I probably will have to swap the seatbelt latches from the '06 seats over due to the plugs and that is fine. My concern is the '05 and '06 had dual stage airbags. Am I going to have an issue since the sensor is not in the older 2003 seats?

Just trying to fix a few minor issues with my MINI. It's not a daily anymore but it has been garage kept so in really good shape.

 

I believe you have an occupancy sensor on the 06 passenger side that the 03 lacked. I think you can spoof that with a resistor. I would imagine the connectors are all the same otherwise. Just remember if you do this swap - unless you want all of the airbag lights to come on afterward, you must disconnect the battery prior to the switch. I am sure others will chime in here too...

 

As mentioned, you will need the occupancy sensor resistor, and you also need to swap over the seatbelt tensioner from your existing 2006 seats over to the 2003 seats. The connectors on the 2006 are different, so that part needs to remain with the car.