In summary, this is a report on what it took me to clear the airbag light on my Mini.

I purchased my son’s totaled 2013 R56 Mini which had been in a front end collision which triggered the drivers airbag. The crash was incredibly minor, not even scratching the paint; however, it will require some tricky “Paintless Dent Repair” to fix. It also is a car from the rust belt and there was a lot of rust to deal with, but that report is for a different time.

Steering Wheel Airbag

Although the airbag is available at the dealer for between $650 and $750, I purchased a used one online for about $150 which although ugly, worked just fine. It took a 3/16” punch mounted on a socket in a big one handed circular ratchet to give me enough force to pop the old one off. The punch was pushed through the 3/16” hole in the back side to release the coat hanger sized wire spring clip. (N.B., disconnect the battery before messing with airbags) Once off, I just unplugged it and plugged the new one in. Once connected, the airbag just snaps back in place.

Seat Belt Buckle

There is a version of the buckle that has a pyrotechnic device that tensions the belt during a crash. It looks like a small cigar thing that points forward on the seat belt buckle. This must be replaced to clear the airbag codes. For this reason, and since it was ONLY $150, I went to the dealer and purchased a new one. Several people I contacted, said they needed to replace it. I had a “Retractor Tensioner/Belt Force Limiter” airbag code. Sadly, my buckle did not have this feature and did not clear the code. Its electrical connector was just for telling the computer that the buckle had been clipped.

Shoulder Belt

Despite the line drawing not showing any electrical connection, my seat belt shoulder harness was of the type that included a retractor tensioner and force limiter. So, in addition to the belt buckle (which I didn’t need) I purchased a seat belt shoulder harness. The worst thing about this was that to access it, I needed to remove the B and C pillar panels and the side trim and the rear seats. As a boss once said to me, “to remove the cigarette lighter, you start by removing the gas tank”. This felt like that.

Clearing codes

The Bentley manual says you can only clear the codes on the SRS system module three times before you have to replace it. Fortunately for me, I guess ‘failed attempts’ don’t count. I used a common Foxwell 510 scanner and it cleared everything just fine.

Good luck if you have to do this or you have other airbags to replace,
Peter

 

FWIW, one other forum participant said he needed to send his airbag controller off to get reprogrammed and that he then found a seat belt error. He then had to purchase that and clear codes a second time. It is unclear whether this reprogramming step was needed but may be. It wasn’t for me.

Peter

PS. Ha ha! He may have spent $65 reprogramming unnecessarily whereas I spent $130 on a seat belt buckle unnecessarily.