I need your guys opinion on how I should procede. My wife and I were in the MINI last night, I was driving. It had just snowed and the roads were a little slick. I steered to go around a round-about, and the car under steered. I got a little bit of traction, but just enough to turn the car sideways a little bit. I hit the curb at and angle, and the driver’s side and head airbag deployed. I was not going that fast, maybe 10 mph. There is no damage at all to the outside of the car. The rims are fine, the underside is fine, there is no indication of an accident other than the deployed airbags. I was talking to my wife later and told her that I was surprised the airbags went off. I called my dealer today and they told me it would cost about $2000 to replace the airbag parts and labor. I went to a shop that does body work and airbags. The owner told me that in his experience there is no way the airbag should have gone off, and that BMW/MINI should pay for the whole thing. I called the service manager at my dealer, but just left a message. What should I do? Should I go through my dealer, or should I contact MINI USA from the get go?

What gets me, is that the airbags deployed, but there is no damage, anywhere. I am lost on this one. My insurance will pay for it, and my premium will only go up $36 every 6 months, but I would much rather have MINI replace it. Thanks in advance for your help, guys.

 

I think that, before you do anything, you need to find the mechanic who told you this never should have happened--and then maybe another mechanic or two who are in agreement--and get that in writing. Then contact the service manager and see whay he says. If that's unsatisfactory, take it to MINIUSA and if they STILL won't replace it all, find a lwayer. Something like this would be very easy for a lawyer to settle and it's the perfect case for a "friend of a friend" who happens to be a lwayer and is willing to write a letter and make some phone calls on your behalf.

Often, just threatening legal action is enough to get *somebody* to listen.

Good luck.

 

Report the instance to http://www.nhtsa.org.

However, keep in mind that for any warranty/insurance claims MINI and your insurance company would have to investigate further into the airbag deployment. The dealer needs to inspect the car with a fine tooth comb to make absolutely sure that there are no signs of damage before determining whether there was a failure of the airbag sensors or not.

Perhaps there is no visible damage but the car could well have sustained a major jolt to the underside or vehicle frame. Again, you need to provide the dealer an opportunity to inspect the vehicle and if accident damage is found, then you need to file a claim with your insurance company and pay the deductible.


Airbags are very expensive indeed.

Yours is the very first post I read about "unexpected" airbag deployment. I have the feeling your car has sustained damage not visible to the naked eye


take it to the dealer and let us know what they tell you. Also keep your insurance company on the loop of events.

 

BMW/MINI will not award any warranty clains on those airbags until the vehicle is checked at an authorized MINI dealer.

If no damage is found and no viable explanation from a technical point of view is provided for the incident and on top of of it all, MINI refuses to award repair or replacement under the terms of the limited warranty, then get your attorney involved.


Ride one pony at a time, please.

 

Thanks OmToast, I'll let you know if I could use your friends help. I have one Mechanic that will vouche for this. I also have some credibility, I work for a Accident Reconstruction Firm. I deal with airbag deployment all the time. I contacted the service manager, and he is going to schedule a time for me to bring the car in.

I agree that there may be some damage not visible to the naked eye, but very unlikely. The car tracks straight, not vibration either. Plus, the majority of the energy was taken by the wheels. If those are fine, it is very very unlikely that there will be any frame damage.

 

I'd say if there is no damage to the car, there was no reason for the airbags to go off, and MINIUSA should eat the repair costs.

Best of luck and skill getting the MINI fixed!

 

I backed into a curb in reverse.Drivers side bags deployed so slowly that I didn't know what was happening.Very expensive and time consuming fix.

 

How fast were you going at the time you hit the curb?

I am thinking that if the sensors detect an impact transfered sideways (The wheels being the initial impact point), the computer may "think" that a side crash is in progress, thus deploying the airbags.

These airbag systems are designed to react faster than a blink of an eye, so there are too many decisions the computer needs to make in that short period of time.

People drive over bumps, potholes and hit curbs in their MINIs all the time. My point is that maybe when the wheels kissed the curb it did not felt significantly hard to you but the impact force might have been enough to trigger the airbag system, in other words, you went above the "safety" threshold.


I sincerely hope it is not a malfunction in the system. I am not saying this because I don't want MINI to pay for your airbag replacement, rather this type of problem could happen to anyone accidentally driving over a pothhole or hitting a curb at low speeds.

If MINI finds damage (Be sure they document all thier findings) then let the insurance company foot the bill. That's why you pay that pricey premium every month.

Good luck.

 

I was going under 10 mph. When I called the dealer they told me of another MINI that this happened to, and a Z3 that hit a pot hole and all the airbags went off. I, too, hope that it is not MINI, but that the airbags were just doing their job. If not, then I might be looking for a new car.

 

I personally know of two people in New England who experienced spontaneous air bag deployment. No impact, no jolt, just BAM! and the airbags were deployed.
Perhaps you got one of the bad ones that was on the edge. Check on mini2 for some more information.
Tough battle to fight. Good luck with it.

 

is it ok if i put some of the things yall are saying about this, on my web site??


thanks

 

This is the second time Ive heard of this happening. Not good.
_________________

 

Hondacivic,

it is fine if you put some stuff on your website. What is your web address?

 

I'm with MINI USA. I'm sorry to read about this incident. Please give us a call at (866) ASK.MINI and mention Reference # 200335600184 so that we can discuss this.

 

Unfortunately, hitting any foreign object like a curb does qualify as a collision. I think that you have an uphill battle to try to get this covered under warranty. Like a small stone causing your windshield to crack, even gently hitting a curb may cause the airbags to deploy. Luckily no one was injured.

 

After further investigation, I noticed some damage to the rocker panel and some gouges in the rims. From my experience in Automotive Accident Recon, I decided that there was no faulty deployment. It was just the mechanics of the collision that caused the airbag sensors to think there was a high enough Delta-V to deploy the airbags. I am going through insurance, and now feel fine about it. There is also a rubbing the left front wheel, I don't know what it is, but it is from the accident. Even if MINI did cover the bags, they would not cover that, so in that regard, I figured insurance was the best way.

 

m3ster, sounds like the insurance company is best for this situation. It is surprising that the airbags deployed from a seemingly minor jolt, but better that they deploy once in a while when not really necessary than not at all when they are needed.

 

For what it's worth, I've heard of this happening on several other MINIs. A MA at my dealer (MINI of Peabody in Mass) had it happen on his car when he hit a raised manhole cover. A member of this board had it happen when he backed off a curb and dropped both rear wheels. In both cases, I believe, there was no body damage to the cars...just some slight wheel rim damage, and of course the $3000 or so in airbag damage.

IMO (and that's all it is) I think that the MINI's airbag system is perhaps a bit oversensitive. I personally live in fear that my wife (this is not a sexist comment, rather, it just reflects the fact that aside from me my wife is the only other person who drives my car) will back into a curb and set off the airbags and the resulting damage will end up getting my insurance canceled. It's not something that I'd think about except for the growing evidence that this sort of thing happens in MINIs.

Now that MINIDivision has responded to this thread, let us know what happens!

 

Well, I talked to a guy from MINI/BMW of NA. He seemed really willing to help out. He is going to make some phone calls and call me back tomorrow morning. I mentioned that I have had a few BMW's and that my parents have had several BMW's. He said that he is always trying to help people that have multiple BMW's. I am not sure if that was a line of BS, but so far I have no reason not to trust him. I guess we will see what happens.