OK, here's my story, I had a bad day yesterday, first off, my first speeding ticket EVER. Mind you, I was speeding, so I know, pay it, suck it up (though, I'm still goin to court to see if I can get it decreased). But, that's not the worst of it:

I'm on my way to granma's in rural PA yesterday, driving around some back roads. I hit a pothole, WHAM!!! Suddenly, I see smoke, I look up, and my side-curtain airbag and seat airbag had deployed, the crash sensor (or whatever) came on, car died. Had to get towed to my dealer (Morristown MINI) I picked up a loaner, and was on my way.

Now, here's my problem, I wasn't in an accident, yet my dear sweet MINI seems to think I was. I'd rather have an overactive airbag sensor than an underactive one, true, but the trouble is, who pays for this now? I don't want it to be insurance, because I don't want to pay a deductible or have my premium increased for the next 3 years. WHAT DO I DO??? I'm calling MINI corporate to find out what will happen, but, it seems that the dealer is definitely pushing this off on warranty. I know I should sue the town for the massive pothole, but I just want my car back!!

Oh, by the way, I saw no damage at all to my MINI.

Fellow motorers, PLEASE HELP!!!!

Meantime, they gave me a 325i to tool around in, not so bad, but I miss my MINI :???: :???:

_________________
"And, on the hood, there's a hickey, that's where the supercharger lives, right in that hickey"
-The 'Cos, 200 MPH-

 

Wow, Im really sorry. I know this isnt what you want to hear, but arent airbags amazing? I couldnt believe how fast they fill up and everything when I was in an accident.

 

Definitely agree, very impressed in how my MINI wanted to preserve me at all costs, just a little P.O-ed it picked the wrong time!

 

Found a few other posts about this, wondering if its a common problem. Insurance says, definitely a defect, "Airbags only deploy when there is a collision". They said they will go after MINI/the township for me, but will not guarantee that my rates will not increase as a result.

 

I agree that airbags should only go off in a collision and that you should fight hard to have MINI replace them under warranty. Definitely pursue this before getting your insurance company too involved.

 

I remeber a thread on NAM where someone drove off a 4 inch curb while backing up & the side curtains deployed. As I recall the MINI thought it was about to have a rollover. Perhaps if the pot hole was deep enough(we have some as deep as the Grand Canyon here in Mo) the MINI may have perceived that it was about to roll over. Thus causing the side airbags to deploy. I dunno!! Just a thought.

Lois

 

>>I agree that airbags should only go off in a collision and that you should fight hard to have MINI replace them under warranty. Definitely pursue this before getting your insurance company too involved.

I agree with Yucca -- you really don't have any reason to go to your insurance company. And it's better to be safe than sorry (very trite, I know, but still true!) :smile:

 

I also suggest that you head over to MINI2 to research this topic on threads there. I've definitely heard of this happening before with potholes. One of the Motoring Advisors at my dealer hit a raised manhole cover (sort of an inverse pothole) and this caused all 6 airbags to deploy. PM me if you want the name of the dealer and the person. I believe that in this guy's case, the insurance company totaled his MINI due to the cost of replacing all 6 bags (and misc bits, like seats and headliner).

I'm not sure just how common a problem this is, but it is indeed a problem that BMW needs to address. Unfortunately, I fear that you'll have a long, hard, battle ahead of you if you do want to get BMW to cover the cost. Good luck!

 

I appreciate all the help. I have called the insurance company, for advice. Insurance told me that this is in no way my fault, that it is definitely something MINI should repair under warranty. They offered to fight it for me, may be better, but may be costly, we'll find out tomorrow.

 

Us seniors don't have to worry about nasty insurance companies.....they trust us......of course, we NEVER SPEEEEEED!!!!!! or hit potholes......by the way, I hit a pot hole the other day and I thought I had received an 88 round....GEEEEZ!!!!what a whack....blamed it on them runflats......I pay a lot more attention now.....anyways, warranty.....absolutely has got to be warranty........

 

Please describe (If you still can recall):

1) How fast were you going at the time you hit the pothole? (Or Moon Crater?)

2) How "deep" was the pothole?


3) What tire/rim size you have in your car?


Something tells me you were hauling serious *** when you encountered the pothole on the road.....the jolt must have been of such magnitude that the car's computer interpreted it as being in an actual accident thus deploying the airbags.


I have read stories such as yours in MINI2.com and some owners have admitted to be going quite fast over these road obstacles right before the airbags deployed.

Very few times I have gone over potholes with my MINis and never experienced anything like this...so you must have been going very fast (80+ MPH), am I wrong?

 

When you hit a big pothole at "warp speeds" you are bound to sustain damage to the car even if "you don't see it" (That's why you will unfortunately will need to get your insurance company involved so a qualified appraiser and the dealer can go over the car with a fine tooth comb) at all.

So don't be surprised if you have gotten some kind of suspension damage and thrown the aligment out of whack.

 

Sounds like MINI engineers may need to be looking very closely at the software for the deployment of the airbags. If the sensors are set that sensitive, just think what might happen if you were to take your MINI to say, Daytona Speedway, or for that matter any track with high banking. In all the classes I have taken for extracation, the one thing that is drilled into us besides safety is that NO MATTER WHAT an airbag should not deploy unless called for by some sort of significant impact. Example, I hit a deer going 75 MPH in my 3/4 ton Dodge pickup. Deer weighed in at $250 lbs. I hit it DEAD CENTER ON THE AIRBAG SENSOR, and it did not deploy. When I asked the dealer about it, he said that while the deer weighed 250#, it was not a solid enough object to make the airbag deploy. Conversely, I have seen videos where airbags have gone off long after the initial impact, injuring rescuers.

I myself would go to the dealer and demand that they fix it. If they refuse, get your state attorney general involved. The one thing you do have in your corner, and this is always a good one, if they refuse to do anything about it, look at the dealer and tell them "This is a safety issue.My airbags deployed without an impact causing so and therefore I was lucky I did not crash! Therefore MY SAFETY IS AT RISK!" Works everytime!

Good luck!

T.

 

State Attorney General, hmmm, didn't think of that. Thx again for all the assistance guys, definitely a safety issue. I have read many a post on this now, wondering if I should nhtsa this thing. At the time of "impact" I was only doing 30-35 mph (rural back roads, had just come over a 1 lane bridge). Any other ideas??? Should I call miniusa, or wait till I hear from the dealer. I'm planning on the worst from the dealer and have lawyers lined up already. These guys wanna sue everyone, town, MINI, dealer, its pretty crazy.

Right now, all I care about is getting my MINI back sans damage with NO impact on my wallet (other than the alignment, which I'm sure is outta wack). In the long run however, and on a less selfish scale, I'd like to be sure this doesn't happen to anyone else again. If it was the steering wheel airbag, there'd be some serious trouble right now.

 

I hit a huge dip in the road (bottomed out hardcore!), going about 30 mph, i popped 4 bolts under neath my bumper, washers sliced thru the plastic fender underneath. Also broke an EYE screw hole underneath the bonnet on top. Also where i hit the ground took a 2inch x 3 inch long gouge out of the plastic, pealed back like a sardine can. But fixed it, luckily no airbags went off on that. It was extremely loud when i hit the ground too! My bumper had like 1.5 inch of play any way after that happened. (on the right side) But i fixed it now

I feel for you man, I say fight it. Its not your fault, there was no accident.

pz

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If the airbag deploys, doesn't that shut down the fuel injectors?


Paul

 

If the airbag deploys, doesn't that shut down the fuel injectors?


Paul

 

How big was the "crater" you hit at the time of the airbag deployment? have pics of it?

 

Apparently MINI is sending out an "investigator" we'll see. Starting to think about this this way: Imagine you're tooling down a major interstate and this happens. You could very well lose control and cause some serious damage to yourself and others. Or, you're coming down a back road, hit a pothole, MINI goes into "crash" mode, you lose control, and toss yourself into a ravine (no engine = no power steering).

Heard from the dealer monday. He told me they put the MINI on a lift, expecting to see something wrong. He was suprised to find out that there is nothing wrong, looks like nothing was hit. Hmmmmmmm, looking like warranty.

 

The "crater" was nothing ridiculous, about normal size, I mean, I knew it was there, but nothing you wouldn't come across in NYC. And yes, the fuel pump shut off, car went into crash mode.

I have 17's on the stock S-Lites, with no suspension work.

_________________
"And, on the hood, there's a hickey, that's where the supercharger lives, right in that hickey"
-The 'Cos, 200 MPH-

 

Is there a reset button? In a friends escort gt he went over a rail road crossing to fast/hard and his car "died" I knew about the fuel injector shut off and reset it and he drove home. It be nice to know that you could reset you mini to drive it, but I bet they dont want that if you dont have all your air bags.

I didn't see anything in the manual about a reset button. Probaly all computer now. :???:


Paul

 

nah, no reset button, gotta plug into the computer. Though, there should be.

 

All these early air bag deployments (annoying as they may be) appear to have been from the ones that should be set off only by a side impact. Or have I missed something?

If that's the case, than why is the speed of the MINI and the size of the pot hole a concern? With a substantial pot hole and high speed, only your forward velocity and vertical velocity would be affected, not your lateral velocity. If the sensors were set too high, wouldn't the front airbags be going off as well?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing that this is definitely a problem, but it seems more like a case of something other than an over sensitive sensor triggering the deployment.

Also, has anybody had this happen with either of the front air bags?

 

Actually, I was noticing the same thing, always seems to be a side impact, and, always seems to be driver's side, to boot!

Front bags would be a huge problem, may cause burning, or some such thing. There was one instance of all 6 bags in a motoring advisor's car going off when he hit a 4" raised man-hole, only instance I've come across.