so, my 15 year old kid bought an 03 r53 back in september. it was a total POS when he got it and we spent a couple months fixing it all up to get it to be a good solid first car for him. it was an absolutely wonderful father/son bonding experience and he got to learn a lot, both about fixing his own car and valuable life lessons of pride of ownership.

back story on me, I'm in the car audio field for 19 years, having built numerous show cars over the years, this upcoming project is not something out of my league, i just need info that I'm sure someone on here will know.

so now that his car is all good to go, we started on the fun stuff. one of his requests was for a back up camera. i went to the junk yard the other day and picked up a nav screen dash and the mickey mouse ear looking speedo/tach for the steering column. i don't plan to use the nav screen, ill install an independent screen there.

when we first got the car, we had put in a different speedometer (i can't remember why) but all along, the airbag and seatbelt light had been on. i thought it was going to be from the faulty plug crimps under the seats and was going to swap them out. however, a few weeks ago, i took the original speedometer and tach and pulled them apart and changed out the leds on them to get rid of that awful amber. when i plugged them in, the airbag light was gone and the seatbelt light turned off when i buckled up! woohoo!

this morning, i tested the nav dash and speedo combo. all worked including the independent blinkers! however, the airbag and seat belt light are back on. i assume its because this car was not meant for this dash set up.

so, my question for you guys is: is there any way to get the seat belt and airbag lights to go away and work properly? coding? rewiring something?

any help is truly appreciated and thank you in advance!

 

 

 

 

Congrats it looks like you're moving right along.

To get the cluster swap and all that working is a real pain as many have tried it before, but it has to be coded to the car. And using used cluster and nav screen doesn't work right as they are coded for another car.
For your airbag light issue it needs to be diagnosed to see why it is coming on if it is an actual issue, or if it is due to swapping around the gauges and such.

 

well, being as when we put the original gauges in the airbag and seatbelt lights turned off, I'm pretty sure its not an issue with the car, I'm sure its from different gauges.

how does one get it coded to the car? i have a friend that works at the local mini dealer, but he hasn't tried this situation before so he didn't have a solid answer about coding it

 

 

 

ok, so here's an update.....
i brought it over to my mini tech buddy and he tried first to code just the new speedo set up. it didnt work, so he tried coding the entire car. still didnt work.

we decided to call it quits and i went to leave and the car was idling funny and as soon as i came to a stop from reverse, it died. started it back up and as soon as its idling at a stop, it dies.
so we looked over the car and pulled codes. previous owner had put the cat in backwards so both o2 sensors were upstream, there was exhaust leaks, and a gas pedal issue. also found out that the speedo that was originally in the car, was not really the original one.
brought it to an indy mini shop and he recoded the car again. same issue. he said fix the other stuff and see what happens.
i have since replaced the gas pedal, got a speedo from an 02 S, and fixed the o2/cat issue and exhaust leaks.
still the car dies at idle.
i shouldnt have messed with it, i know.... but i did, and now im at my wits end and dont know what to do.....
the car is driveable, but a pain in the *** in traffic. stalls every single time i let it idle.

anyone have any other ideas i can try?

 

So, it ended up just being a coding issue. All fixed now. Back to the drawing board on this project....