I'm getting ready to send my Mini to the body shop for a full repaint. I have gutted the interior except for the driver's seat, carpet and dash. Is it ok to drive the car without the seats connected?

I read a post that said do not turn on the car without the seats connected, so I'm curious as to why the advice? Does it do permanent damage, or just a fault that needs reset? I have ISTA, so I can perform a reset.

 

From related forum posts plus service receipt on my mine, yes codes thrown without seat(s) connected to harness(es). No permanent damage, however the PO paid the most local MINI dealer to reset and clear. Unsure whether your software will do same, however likely others will chime in...

 

You can reset airbag codes with inpa or similar

 

Thanks. That's what I thought, just needed some piece of mind.

 

I've driven other cars without seats connected and everything was perfectly fine, no codes or anything. However, we are talking about BMW here so you never know what might happen. I wouldn't worry about it, let's see some photos when you get the car back!

 

I'll get a thread started at some point with pics. I'm also in the process of upgrading the audio while the interior is out!

 

There is a counter on airbag reset of 5. If you reset more than that you will not be able to reset and are screwed. I don't know why this is.
I had to pay an indy to reset once when a shop unplugged my passenger seat and it cost about $100.

 

Pretty sure that's not true. There's a cap on the number of crash telegrams the module will store, but you can reset faults indefinitely, AFAIK.