Just got my 2009 S and took my first road trip and am very impressed with not only how much these cars have improved aver the last few years build-quality wise, but the gas mileage is awesome. However, I noticed that when I place my camera bag and satchel on the passenger seat w/o buckling the belt the annoying BONG BONG sound and little red seat belt lite come on; both bags combined cant be more than a few lbs. When buckled there's no problem.

This seems super highly sensitive to me and was wondering if others had the same issue with their 2nd gen cars. thanks

A umber of threads on NAM have noted the surprise of new owners at the extreme sensitivity of the R56's passenger seat sensor. This feature, I believe, is needed to calibrate the passenger front airbag triggering mechanism, which prevents the airbag from deploying if the passenger is below a certain weight - ie, a small child. I too, have experienced the gong after placing a small package (e.g. a quart of milk) on the front seat.

Possible solutions: Buckle in your front seat load; put parcels on the passenger seat floor instead of the seat; get an extra buckle to keep in the seatbelt lock to fool/defeat the alarm. In general, the MINI designers were obsessively safety-minded and the car reflects this: Something of a scolding nanny, but well-intentioned. Some may find this MINI trait patronizing or annoying, but I think it's a good thing.

Coming from an R53 that was not as near as sensitive, I just find it annoying, and will get used to it. thanks

Well I knew my puppy was gaining weight when one week he didn't trip the sensor and the next week he did. Eventually he will be too big to ride in the passenger seat anyway and will ride in the back with a harness attached to a tie line between the overhead handles.

Well, so far, I have tossed books, briefcase, small bags of groceries, etc on front passenger seat and mine has not gone off. Only time i have heard is was when my human passenger had not buckled their seatbelt yet. Seems to be a wide range of setpoints on the sensitivity.

My 09 MCS is also very sensitive. Heck, the combination of my laptop and lunch will set it off. If the system is like other manufacturers the lower seat bottom uses a pressure sensor in the bottom of the cushion to detect weight. My old car did not have any right air bag deactivation, oh well something else to get used too

09 mcs - put purse or backpack on passenger seat and it goes off - isn't there a SPECIFICATION for this thing . Dealer is no help. Just cause "they all do that" doesn't make me happy. I'm not going to just live with it.

I think part of the reason for the wide range of sensitivity people are experiencing is that the "butt" part of the seat isn't one big pressure sensor. There are actually one or more small pressure sensors under the upholstery, so if an object has a corner or some other bit that pokes out and that part's right on top of the sensor, even a fairly light object can be interpreted as an 80-pound object (or whatever the threshold is) and trigger the "gong".

In other words, if the "gong" isn't supposed to go off unless there's "X" pounds in the seat, there's an unspoken assumption that the X pounds is distributed evenly over the seat bottom. You can still get the gong even with a much-lighter object if the object's weight is concentrated over a portion of the seat bottom rather than the entire bottom. I can make my gong go off with an 8-pound laptop bag if I prop it up against the seat back so that the weight of the bag is concentrated over only a small portion of the seat bottom.

Try putting a thick towel on the passenger seat to help distribute the load more evenly, and I bet the seat won't be as sensitive.

There must be a great difference in sensitivity between sensors.

After reading all the complaints in here, I have tried to load enough 'stuff' on my passenger seat to activate the gong, without success.

It definitely does 'gong' if passenger is not buckled, but without a published specification on sensitivity, there can be no hope of a Warranty 'fix'.

It is truly a shame that I 'lucked-out' with my less sensitive sensor,
as I prefer (if loading anything of weight, or possible 'spillage') to use the belt to secure it anyway.

Whenever my passenger belt is buckled without a passenger, I do see the "Airbag off' light on upper display.

My computer bag makes mine go off every time.

Was just thinking about this today. Nearly everything and anything I put on the seat causes it to go off. Which wire do I have to cut? Really.

Cutting or joining seatbelt buckle sensor wires will not work, but will set off an Airbag Warning.

It's more complicated than that, there is a multi-page thread over on the Electrical Board on the subject.

Something to do with fooling or duplicating a Hall-Effect Sensor that signals belt connection.

Makes me wonder if the seat-pressure sensors are as complicated as the sensors that detect whether the seat belt is fastened or not. A week ago, I wouldn't have thought so, but after reading the "buckle threads" I'm not so sure.

Mine isnt sensitive at all, it will only go off if a passenger is not buckled up. I have an 08 MCS.