Other than the "I think it's bs" what they're doing to you, I only have one suggestion since you live in GA.

Take your car to Charleston Mini. They are VERY MOD friendly.... I assure you.

Very cool people. I'd call Brad Davis, the GM and tell him up front what you need. He's passionate about minis, intelligent and realistic. I think he'll make you proud.

HTH's,

Mark

 

I had my service advisor tell me the reason my car pulled to the left was because I didn't spend $325 a tire on dealer tires and got mine for $139 a tire off of Tirerack.com. After a his huge whine about nothing it turned out the car just needed an alignment. I can only image what they'd say if I got a sway bar...

OP, sorry to hear about your situation... it's rediculous that they are trying to rip you off like that.

 

Call them and tell them what you think.
That's what the 866-ask-mini line is for.

Like me, many MINI owners buy a second or third car. Repeat business and referrals are important to them.

Also, we need everybody with the airbag light or boot issue to notify the NHTSA ---- if r53 owners had done that, the mushrooming strut towers would've had a recall and repair solution from MINI. It's ludicrous that it was never remedied by the manufacturer.

 

Sunroof issues are rampant, power window issues, passenger airbag light... yup. My MC has been into the dealership for all of those problems. After my 4th time getting my driver side window reprogrammed the tech told me if it stopped working properly again I should just try to live with it. He inferred it was a waste of my time and their time to fix the same problem every 8 weeks or so.

Just to be more specific-- my driver window "imagines" things are trapped at the top, zips down when I try to put it up, and also no longer "releases" when I open the door from the outside or the inside. This makes opening and closing the car door problematic, especially in the winter.

 

I'll just throw this out there, but don't think that I'm just trying to stir the pot.

MiniUsa has never, and never will, encourage owner's to modify their cars with aftermarket parts. Some dealers turn a blind eye to them, but the corporation cannot possibly deal with the unforeseen effects of those modifications. Think of the additional costs involved with having to repair cars that have been modified. That's why they've always had the disclaimer that modifying your car may (will) void your warranty.

The answer they've given you is complete BS, but it's completely within their legal rights to do it because of the modifications you've made. Obviously what happened is that the car had issues, they couldn't fix it, so they came up with a BS answer to keep you from continuing to waste their time and money on issues they haven't found a fix for yet.

That's why I recommended trying another dealer, one who will give your issues another shot, because you aren't going to get anywhere with your current plan. They're completely within their rights to deny you service because you modified your car, and you'd potentially hit the same issue with every other car manufacturer on earth.

 

Here ye, here ye.... very well said.


Mark

 

And since my wife (it is her car now, after all) really does not want a new car (tried to bribe her with an STI or anything else), she wants to wait it out and see if MINI comes up with a solution. Then we'll marry a different dealer and pretend that this never happened.
But it will forever taint the MINI flavor that I used to get in my mouth when I'd rocket this car around the unforgiving curves of the north Georgia pigtrails. Now it's just another zippy econobox to me.

 

At one point in this thread you posted that you were thinking about reverting the car to stock condition then taking it back to the dealer for re-evaluation of the problems. Have you given up on that, or is it too much trouble?
At least they would look at the car and the problem for your car would be on record.
I agree with most posts here that the mods you did would in no way cause the problems you are having, especially since others with stock vehicle shave reported the same issues.

 

If you search on the Stock Problems... Board for R56, you will read about one MINI owner that 'Lemon Lawed' his MINI after third attempt to fix this "Airbag-Off" issue, they let him custom-order a replacement MINI for this one issue.
I have been lucky to not only never had the "Airbag-Off" issue, but also never seen the warning for a package in the seat. I do see the Airbag-Off when belt is latched with less than 80# in the seat, as it should be.
I would agree that this condition is unacceptable for safety and your "Mods" have nothing to do with this problem. Were it to happen to me, I would need to first undo my 'extra-padding' Mod

As far as the boot latch issue, it was reported (by others on Stock Problems...) to be from moisture in the latch control (in the boot lid) and was fixed (under warranty) by replacing and sealing that boot latch control module.

 

Still will if MoSA says we must.


Pointed those things out to the dealer and MINI.


I doubt they will buy back any more R56 cars for the airbag light problem since they have a service bulletin on it and are waffling for time to quietly fix things. They wanted to do it quietly and covertly, without publicity or fanfare. They thought that the associated risk of a few dozen possible injuries or deaths was acceptable when compared with the expense of a recall action.

 

Refusing to even work on the car might be the dealer's strategy for avoiding a buy-back under Georgia's "Lemon Law".

In Georgia, a customer can pretty much force a buy-back if the dealer has made two unsuccessful attempts to fix a serious safety defect, or if the car has been in the shop for 30 total days without being fixed successfully.

But, if the dealer can come up with a reason not to even *attempt* to fix the problem, then a customer can't make any progress toward fulfilling the requirements for a forced buy-back. The Georgia statute specifically says that it's illegal for a dealer to refuse to attempt a repair for the purposes of avoiding Lemon Law action, but good luck proving that's what they're doing.

How many miles are on your car right now? Is a forced buy-back even an option for you at this point?

 

Arnbut,

"I doubt they will buy back any more R56 cars for the airbag light problem since they have a service bulletin on it and are waffling for time to quietly fix things. They wanted to do it quietly and covertly, without publicity or fanfare. They thought that the associated risk of a few dozen possible injuries or deaths was acceptable when compared with the expense of a recall action."

Let me guess: you have a close relative who works at MINI HQ who told you this. No, no, wait: you have tapped the phones at MINI HQ and you know this to be true. No, no, wait: you made this up because you're pissed.

 

Ding, ding, ding, if all thats true (not up on GA Lemon Laws) that sounds like its absolutely the reason for them being so strict with the mods, this is finally making sense.

 

That's why I'm curious as to how many miles are on his car - if it's less than 24,000, he's still in the window to invoke the Lemon Law, and that may be why the dealer is avoiding even looking at his car.

If this is what his dealer is actually doing, it reminds me of the story about the Soviet-era Russian warehouse manager that impressed his superiors by being able to fill 100% of the parts requests that customers made, even in the middle of nationwide shortages. Turns out, he would ask what part the customer needed, and if he didn't have the part, he would turn the customer away without accepting the request. Presto - 100% fulfillment rate!

 

I have an inside source that hasn't given permission to use their name on the forum. Yet.
Most of you would know who it is though; a friend to enthusiasts.

The car has 32,000 miles on it. We're generally 30,000 mile/year people; we virtually stopped using the car except for my wife's commuting when we discovered the problems over a year ago.

 

Yeah, it definitely sucks. I just wanted to make sure that you understood that legally you're pretty much stuck. I wouldn't want you wasting a lot of time and money on something that won't ever happen.

In time, I'm confident that they'll fix the problem. In the meantime, has anyone ever figured out whether it's a cosmetic issue or it's actually a safety concern? It could be that the sensor is all screwy but that the airbag would still function correctly (since the are multiple sensors to trigger it).

 

Do you want to be the one to figure that out?
The new MINI Corvair...

 

Not at all. It seems like that should be something that the dealer could (and should) figure out though.

 

It seems like these cars are being made in such a way that qualified technicians are unable to fix them. I don't blame the technicians... I think most of them do what they can. Chalk some of this up to design flaws or bad wiring. I dunno... it's frustrating though. I think we have all been frustrated like this at some point. I expect to take my car in under warranty, have a problem diagnosed, then have it fixed. The end.

 

Was riding with the wife in the Clubman last week and the airbag light stayed on. I have to admit, it made us a little nervous. When we got home we turned it off, got out, got back in, cranked it up and it appeared normal. This is the first time it's happened to us so far. We've had the car for about 7 months with no other known issues yet, except for some intermittent sputtering when you first crank it up.

 

That's how ours started and behaves; it just happens when it happens and we can't reproduce it at will.
Please report it to the NHTSA, your dealer, & MINI.

I honestly can't tell you if the airbag has shut itself off or if the light is just illuminated ---- and we honestly shouldn't be put in the position to have to try and figure that out and drive around on blind faith.
It appears that MINI will only expedite this matter if they are forced to; they are not behaving ethically, at least not with me...

 

tell them you got a red mark on your leg from the problem

lawyers will figure a fix and force on everyone ....even those who thought keeping your legs out of the way was a solution.

 

This is the passenger airbag off and boot self-opening thread ----- my car also burns your right lower leg on the center stack but, that's a separate annoying feature that is irrelevant right now because the car never goes more than 15 miles at a time anymore....

 

I think Capt-bj was referring to the recall for the exhaust pipes that happened last year.

On the other hand, your center stack does WHAT? There is no way *anything* on the interior of your MINI should be hot enough to burn you. If that's really what's happening, there's something else you should have looked at. Fast.

 

It's been in for that; it was a problem with all the early ones. The center pillar gets up to a little over 140 degrees on a warm day.
But that's normal, I've been advised even though there is a TSB about it.
And the exhaust pipes were already swapped a few months ago; my wife did burn her leg on them but I never did.

I really don't know why my wife wants to keep this car.

BTW, she's in a Clubby for the past 3 days. Global scratched our car when it was in for the non-service and had an employee come pick it up on Tuesday (even though MINI says it is too dangerous for an employee to drive....) and bring it to Magnum Collision. Due back today or tomorrow.