Anyone do a seat swap? We just did it and my car is throwing the airbag code. We disconnected the battery for a long while prior to hooking up the new seats and then hooked battery back up for 15 minutes then turned car on and now there is the airbag code.

We also swapped the headlights out with the blackline and it is throwing a code for those as well as the factory lights were adaptive, and the blackline do not come in adaptive. Do I need to have Mini eliminate this code? I will post this question separately too.

Any infor is greatly appreciated.

 

"if you remove the seats and replace them with aftermarket non-airbag ones then you will need a resistor in the circuit to “pretend” that the wiring is there. The resistors you need for the seats are 4 ohm 0.25 watt resistors. You need 2 of them, Maplin supply 3.9 ohms ones which are fine. Details for this may be found on MINI Torque:
Airbag Warning Fooling Resistors"

Info taken from MINI2 mab01uk

 

I am putting 2011 R56 seats in. The seat heaters work just fine.

 

I would think that switching between adaptive and non-adaptive headlights would require reprogramming. The car still thinks it has adaptive headlights, and trying to communicate with the positioning motors.

I don't know about the airbag light. You did the right steps with the battery. By any chance, are you installing JCW Recaro seats? Apparently the passenger seat doesn't have a sensor mat and it needs to be coded out: http://motoringfile.com/files/R56_PDF/recaro_R56.PDF

 

RKW

My husband has discovered there is a foot well module by the kick panel in either side. I am wondering if these need to be swapped out as well--these are like $500 each.

If that is the case, looks like i will be selling brand new non-adaptive black headlights!! Lol

 

The footwell module (there is only one) controls the headlights. I think it needs to be programmed (not swapped out) because you are changing to non-adaptive headlights. A dealer can do the programming, or an independent shop that has the necessary diagnostic software.

 

That would be really great and I am going to contact my Mini dealer on Tuesday to see what they say.

 

Im interested in how you remedy the airbag light. I just purchased lounge leather seats from a 2010 convertible for my 08 justa. Both have airbags and seat warmers.
I know that if the car you purchased the seats from was an accident car, you need to change the seat belt buckle receiver.

 

You haven't installed them yet? You should be fine if you don't turn on the car while seats are unplugged. As an added precaution you could disconnect the battery until you are completely done. This is the normal procedure and the OP has some other issue going on.

However, I don't know whether the airbag system will complain about convertible seats in a hardtop. The seat airbags are different because convertibles don't have side curtain airbags.

 

That's an interesting point.
Do you think that because the airbag light is on, they wont deploy in a collision?

 

From what I know, and this is "in general", once the airbag light is on, the entire airbag system is disabled/de-activated. Much like when there is an ABS warning light on, there is no ABS function, only "normal" braking is available.

 

No, that is not the case, at least for BMW/MINI. The airbag warning light simply means that an error was detected and the airbag system should be checked. That's all it means. The airbags may or may not deploy depending on what the actual problem is.

For example, if you turn on the car while the seats are disconnected, it will trigger the airbag light. If you reconnect the seats, the airbags will work. However the warning light will stay on until it is reset with a diagnostic tool by a dealer or shop. The general behavior in BMW/MINI is that once the airbag warning light is triggered, it won't turn off by itself even if the condition has been corrected — the warning light must be manually reset. The idea is that even if it is an intermittent problem that only happens briefly one time, you will continue to be alerted to have it checked out.

 

Not true that "once airbag warning light is triggered, it won't turn off..."

We first tried swapping seats following the battery disconnect method only and my car theew the airbag code. What needs to be done is the entire mechanical mechanism needs to be swapped from the original seats including, but not limited to, the seatbelt recepricals and the "weight sensor" in the passenger seat. My husband is the one who did the swapping and he literally switched everything from my original seats (the plugs and whatnot) with the new seats. Work perfectly!! No lights!