Hi, I'm a 2006 mini owner. Female.

It will be two years in May since I've had my Mini.

Back in October, I had a very minor accident which I had it fixed at the local body shop.

And a month or so ago, my air bag light came on.
But because I had the same issue last year, I wasn't too worried. It was fixed fairly quick and was covered by warrantly. So I made an appoingment and brought it over to dealer in MV last Thursday. And when they asked me whether I had accident, I told them I had a minor accident.

But after they inspected my car, the dealer said it's not going to be covered by warrenty because it was caused by an impact.

**And they also found a leak on the transmition saying it was also caused by an impact as well.

They claimed that the transmission leak should have caused by a big impact from the bottom. But this does not make sense, because my accident was just a minor hit on the front driver's side.

And to fix all these, they are estimating about $10k, because they have to replace the whole transmission.

It feels like because I'm a girl and don't have much knowledge about car much, they are trying to blame everything to this accident.

Is transmission that fragile?

I'm waiting for my insurance to contact them.

I'm very scared if I have to pay for all this out of my own pocket.

Does anyone have any suggestion?

Please help.

 

Wait for your insurance to appraise the problems, if they are accident related. He/She should be able to confer with dealer and offer if the problems are accident related. It really depends on the position of the airbag sensors and if the leak is from a wheel being hit. If airbags did not deploy, should not be a non-warranty problem. Dealer does not have to know about accidents, they would know if they climbed under car and saw any fixes.

 

Thank you for your feedback.
So if the airbag did not deploy, then does it mean that my car couldn't have had that big impact to cause the transmission to leak?
I will need to talk to my insurance and dealer again tomorrow or so, and I need to be prepared.

Do you know what other reason could cause the transmission to leak?
I remember that the dealer mentioned that it could be from a hit from the bottom.
And I don't get it. What could hit from the bottom?
Could bumps or rocks from the road cause this?