When my airbag light came on I took my car to my local BMW trained mechanic to have it diagnosed/fixed and he informed me the problem was with the wiring harness. NAM to the rescue with information that the problem should be covered under warranty even though my 2002 has 77K on it and is way out of warranty. So today I took the 2 hour trip to MINI of Peabody to have the light taken care of. All in all it was a pleasant experience and I have nothing but good things to say about MINI of Peabody.

The diagnosis indicated that there were three codes stored. One was for the seat belt wiring harness that was covered under warranty but the second and third codes were for the seatbelt tensioner on each seat. They need to be replaced and are not covered under warranty per MINI of Peabody. I was surprised as I thought most manufacturers generally took care of safety issues with most cars.

Has anyone had a similar problem? If so, if your car was out of the initial warranty period was the repair covered partially or completely?

The only good news is that the repair seems to be very straight forward, of course, taking the appropriate precautions.

As an added tidbit of info, I found out from Tom in parts that there is a new website for parts for MINI of Peabody that offers much better pricing then over the counter, including a 15% discount on every part ordered. If you live locally you can even order the parts then choose the shipping option of "pick-up" and just go to the dealership for your parts. I actually used my iPhone to place the order while standing in front of the parts counter then just grabbed the parts. A $120 seat belt tensioner was reduced to $80. Web site address is minipartsmass.com.

 

Bump for new sets of eyes on the question....