first gens only please

I am asking this to find out more about what happens after the passenger seat air bag sensor goes out and the lights come on.

So have you been in a wreck in your first gen mini that has a bad sensor.

Passenger, or no Passenger?
did your bag go off?
did the passenger bag go off?


you would think that the mini would default to always deploy the passenger bag once the sensor breaks, but no one at mini could tell me, nor could they tell me if the sensor is just a on off switch or if it actually determines the passengers weight in order to deploy the air bag with the appropriate force for that specific passenger.

 

I think this is acurate. Don't bet a life on it though. The senor in the passenger seat determines if the weight is over (25 or 30lbs. if remembering correctly). If the seat belt is latched but the weight is not registered as > 25lbs. the air bag deploys with less force. No weight or faulty sensor mat will deactivate the deployment. The determination of how and when to deploy air bags is a combination of codes from the seat senor and seat belt latch. Both generate codes which help the system determine how it should or should not deploy passenger air bags.
If you have no children/very small adult ever in the front seat, then you may want to disable the sensor and set the coding to always deploy at full force. What is the cost saving of replacing the seat senor multiple times vs. a possible air bag deployment?

 

well i know i was quoted (after talking to mini USA and them calling the local dealer and telling them to give me a discounted price)
5,000 Dollars for 1 complete passenger seat. because as you know at the dealership they can never sell you the part that is broken without everything attached to it.

 

I have had my wiring replaced for both of my seats for airbag problems and have had it in a third time for wiring problems in the driver's side door airbag. The first two were covered by warranty extension the later was not. I now have the airbag light back on. I have my suspicion that something is going on under the seats, because the warning light has come on right after I have checked for things under the seats. I have checked for wiring issues under there but nothing seems disconnected. Any thoughts.

 

Tom, my thought is you may want to start a new thread so more people will see it and can respond directly to your question instead of the original poster. -Also depends on your model year and what fault is set in your SRS system. There could be endless possibilities without knowing those 2 main things so anything we could offer would be pure speculation.

Cole, theres really too many scenarios to play out to really know what will happen. Even if someone else crashed youd have to compare whether or not they had a passenger, speed and direction of impact, whether the passenger seat belt was latched, passenger weight in the off chance their seat sensor works intermittently etc etc.

I believe due to the faulty sensor mat, the pass airbag will be disabled. However its my understanding all other airbags will function. Never met someone who had the unlucky experince of finding this out for themselves though.

Also, I believe you can buy the seat bottom seperate from the seat back for roughly $600 as Ive read from another old thread. Price of entire seat is nuts because the frame, padding, sensor, side airbag, and leather are all included and all expensive.

 

I am having similar issues in my '06. When I screw around under the seat, the dash light goes on or off, so I thought it was a loose connection somewhere, but I thoroughly checked everything I could have bumped, and no dice.

The behaviour of the light has been all over the place for the last six months. For the past 2 or so it is usually off. It will go on when a passenger gets in, but normally goes out after driving a block or two.

As to the $5000 (?!?) quoted above for a whole seat, that is nuts. I have seen others here who were quoted up to ~$1400 for a seat. Is it leather?

 

Have you had any this question answered elsewhere? I've got the same problem and am wondering when the occupancy sensor fails what deployment defaults to in real life, rather than speculating!