Airbag light on my 2005 MCS lit up right after I put something on the seat and thinking it was something to do with the seat mat, took it to my local shop to pull the codes.

The shop called back and said it was due to a Code 11 which is the positive battery cable connection at the battery. I had a leak around the plastic above the license plate and it had put about 3 inches of water into the battery box. The water corroded the 'squib' connector on the positive cable. It was just a coincidence that I put something on the seat when the dash light turned on...

On the MCS, since the battery is in the trunk, if the airbags are deployed, the squib (BST - Battery Safety Terminal) is detonated and the cable is severed to prevent a fire due to shorts on that big *** cable. The squib is built into the terminal and can not be fixed. A new cable installed is about 900 bucks!

I did some searching and found out that the squib has a resistance around 3 ohms. I soldered in a 3.2 ohm resistor to the wires to fool the system. (This is a very low resistance so I had to put a couple higher resistors in parallel to get it to 3.2 ohm)

Since the system will not reset on it's own, and the shop would not reset the light after my 'repair', I found a Creator C310 and used it to reset the dash light. I picked up the scanner on Ebay for about $65. It worked the first time and well worth the money.

I understand that if I am in an accident and the airbags go, the battery won't disconnect. I'm OK with that.

Hope this helps someone else in the same situation.

 

WOW! A new cable runs about $315.00... ouch!

Nice repair.

motor on!

 

couldnt you get "some" of a new cable (squib portion) and cut / re-solder into the new cable?

 

It is not offered as sections, just the complete cable. You could look for a used cable but that takes time...

Motor on!

 

BMW sells the squib in a "rebuild kit" for mini's and BMW's with rear mounted batteries.... The kit was only sold as a BMW part # for a bit....but there were a few posts saying mini was offering selling it...
Hate mods that bypass safety systems....very dangerous.

 

The shop I went to tried to buy just the squib connector/repair kit and came up empty. If you know of a PN or someplace that sells them, please let me know, I'd buy a repair kit.

I don't like bypassing safety stuff, but it is better to have the system deploy the airbags and not fire the squib, than to not deploy at all because the system has a code triggered.

 

can you cut a chunk off from another cable? find a part out car and re-solder the living **** out of the new cable, or make good connectors.

 

Here is an interesting video on repairing this connection.


I'll keep my eyes open for the terminal and repair the connection 'for real'.

In the mean time, I feel better knowing that the system will deploy in case of an accident.

 

The purpose of the system is to disconnect the battery....thought is if an accident is bad enough for airbags, the body might have structural damage...so the battery cable might get pinched, arc, and if the gas tank was leaking, cause a fire/explosion.
Good to hear you tried to get the part.... Hopefully somebody will find one...heck on all but the EARLY 2002 CARS, with the inertra fuel pump cutoff, all gen1 s cars should have them...so any car getting parted out will have one....as long as no airbag deployment.

 

Reviving an old thread.....

Did you ever find a place that would sell just the squib portion? At this point, spending anything less than $300 would make me happy....

 

I’m curious about this myself as it is a new issue I am having with Mary Jane.

 

Thanx for this info!
I don't know too much about electronics (i.e. Resistors, relays, diodes, ohms etc...)
Ordered the recommended resistor and just spliced it in today. Although I had to rely on the specs being correct; This resistor was much larger than I expected with respect to the DIY pics I've seen. Subsequent to the repair, I plugged in my OBD to reset the SRS/airbag light. Cleared the code but the light didn't go out immediately.
Until it started flashing on/off a few times - then Boom! - it went out for good. Comes on when I start the engine and turns off...just like the good 'ole days when the Mini was new.

Back story:
I bought my R53 MCS for my wife, brand new from the dealer back in 2004. It had 3 mi on the OD.
In 2008 the warranty was up. @30K the power window motor stooped working. Brought it in to a mechanic for replacement. Received a call the next day that the repair had been made and my Mini was ready to be picked up. We arrived at the shop. Our Mini was nowhere to be seen. When we inquired to the shop owner, he stated "Oh, the mechanic took it out for a test drive to make sure the window works". WTF? "a test drive - to make sure the window works?". 20 min later standing outside, we could hear the distinct sound of a supercharger whine coming down the road. It was the mechanic driving our Mini. We noticed the passenger seat was pulled way back. Out comes the mechanic, walks around the Mini to the passenger door and pulls out a case of beer!
The next morning my wife called me from work and told me that the airbag light was on and would not turn off as usual. I did some reading and understood about the SRS connection under the seats. Unfortunately that wasn't the fix. I took it in to the Mini dealer. The dealer refused to turn the airbag light off without replacing the entire BST cable = $1,900.

I've been driving my Mini since then (13 years) with that darn airbag light looming on my speedo. A constant reminder of that day....
...But no more
Again -Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

Thank you for this. I cleaned the related connections with electrical cleaner (spray can) and plugged them back in.

Reset airbag errors in inpa and all is well for now. No more airbag light on the cluster...