2006 R50 140,000 miles. I removed the fron seats and disconnected the wiring to clean the carpet. The no passenger airbag (2) light is on as is the airbag dash warning light. I cleaned all the seat electrical connectors with Electrical contact cleaner before reconnecting. I will need to reset the airbag warning lights since they have been tripped. My question is: Will the airbags deploy as designed in an impact now despite the warning lights? (This is assuming that the lights are on only because the seats were disconnected, and there are no other problems in the system. TIA

 

Very good question - sorry I don't know the answer BUT there is a passenger (right side in U.S.) airbag sensor recall in play for these cars which may save you the trouble of resetting the light yourself. It does mean a trip to Sauron's lair a BMW/MINI stealership but at least you'll have the air bag matter sorted.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/201...5V205-5770.pdf

 

IIRC, simply disconnecting them while the battery is connected shouldn’t disable them, but I don’t think it should cause the passenger airbag disabled light to come on. My memory is a bit hazy on this though. It makes me think the passenger airbag might not deploy.