I've been driving around with the disabled passenger airbag warning light on for over a year now (a known issue on the Gen1 MINI), and now, to add insult to injury, my leatherette seats are starting to crack pretty badly. Hence, I'm considering replacing my stock seats with something more like the Sparco Marinos that Outmotoring sells, which I've heard really good things about performance- and comfort-wise: MINI Cooper Sparco Torino 2 Seat Has anyone in the local group had experience with installing these units? Did you manage to transplant the airbag sensors to the new seats OR (and this is my preference), did you manage to figure out a way to disable the sensor so that the warning light goes out and the bags deploy? I have no plans to ever put a rear-facing car seat and/or a toddler or featherweight carnival midget in the passenger seat, but I would, of course, want my front airbag to deploy in the event of a crash, which it won't currently with stock equipment. I've seen several threads over on NAM about using "emulator" modules, with varying success, all the way to using applications to hack the car's firmware/sensor control software to override the sensors, but as far as I can tell NONE of those threads actually PROVE that the bags will deploy in he event of a crash (only that the lights go out). Given the "nerd factor" we have in the C-bus group, I'm hoping that someone not only knows the answer, but also has the gear and has performed the fix... anyone? As always, thanks a million in advance! --M
To block the light, yes. Are you saying that the tape will make the air bags deploy? That's... unexpected. So simple!
Resistors for the R53 seat air bags works and depending on the year you may also need to transfer the passenger occupant seat sensor. I am not going to crash my car to test it though. My light was off for years then my Occ seat sensor went bad and I did not replace it I just used 3 M black tape to cover the light. FYI - I know it's just a bad occ mat from scanning it with my BAVTech tool.
Dave... so if it's just a bad mat, I can ignore the light, as the bags will deploy in an accident? Will the BAVTech tool identify if I need to use the resistor? It's hard to tell from posts how to properly identify specific components, and what the result of bridging/swapping/ignoring will be exactly, sorry... I can definitely block the light in the gauge/on the overhead, but worry that if the system is not set to properly ignore whatever components are at-fault, this will make for an even WORSE situation...
Yes if its just that Mat I just ignore it. To be 100 % sure you need to first scan your car with a tool that has BMW software and see what the fault is. If it's an OC3 error its the Passenger seat mat.
If you have access to NCS Expert, it is possible to disable the mat via programming. This would essentially make the airbag system operate like a Euro model without sensor mat. Passenger seat occupancy sensor SRS light? No more!!!! - North American Motoring
Thanks it look like you can plug this is for $70 bucks. [ame=http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bypass-For-Mini-Cooper-R50-R52-R53-R54-Seat-Occupancy-Mat-Sensor-Airbag-Emulator-/161292351640?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Make%3AMini%7CModel%3ACooper&hash=item258dc5f898&vxp=mtr#viTabs_0]Bypass for Mini Cooper R50 R52 R53 R54 Seat Occupancy Mat Sensor Airbag Emulator | eBay[/ame]
^^ I'll probably try that emulator when mine fails completely. Sometimes the warning light will go on, but it still turns off by itself after awhile. When that emulator first appeared on eBay, some buyers were reporting that it didn't work and returned it, but more recent feedback has been positive.
Suggestion.... Grayraven on NAM (make as much fun of him as you want, he gets good ratings for sales in the marketplace) sells the right resistors for $5 if I recall right....you insert them in the seat airbag harness plugs... Then get the inpa/ncis expert with a cable for $38 on eBay from the guy in Romania and set the mat to euro mode to disable that....then install any seat you want...cost to get rid of the light....less than $50 and car will still pass safety inspection if your area does it....
A few more thoughts.... What is the PRODUCTION DATE of your 2005.... Mine was built in 2004...so no seat mat/weight sensor.... If you have a 2005 built in 2004....all you need is the .02$ resistor.... But if you have the mat....you either need the $70 emulator or need to mess with it in ncs expert AND the resistor....
I put the resistors on the airbag wires under the OEM seats also for about $5 then swapped my seats and moved the OEM Passenger Mat and installed it in my Recaro seats. I had no problems with the light for years then one day it came on and I scanned it to find out the OC3 was shot. A little piece of 3M Black tape on the back of the display to cover the light was cheaper then any fix at the time. My buddy does my inspection & emissions so he knows my car. I pass every year. :ihih: He knows I take care of my car because I either use a lift in his garage to work on my car. For all the MINI Specific stuff he knows it only gets worked on at Helix.
Drives side door data plate...right by the latch on the pillar..the date will be listed by the VIN...
Hi, I registered do I could post a response to this, more pertaining to the seat mat issue. I ordered an emulator phone after paying mini the 70 to diagnose the issue which was solely a bad seat mat. The sensor worked right away, I didn't even need a computer to reset the airbag system. I think it was a great alternative to paying the 1200 for the mat. The emulator tells the system that the seat is occupied so the airbag will fire in an accident. We tested to make sure it was working by driving around with seatbelt off. Soon enough the chime went off, which never went off before with the faulty mat. I also got a seatbelt override so I don't have to have the seatbelt plugged in when no one is on the seat. Here is the one I got for my 2006 s [ame=http://m.ebay.com/itm/161292351640?cmd=VIDESC]Bypass for Mini Cooper R50 R52 R53 R54 Seat Occupancy Mat Sensor Airbag Emulator | eBay[/ame] Its from srsdrive on ebay if the link doesn't work