2011 Minicooper, 41,000+ miles, out of warranty. The passenger side air bag sensor is bad. Specifically, when a passenger is sitting in the front passenger seat, one of three things happens:

(1) Nothing, everything works as it should
(2) The airbag seems to become disabled, with an error chime, and the big circle thing appears telling me there is an airbag fault.
(3) The airbag switches between "normal" and "fault", with the error chime going off every time it senses some sort of fault.

Went to the dealership (Patrick Mini, which has always treated me fair), and they told me that:

(1) the sensor that detects the weight of the passenger has gone bad but that, in theory...
(2) the airbag should deploy, at full strength, and not act like the two stage air bag that it is (based on passenger weight).

More to the point of this question, they are quoting me a repair cost of $1200.00, because per them, the entire seat liner/cover will have to be replaced because the sensor is inside the seat somewhere (or something like that). The details were vague. The $1200.00 price tag was not.

If the airbag will in fact deploy -and- it forever reads as not working correctly, I can live with it for the time being. But if the airbag won't deploy, or if it keeps cycling such that the error chime constantly goes off while I'm driving with a passenger, then I suppose I have to get it fixed.

My questions:

(1) Given what I've described, is the diagnosis reasonable?

(2) Given what I've described, does the repair cost seem reasonable?

(3) Anyone know anything about "Midwest Performance Cars" in Chicago? It's just a few blocks from where I work, so could easily take it there if this repair would be more reasonable at a non-dealership affiliated service department.

The service invoice says:

"Seat Occupancy mat faults stored. Needs passengers seat occupancy mat."

Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Thx in advance,
jeff

 

Replying to my own thread here, as I've since done some research, namely reading through this thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t-no-more.html

and see that the issue is somewhat common, led to a recall of earlier mini's (but not later models like mine), and that the repair cost I was quoted is in the wheelhouse, though mine is on the high end of what else I've seen.

I ended up purchasing one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161161656100

and will report back if it works. In reading the aforementioned thread, it seems as if these bypass modules work for some, but not for others. I'm hoping it works on mine.

Any other thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated, but figured I'd at least post this update, after doing some more research.

 

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Sadly the passengers have all died from head on collisions. I'd be scared &$&@& to use that. Then again with the current state of airbag tech, they probably don't work correctly.


Btw I had a similar device for a short time on one of my cars, it put the warning light out. I sold the car and told them it was not functioning.

 

Don't know if this will help but, may be worth a shot.

A couple of years ago I had same symptoms on my wife's " non-MINI" vehicle. Poking around to investigate I found that the plug for the seat sensor ( under seat ) had been splashed, "bathed", in spilled soda pop.

I'm thinking any liquid, especially something like salty snow splash, could corrode or short the connector.

Current electronics in these cars are so sensative that anything can trigger them.

Just an idea, Scott

 

As a follow-up,

I received my by-pass module a few days ago, and everything appears to be working as it should. A few notes:

(1) The bypass module has 3 *very small* jumpers on it, and you have to set the jumpers depending on whether you have a US branded car or an EU branded car. Mine came pre-configured for an EU branded car, so I had to ensure all three jumpers were in the "on" or "up" position. By default, 1 and 2 were on, 3 was off. For a US car, all three jumpers have to be moved to the up position

(2) Installing the module took all of 1 minute. Simply unplugging the seat sensor and plugging this one in is all it took. After starting the car, the module glows blue with a small LED.

(3) Once plugged in, with the car running and driving, the passenger seat now assumes a fully weighted adult is sitting in that seat, and the seat belt chime will sound as if someone is sitting there without their seat belt on. I am using a metal clip (male) I bought from somewhere that just plugs in to the seat belt buckle on the seat (female). I forget where I bought it, but it was from some online mini vendor.

(4) Also in my package was a some sort of seat belt alarm bypass module. I suspect this is what you are supposed to use if you don't have the metal piece I mentioned in "3" above. This looks quite a bit more involved to get working, and the directions are pretty unclear (at least to me) exactly how you install it. But it involves pulling wires out of the seat belt alarm harness itself and inserting new wires hanging off this new module. Because I have the aforementioned seat belt clip, I didn't bother with this additional module.

All my alarm notifications regarding the airbag/seatbelt appear to operating as they should.

Hope this helps someone but your YMMV.
jeff