I know that mini has extended the warranty for airbag light issues.. however, i was told by the dealer, if it does not fall under the warranty, there will be a $105 diagnostic charge to check it and then tell me how much... does this make sense...

 

Yes, there is a bulletin that cover's ONLY the seat harness for 10 years 100,000 miles from date of original ownership. The shop must first check the faults, if they apply to this bulletin, then the whole job is covered, if not, you'll have to pay the diagnostic fee.

 

is that it takes almost no time to plug the car in and read out the information. See if they'll credit the diagnostic charge if they do the work. Might be a way to save some $.

Also, there are non-dealer shops that have the diagnostics. Call around. And check BMW places as well... The BMW diagnsotics tend to cover the Minis as well.

Matt

 

went in, they told me that they could not pinpoint problem.. possibly wiring harness $1000 +, then for a total of $80, they cleaned the battery terminals and reset the light.. so far, no light back on.. what a ripoff

 

is that what tripped the light was intermittant. The airbag light latches. Once tripped, it stays on till it is cleared, even if the problem goes away.

The $80 for scan and clear is a bit of a rip. The scan should have told them what part of the system had problems, but it can't tell exactly where it is (wire, connector whatever) and they should have told you what the code said. FWIW, Mini Mania is selling a service/airbag reset too on clearance for $50...

Matt

 

Do you have a link or part number for the Service/Airbag reset tool? I was just at their site and couldn't locate it.
Thanks,

 

I guess they sold out, but it's even cheaper on eBay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-S...91210009r16396

 

so the MINI inherited that one too... very often its the wiring under the seat that is the culprit. Another classic is the wiring in the steering wheel, thats more tricky as you have to open the plastic cover over the airbag. If you do, disconnect and then discharge the system of electrical residues by blinking.
Won´t blink, of course that is the point. There a small 2 or 3 pin connector there that can get loose. Anyway, warning light = airbag will not blow up.

 

The other cause is corrosion on the battery cable. Apparently, it reduces the conductivity of the wire enough to cause the airbag fault. MINI's solution is to replace the cable at about $800.00. Seems like a good cleaning should solve the problem.

Dr Obnxs: Thanks for the link!

 

Dr Obnxs

the link that you gave us is that also compatible for mini cooper type s (2003), cuz i emailed the person and he said no Type S is writen, i just want to make sure that it compatible. or does it make any difference if its Type @ or not? and do they have the same module attachment. cuz when i look at the pic it show the end that you attach in the car is round not square... forgive me for my ingnorance.

 

has both an old style BMW and a modern OBD-II connector on it. For the case of the Mini, it doesn't matter what model you have, as the air bag system is the same on both the Cooper and the S (the One as well, FWIW).

The documentation say it covers airbags on 1987 and later E32, E34, E36, E38, E39, E46, E60, E63, E64, E65, E87, E90, E91, X3, X5, Z3, Z4 and Mini Coopers (This would be R50, R52 and R53 chassis).

What is a bit of a shortcoming of the unit: It says to hook it up with the key off, select "airbag" function with the programme button. Switch car on and press a button for a "short amount of time". The two LEDs on the unit will go out and illuminate again (I guess to indicate the communication cycle). But here's the drawback: If the airbag light stays on, it indicates that there's a persistant fault, but it doesn't display any feedback of the error codes. On some of my other diagnostic tools (more expensive, for sure), you get the error back so you know where to look for the problem.

Matt

 

dr. o, you beat me to it. i have this tool and it does a great job of clearing the light, but i can't get diagnostic codes from it. i'm still trying to figure out how to get the srs code without having to go to bmw or mini to do it.

 

i go the reset tool and made a attemp to reset the air bag light. guess what!!
Lights is still ONN...

tries 2x same,

next stop will be cleaning all the conector under neat my passenger side and cleaning my battery connector and reset once more and let see what happen.. hope it works...

 

i just want to share this to everyone what i did to solve my air bag light.

i bought the reset equipment, it cost me only $50. tried a few time reseting it and no go, did do some research and found all the ans i needed on this thread, so last weekend i decided to follow some of the advise i got. so i clean the battery terminal with water eventhough its looks clean, i did unpluged all the wires underneat my passeger seat and clean each socket with electronic spray erosol and pluged it back inn and put the battery back and run another attemp test on reseting the light, and guess what, the light is nomore!! .

not really sure if cleaning the battery terminal that fix it or the wires under my passenger chair fix it, all i know im happy now, and i been driving my MCS with the air bag light on for almost 2year and now its gone!.....

thats all i hope it works, and i suggest get the reset tool its usefull.