Once the AIRBAG light is has been activated it's on until it has been turned off with the with the proper diagnostic equipment (AIRBAG light re-setter), the key in the ignition may have been your downfall, if it was in position 1 (ignition on) when you re-connected the battery, you can actually turn the ignition to position 1 to remove the steering lock and then turn the ignition off back to position 0, and if you don't remove the key the steering lock should stay off until the key has been removed from the ignition, without the ignition being on, you should have been OK if you did it that way, another problem is if you didn't connect the AIRBAG properly it may have turned the light on once the ignition was turned on, if everything is OK now (properly connected) you should have no problem turning the light back off (with the proper equipment), however you could have a faulty component (AIRBAG) even though the AIRBAG is brand new, but you wont know until you plug it into a diagnostic machine (I think that you may have left the ignition in the on position triggering the light when you connected the battery).
I fit and change AIRBAGs all the time and I have turned the ignition on or forgot to connect a plug and activated the AIRBAG light in the past, it's easily done
, however on some cars the systems check everything and reset themselves providing everything is OK, but some cars don't including the MINI, hence once the light has been activated it needs checking / plugging into the right equipment to see why it has been activated and then it can be reset once the fault has been corrected.
Nice upgrade! I prefer the 3 spoke steering wheel
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A little advice, you should never re-connect a battery when the ignition is on, as this can damage the electrical systems in modern cars, even more-so if you have been messing with the AIRBAG system (you could have set the AIRBAGS off, not just turned the light on
, rare but not impossible)
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