Passenger airbag cover loose

[thedevine0ne]

Today, i was installing the MINI circuit which required pulling the lower end of the dash fascia off the clips a little bit. i did this....just a little bit, but once i was done with the whole install, i noticed that the panel covering the passenger side airbag was very loose (see pictures) . I surely don't remember it being this way before the install, but maybe i'm wrong. is anybody elses like this. I looked at the back of the loose panel and i didn't see any broken pieces or clips or anything that may have been holding it on tighter. I hope this doesn't do anything to the airbag, as i don't want the dang thing going off while i'm driving.

any advice is appreciated

[Horgy]

Mine too! I installed the ipod link and now it's loose. Did you get it sorted?

Horgy

[AidenL]

Could you have broken a clip? That definitely isn't normal...........

[Horgy]

Nope, no visible clips unfortunately!

Horgy

[thedevine0ne]

i didn't notice any clips or places where there might have been broken attachment pieces.....just clean, smooth plastic on the inside. at least it's not rattling or getting annoying, so it's not bothering me too much. i just want to make sure that this isn't affecting the airbag function.

[Horgy]

No it won't do, I just fixed mine though took about 15-20mins. I'll try and explain..

Have you ever seen the model kits with pieces on sprues? If you imagine, the airbag cover is the actual part, and the sprue frame is the dash - there's a rubberised piece that has this "sprue like design" to hold the cover to the dash. When the airbag deploys it's strong enough to break off the little sprue bits and the cover flies up and off, as it's hinged at the top by some seatbelt-esque attachments.

Basically, on mine, the row of sprue bits had broken off, I simply took the cover off the airbag piece and superglued them back on. To do this, remove the dash top (there's guides around on how to do this) and there are 6 screws holding it on, three at the bottom, three at the top. Remove these, and also remove the two bolts that hold the bar with the straps on to the dash. slide the straps off, and carefully lift the panel away.

Hope that makes sense?

Horgy