airbag deactivation for 04 Cooper

[eclipse]

Hi. Recently bought a 04 mini cooper thinking like most modern cars it would have a key/switch to deactivate passenger airbag so a baby seat can be placed there.

BMW have quoted £581 to do this work and will want at leadt £250 to reactivate it when the baby faces front.

Anyone had a similar issue and did it cost as much as that?

I was quoted £250 originally then the main dealer gave a formal quote of £581 !!

[lil red mini]

hi,
seems like just about everyone has had this issue!......
i got quoted £250 and desided not to bother just keep baby in the back.....

good luck trying to find a cheeper quote

[Rincewind]

BMW should know better than to quote for deactivation of airbags in cars especially when child seats are in question!!!!!

I witness crash testing for a living in my job and say if they are ok to be manufacturered and airbags form an intergral part of the cars safety systems. I understand the desire to have them deactivated, but surely putting a small child in the front of the car in a rear facing seat is just plain nuts!!

I've seen how lots of child seats react in crashes and my little 10 wk old boy goes in the back of my car and will never be put up the front!

One other thing to check is that have MINI approved car seats for the front of the cars?? It is part of their legal requirement to state if child seats can be placed in the front of the car. If they say "not recommended for rear facing child seats" then there is a safety reason for it.

Nic

[icarus2000]

I have a 2004 plate convertible and was told two different stories last week when taking car in for getting the airbag disabled...

1 - it can be done by a code from Mini (more on this shortly...)
2 - A kit has to be fitted with a key to switch on and off (£500 odd cost...)

Well option one was selected due to it being cheaper, in went the car and I left it with them. Arrived back at dealership to find car that they had experienced an issue with the code and it had armed and disarmed random airbags? I had to leave it with them to get another code to get them reset to how they were...

I told them I don't care about the cost - I want the key switch fitting and I was told they would have to get part numbers etc. Having spoken to them today they have said mini no longer provide the kit for the convertible due to a technical issue! I need the airbag turning off otherwise the car is a complete waste of space for my wife - does anyone know whether there is an issue or whether they are talking rubbish?

[Rincewind]

It will all depend on how the airbag EC is controlled and if the convertible has a different set of parameters to operate on compared to the tin top, then it is a possible explanation as to why it can't be done.

The convertible may have different sequences to proccess in a crash as the roof isn't a structural member.

Having said that, if the ECU or DCU as it's known is a similar one to the one I used to work on at MG Rover (common parts between MGR and MINI) I would have thought that it was programmable. However, the DCU manufacture may hold the rights to the unit so that BMW can not alter settings on the vehicle.

It would be interesting to know if the car was crashed without active passenger airbags as this may be a reason for not being able to turn to system off due to injury critera during testing.

[icarus2000]

Well I decided that I wanted an answer a bit quicker than "we will get back to..." so I have contacted Mini directly and spoke to their customer support team. They are directly dealing going to get back to me by the end of today with some information to hopefully answer my query so I can find out whether I was given the wrong information when buying this car or not - It may end up being a very expensive mistake for the dealership in question...

[p0jy]

i need to do this aswell....i'm not looking forward to the cost...

[funknyuyao]

This thread seems pretty quiet, but I have a 2005 Mini and encountered the same "I wanna turn the airbag off" problem recently. The BMW dealer in Ningbo told me it is impossible. (obviously no key turn off on my model, 2005 regular Mini sold in the PRC). I am really bummer....It is either going to be possible or I am going to sell the car & get something to put my newborn in.

It looks like it is super easy to solder in an in-line switch by removing the glove box, you can see the module and it only has 4 wires. 2 green & 2 black. I want to put an in-line switch (or just unplug the existing connector) on these by cutting & soldering. I have searched this forum and I cannot find reference to anybody else "just unplugging" the unit. Why is this? Maybe I am a bit out of my league here, but other than selling the car it seems like the best option. Anybody else out there have experience with adding a switch or just unplugging the unit? Any help is very appreciated!