R50 airbag light-on(considering buying a car for sale) HELP!
Discussion
Hi, looking at getting into Gen1 Mini ownership, looking at a tidy 51 Reg R50 but the airbag light is own. Owner has said she keeps getting it reset 'every couple of weeks' but it comes on again. obviously not ideal but is this a common fault and a cheap fix? I've got a merc and when this happens on Merc's it's seats apart sensor replacement stuff and can run into £300 easily.
Cheers, Adam.
Cheers, Adam.
I think (and willing to be corrected) there was an issue with the wiring loom under the seat where it got trapped when the seat was moved back and forth either by the occupier, or when access to the rear seat was needed.
Could be as simple as the connector is loose, or could be frayed and heading to the £300 easily mark. Dealers are £120 an hour near me, but you'd be mad to take a Mk1 there now.
I was looking at a Smart several years back with the same issue and walked away after finding that the most common cause was a broken ribbon cable in the steering wheel assembly. Repair the ribbon? No. New steering wheel assembly at £600 plus fitting. Ka-ching.
So you really need to find the cause before parting with any money. After all, if it was a simple fix you'd have thought the seller would have fixed it.
Could be as simple as the connector is loose, or could be frayed and heading to the £300 easily mark. Dealers are £120 an hour near me, but you'd be mad to take a Mk1 there now.
I was looking at a Smart several years back with the same issue and walked away after finding that the most common cause was a broken ribbon cable in the steering wheel assembly. Repair the ribbon? No. New steering wheel assembly at £600 plus fitting. Ka-ching.
So you really need to find the cause before parting with any money. After all, if it was a simple fix you'd have thought the seller would have fixed it.
Good advice thank you. If it was frayed wires surely the airbag light would just be on all the time? like to display to the driver there's a broken circuit. Is the wiring simple for the front seat, i am handy with tools and built my own wiring looms for my 250cc Race bike so well capable of fixing freyed wires. Just want to know how deep this issue goes, as if it's just freyed wires or something obvious to the eye, to me should be cheap and easy to fix.
However, if all the wiring looks good and the light is on, to me that wiffs of seat sensor faults or pads etc. Like i say mercs has a sensor in the seat in with the heated elements and when the sensor pad wires go down it's a £300 seat rebuild to put the new wiring in!
With a car worth a little over 2 grand I want to have 2 or 3 years hassle free motoring and move it on. It's for sale at £2100 and has 76k on the clock.
However, if all the wiring looks good and the light is on, to me that wiffs of seat sensor faults or pads etc. Like i say mercs has a sensor in the seat in with the heated elements and when the sensor pad wires go down it's a £300 seat rebuild to put the new wiring in!
With a car worth a little over 2 grand I want to have 2 or 3 years hassle free motoring and move it on. It's for sale at £2100 and has 76k on the clock.
I cannot help with the fix, but second what the previous poster said.
I had an R50 MINI from new, and we had the wire come loose/fray three times under warranty. Dealer fixed each time, but the final time (at four years old) said they would not fix again and recommended we did not use the rear seats!!! (I simply walked in disgust!)
So I reckon it should be quite simple to rectify and then a reset with an OBD device. Some of the more specialist forums maybe able to help as I think it was a reasonably common issue.....
Mike
I had an R50 MINI from new, and we had the wire come loose/fray three times under warranty. Dealer fixed each time, but the final time (at four years old) said they would not fix again and recommended we did not use the rear seats!!! (I simply walked in disgust!)
So I reckon it should be quite simple to rectify and then a reset with an OBD device. Some of the more specialist forums maybe able to help as I think it was a reasonably common issue.....
Mike
sad61t said:
I think (and willing to be corrected) there was an issue with the wiring loom under the seat where it got trapped when the seat was moved back and forth either by the occupier, or when access to the rear seat was needed.
Could be as simple as the connector is loose, or could be frayed and heading to the £300 easily mark. Dealers are £120 an hour near me, but you'd be mad to take a Mk1 there now.
I was looking at a Smart several years back with the same issue and walked away after finding that the most common cause was a broken ribbon cable in the steering wheel assembly. Repair the ribbon? No. New steering wheel assembly at £600 plus fitting. Ka-ching.
So you really need to find the cause before parting with any money. After all, if it was a simple fix you'd have thought the seller would have fixed it.
I bought a BMW and MINI specific OBD II reader for about £80, which allowed me to see that it was the passenger seat belt tensioner. I reset it, and it was fine, for about 2 months, when It came on again. and so I reset it, and it was fine for 4 months, until it came on again. I have now carefully taped the underseat connectors to the seat so they are no in tension, (which they were at the furthest back seat position on the lowest seat height).Could be as simple as the connector is loose, or could be frayed and heading to the £300 easily mark. Dealers are £120 an hour near me, but you'd be mad to take a Mk1 there now.
I was looking at a Smart several years back with the same issue and walked away after finding that the most common cause was a broken ribbon cable in the steering wheel assembly. Repair the ribbon? No. New steering wheel assembly at £600 plus fitting. Ka-ching.
So you really need to find the cause before parting with any money. After all, if it was a simple fix you'd have thought the seller would have fixed it.
It's been fine for 8 Months.
You can get a seat belt tensioner cheap enough second hand, as lots of people breaking mini's now, and somewhere on the internet you can down load the full USA maintenance manual, in about 40 Pdf's - one of which details how to take the seat apart.
Having been involved in manufacture of tape assembly for similar cars on the steering column, it must be easy enough to get hold of the whole assembly second hand I would have thought, and sawp it
http://www.totalmini.com/forum/3-totaldiscussion/2...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-MINI-Diagnostic-Hand...
This particular reader is the one I bought. I feel like my tool box moved about 30 years overnight.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-MINI-Diagnostic-Hand...
This particular reader is the one I bought. I feel like my tool box moved about 30 years overnight.
Cheers Pit Pony.
This seems to tbe the same but half the cost??
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360876585679?_trksid=p20...
This seems to tbe the same but half the cost??
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360876585679?_trksid=p20...
Edited by rgv250ads on Wednesday 25th February 10:57
Another bit of advice please !
On the 2001 and 2002 cars (R50 Cooper, Non-S) i've been looking at, the coolant reservoir tank on the bulkhead is not a pressure sealed cap, seems to just be an overflow bottle. So the actual place you top up coolant must be somewhere else in the system via a pressurised cap, on bike this is typically on the actual radiator itself with a pressurised filler cap on a neck on the top corner of the rad.
See pic attached.
And it wasn't obvious under the bonnets of these cars either where the pressurised filler cap is.
Where is the pressurised filler cap to be found?
Picture arrow 2 on this engine bay is not a pressurised cap/bottle. This is what i've seen on the cars i've looked at so far. I want to check the coolant actually in the system for signs of sludge
http://www.promini.com/technical/engine/files/MINI...
On the 2001 and 2002 cars (R50 Cooper, Non-S) i've been looking at, the coolant reservoir tank on the bulkhead is not a pressure sealed cap, seems to just be an overflow bottle. So the actual place you top up coolant must be somewhere else in the system via a pressurised cap, on bike this is typically on the actual radiator itself with a pressurised filler cap on a neck on the top corner of the rad.
See pic attached.
And it wasn't obvious under the bonnets of these cars either where the pressurised filler cap is.
Where is the pressurised filler cap to be found?
Picture arrow 2 on this engine bay is not a pressurised cap/bottle. This is what i've seen on the cars i've looked at so far. I want to check the coolant actually in the system for signs of sludge
http://www.promini.com/technical/engine/files/MINI...
Edited by rgv250ads on Wednesday 25th February 14:23
Edited by rgv250ads on Wednesday 25th February 16:41
Edited by rgv250ads on Wednesday 25th February 16:59
Ah Cheers. So it's an unpressurised system in the R50 Cooper non-S....
Whats the filler cap adjacent to the air intake right angle just off the airbox. I tried to take this off on one car i was inspecting and it wouldn't even come off. Wasn't obvious what it was.
Pretty tight engine bay.
Whats the filler cap adjacent to the air intake right angle just off the airbox. I tried to take this off on one car i was inspecting and it wouldn't even come off. Wasn't obvious what it was.
Pretty tight engine bay.
Great cheers for the into
Seeing another one saturday (52Reg R50 Cooper) hoping it turns out to be decent.
Saw 6 last weekend range between 1900 and 2600 only 2 were even presentable and one was an almost but the dealer wanted screen price even thou it hadn't been serviced since 2009 and had a huge hole in the exhaust back box (you could get 4 fingers in!)
Seeing another one saturday (52Reg R50 Cooper) hoping it turns out to be decent.
Saw 6 last weekend range between 1900 and 2600 only 2 were even presentable and one was an almost but the dealer wanted screen price even thou it hadn't been serviced since 2009 and had a huge hole in the exhaust back box (you could get 4 fingers in!)
rgv250ads said:
Cheers Pit Pony.
This seems to tbe the same but half the cost??
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360876585679?_trksid=p20...
Yes indeed that's it. either prices have come down since 2013 or I didn't get a decent deal. I have saved the purchase price in diagnosing and turning off that one fault code. This seems to tbe the same but half the cost??
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360876585679?_trksid=p20...
Edited by rgv250ads on Wednesday 25th February 10:57
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