general problems of the 2009 Mini Cooper

The seatbelt and air bag warning light for the passenger front seat stays on.

The contact owns a 2009 Mini Cooper. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the seat belt warning light illuminated even though there was no passenger seated in the passenger’s seat. The contact stated that the warning light remained illuminated with the passenger’s seat occupied and the seat belt properly fastened. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, but was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for further assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 92,000.

The passenger occupancy seat sensor is defective (as reported by many other owners of this vehicle model). The sensor is very costly to replace in terms of parts ($1,500) and labor ($1,500) and Mini does not sell the sensor separately as it is embedded in the seat foam. The defective sensor does not recognize a passenger sitting in the passenger seat and deactivates the passenger airbag which is an essential, lifesaving device fitted to a small vehicle. When involved in a major vehicle collision, without a working airbag, the risk of fatality drastically increases. The sensor is also responsible for not deploying the airbag if a passenger under 100lbs is sitting in the seat ie. A child. Again, this is a massive safety concern especially due to other owners resorting to a cheap aftermarket bypass module which will always deploy the airbag. This solution could seriously injure or cause fatalities for passengers under 100lbs. Other Mini models with the same electronic occupancy sensor problems have had recalls issued by the NHTSA and has not issued recalls for vehicles with the same issue consistently. It is the NHTSA's responsibility to hold the manufacturer accountable for all vehicle models with similar defects impacting the safe and consistent operation of life preservation devices such as airbags especially when repair costs for these defective devices are cost prohibitive for vehicle owners to replace.

Passenger seat occupancy sensor fails there's a warning light for passenger airbag off , and also the airbag light on the dash panel never goes away ,even when a passenger is sitting on it. Is a common thing on Minis , the dealer charges $100 to reset it within obd tool.

Srs warning light on. Intermittent at first. Passenger seat occupancy light on and off intermittently, occupied or not. Srs code reader indicates the problem is the passenger seat occupancy sensor. Mini dealer states the repair is not covered under warrantee. I fear for the safety of my front seat passenger if airbag does not deploy and/or the safety of a smaller child if it does deploy.

Airbag passenger light stays on when a passenger is in the seat and also stays on when is nobody in the passenger seat . And the passenger light turns on in the rpm gage (in the rpm gage ).

I was driving down hwy 16 (a straight a way 2 lane hwy) towards woodland when the display showed what appeared to be the water icon and I noticed white smoke from under my hood, so I pulled over and sat there thinking maybe my car was overheating. A truck coming behind me went by honking their horn and I looked in review mirror and noticed dark smoke coming from behind my car. . I then proceed to get out of my vehicle and couldnt get the drivers door open a gentleman came up to my vehicle told me to get out but I told him the door wouldnt open, he opened the door and was saying get out and away the cars going to blow up, that was my first acknowledgment that the vehicle was on fire. The police and fire dept was notified and came out to where the vehicle was at and proceed to extinquish the vehicle. I had to get the car towed by triple a off a friends of mines tow package that she has. Im contacting the fire dept and police today on getting some paperwork related to this today so all I have to show is pics.

The airbag for the passenger seat stopped working 3 years ago. I checked several times for a recall but couldn't find anything. I went to a dealership and was told that if there isn't a recall, there was nothing Mini Cooper could do about it. I took it to a mechanic and it will be over 900. 00 to fix the problem. Isn't it the responsibility of the car manufacturer to fix something that just stopped working (no accidents or any reason), especially since it is such a major safety issue?.

Passenger air bag not working.

Passenger seat air bag alarm is on constantly. We were told by Mini dealer that the pad that controls the air bag is faulty, or cracked. They also informed us that this exact problem is under recall for models 2005 to 2008, but not our 2009. We contacted Mini USA and they said they don't control recalls.

Faulty seat belt light/ airbag on.

Front passenger airbag sign was come out, even though passenger is seating and getting seat belt. Any damage didn't be gotton on the passenger seat, it is just suddenly appeared. It will make serious situation when I get accident. Airbag is really related with safety. I strongly belive that it has technical problem at Mini. This problem will come out more and people may be injured by this problem. I saw article about airbag problem at Mini, and Mini made a program that recalls to fix airbag mat. However, it affects to until 2008mini. I don't think this problem only affects to until 2008 Mini. Bwm Mini have to investigate newer model and recall the passenger seat airbag as well.

Airbag occupancy light stays on when passenger is no longer in car, sometimes occupancy light goes on and turns back off while passenger is sitting in car and driving at speed. Mini/BMW claims that the 2009 hardtops are not included in their recent recall for earlier models, but the problem obvious still exists. Really dangerous to have passengers in the car!.

The front passenger airbag got disconnected and will not operate in case of accident. Lights indicating that the airbag is off remains on at all times. I know several Mini owners that have experienced the same incident, and Mini dealers refuses to assume that this failure is due to poor design. I read that BMW (owner of Mini) has had the same problem, and was obliged to repair this issue in cars as old as models 2005.

Unknown. I purchased a used 2009 Mini Cooper in 2013. The airbag light went on for the passenger front side shortly after. I took it to be looked at and was told it would cost around 1,000 to be replaced. I couldn't afford that and felt that since it was never in an accident it must be defective. I contacted Mini Cooper via email and phone calls and was told that since there wasn't any recalls, they couldn't do anything. I have always been uneasy driving with passengers, including my grandson in the car. I honestly expected Mini Cooper to replace the airbag, but here we are, hoping nothing happens to the safety of my passengers. . . Please reply with any information for me.

I have a Mini Cooper 2009 which today marks a year of purchase, for about seven months has been leading the warranty service due to faulty electrical system, air bag passenger and the car turns off while using. Unfortunately to get the car to service never can diagnose the fault.