2013 MINI COOPER — Complaint #1803306
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:FRONT PASSENGER filed March 23, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1803306 (ODI reference 11457950) concerns a 2013 MINI COOPER and was filed on March 23, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 23, 2022. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:sensor:occupant classification:front passenger, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same MINI COOPER cohort independently describe similar air bags:sensor:occupant classification:front passenger failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2013 MINI COOPER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The vehicle has a faulty seat sensor that causes the vehicle to default to having a non-occupied seat with warning lights. In this situation, a passenger will not have an air bag deploy even if theyâre heavy enough to otherwise trigger the weight sensor. This is happening on my vehicle and, based on internet research, most other R56 models to the point of a market existing for electronic bypass modules. Mini will not repair for a reasonable cost.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1803306 |
| ODI Number | 11457950 |
| Date Filed | March 23, 2022 |
| Failure Date | March 23, 2022 |
| VIN | WMWSU3C55DT |
Similar AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:FRONT PASSENGER Complaints for 2013 MINI COOPER
The contact owns a 2013 Mini Cooper. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH, the air bag warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed a failur
The passenger seat OC3 Occupancy Sensor has malfunctioned, leading to the ECU to believe the seatbelt is unbuckled and disabling the passenger airbag while the car is in motion. This is a frequent oc
I TOOK MY CAR IN FOR SERVICING FOR AN OIL CHANGE AND BECAUSE THE PASSENGER AIRBAG WARNING WAS DISPLAYED. TECHNICIAN SAID THE PASSENGER SEAT OCCUPANCY HAS A SENSOR FAULT. NO GUARANTEE THE AIRBAG WOULD
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.