The defect
BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2014-2015 MINI Cooper Hardtop 2 door vehicles manufactured February 25, 2014, to May 16, 2015, 2014-2015 MINI Cooper S Hardtop 2 door vehicles manufactured March 28, 2014, to May 9, 2015, 2015 MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 door vehicles manufactured October 17, 2014, to June 2, 2015, and 2015 MINI Cooper S Hardtop 4 door vehicles manufactured November 24, 2014, to June 11, 2015. During a service appointment, the affected vehicles received replacement front passenger seat cushions (which contain integral Capacitive Interior Sensing (CIS) functions). The CIS functions may have been incorrectly calibrated, and if so, would cause impaired occupant classification and thus inappropriate air bag activation/deactivation.
The risk
Inappropriate air bag activation/deactivation can increase the risk of occupant injury in the event of a vehicle crash.
The remedy
MINI will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and, if necessary, replace the front passenger seat cushion, free of charge. The recall began on December 28, 2015. Owners may contact MINI customer service at 1-866-825-1525 .
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| MINI Cooper | 2014, 2015 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2014, 2015 |
Components: AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION | SEATS
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| MINI Cooper | 2014 | 34 | 7 |
| MINI Cooper | 2015 | 56 | 6 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2014 | 13 | 4 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2015 | 18 | 4 |
Other air bags recalls in 2015
61 of the 863 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2015 concerned the air bags; BMW of North America, LLC filed 347 campaigns in all.
| 15V830000 10 Dec 2015 | General Motors LLC |
| 15V823000 8 Dec 2015 | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. |
| 15V815000 4 Dec 2015 | Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. |
| 15V787000 23 Nov 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 15V714000 29 Oct 2015 | Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) |
| 15V711000 27 Oct 2015 | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| 15V695000 23 Oct 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 15V681000 20 Oct 2015 | Nissan North America, Inc. |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2015