5 replies to this topic

[Kath's mini]

The SRS light is staying on on my MPI mini. I've seen many posts regarding reseating the connectors in the SRS/Airbag cicuit, but I'm stumped by the cowling around the steering column!! I've removed 3 screws from the underside of the cowl (Yes, the battery is disconnected!) but the upper and lower sections of the cowl do not want to part! I'm guessing that they are held by plastic clips, but I don't want to rip the clips off by applying too much force. Can anybody advise how to get them apart without causing damage?

[Steve220]

They clip together near the steering wheel. It can be a pain to remove the cowling with the wheel in place and not break them. Best remove the wheel. Usually the SRS problems are caused by the steering wheel reluctor ring.

[Kath's mini]

I kinda thought that might be the case. Many thanks for your help Steve - I'll take the wheel off and try again. The car is actually in the body shop at the moment having it's long awaited surgery! New wings, new front, new scuttle, new door skins....but things are going really well so far. The rust is nowhere near as bad as I had feared. We've had the car since new (1998) and still love it to bits. I'll post some pictures when it's done.

[MacGyver]

Just to ad, unclip from the top as the bottom is a claw clipping thing and easy to break... Not very clear am I?.
Will make a drawing if you like?

[Kath's mini]

Thanks MacGyver, I haven't had a chance to take the steering wheel off yet, let me have another go before I ask you to test your drawing skills! The car is down the road at a workshop at the moment and I have to choose my moments to interrupt the body work. I really appreciate your help - many thanks.

[Kath's mini]

Well, the cowl is off! I took off the airbag (making sure that the battery was disconnected) and removed the steering wheel.This revealed the two plastic clips holding the top end of the two halves of the cowl together. The 3 screws securing the underside of the cowl had already been removed, so I used a small flat blade screwdriver to depress the 2 plastic clips and gently pulled the 2 halves apart. The clips parted and the cowl came apart.....but as you can see from the pictures below, the clips have really suffered from the removal. The stress fracture visible in the top picture has happened despite my taking a lot of care to not apply any undue force to the plastic....and as far as I'm aware, nobody has ever tried to remove the shroud before.

I shall have to come up with an improvised fixing method for the lower section when I refit the shroud......It seems that this is almost a "once only" type of fitting and that damage on removal is almost inevitable. 

 

Attached Files

•  stress fracture.jpg   37.83K   6 downloads
•  Bottom cover broken clips.jpg   64.59K   6 downloads