Active Bonnet issue?

BlueAgave · 1 May 2018 15:31

For anyone who is interested there is a way (and I must stress here for track use only!) to unplug the bolts and ensure the light goes out on the dash and not log a fault. You could just unplug them but the light will flash and probably log a fault. PM me for details.

BlueAgave · 1 May 2018 15:33

For anyone who is interested there is a way (and I must stress here for track use only!) to unplug the bolts and ensure the light goes out on the dash and not log a fault. You could just unplug them but the light will flash and probably log a fault. PM me for details.

Martin_Oconnell · 6 March 2019 09:07

Hi All
I have a MX5 2017 Sports Nav with Active Bonnet
Driving home last week - 2 pheasants ran out into the road and I braked really hard - fairly sure I didn’t hit either or if I did it was a very light touch
Unfortunately, the Active Bonnet Activated - no idea what had happened until I examined the car at Home

Phoned Dealer and Mazda

The dealer wasn’t really interested saying they had never had this problem before
Mazda is not saying much and will not say what pressure is required to set off the Bonnet - i have contacted CAC a couple of times - but no response

The body shop can no damage on Bumper or front of the car - the only damage is from the active Bonnet activating - around £5k
The body shop also said they had seen 4 or 5 of years in the last 2 years
From my point of view, this is a design issue - any help with how to progress this with Mazda would be Appreciated. I am thinking about legal proceedings

BTW - I have lost my no claims bonus - having to pay £350 voluntary excess and another £200 for a Mazda approved repairer (it’s not approved by my repairer)
And if the car had been a couple of years older - there is a good chance it would of been written off by insurance company

BlueAgave · 6 March 2019 09:23

Previous repairs for the active bonnet deployment have been circa £1700 as it requires new bonnet, bolts and hinges.

legoman1985 · 6 March 2019 09:45

Martin Oconnell:

Hi All
I have a MX5 2017 Sports Nav with Active Bonnet
Driving home last week - 2 pheasants ran out into the road and I braked really hard - fairly sure I didn’t hit either or if I did it was a very light touch
Unfortunately, the Active Bonnet Activated - no idea what had happened until I examined the car at Home

Phoned Dealer and Mazda
- The dealer wasn’t really interested saying they had never had this problem before
- Mazda is not saying much and will not say what pressure is required to set off the Bonnet - i have contacted CAC a couple of times - but no response

The body shop can no damage on Bumper or front of the car - the only damage is from the active Bonnet activating - around £5k
The body shop also said they had seen 4 or 5 of years in the last 2 years
From my point of view, this is a design issue - any help with how to progress this with Mazda would be Appreciated. I am thinking about legal proceedings

BTW - I have lost my no claims bonus - having to pay £350 voluntary excess and another £200 for a Mazda approved repairer (it’s not approved by my repairer)
And if he car had been a couple of years older - there is a good chance it would of been written off by insurance company

Hi Martin, I’m sorry to hear about your unfortunate and very frustrating event.

Mazda UK will scrub their hands of this, they will state that the system worked exactly as it should (sensed/detected an impact to the front of the bumper sensor system and therefore deployed the Active Bonnet System).

I had a rogue hub cap from a passing vehicle hit my front bumper while I was driving - I slowed down before it hit my bumper but yet the active bonnet system still set off.

It took 3 months to get my car back from my insurers repairers. I hope you get yours back sooner.

ThorntonMark · 6 March 2019 11:22

And isn’t this true - that it is working correctly. Without cameras and image processing it is difficult to see how anyone can expect the system to differentiate a couple of pheasants (or a dog, or a hubcap) from a human leg.

I had someone reverse into my bumper when I was stopped - and system correctly did not set off.

Ada5279 · 26 March 2019 11:10

Just to add to the general information on the Active Bonnet issue, I had the misfortune on Sunday to hit a dog that leapt out of a wooded area on my nearside - a couple of seconds later and it would have landed on my bonnet - which set off the aforesaid active bonnet. I was able to drive it home, but now have to get the front bumper replaced, dings in the bonnet repaired where the actuators have pushed it up (though about 100mm away from where the actuators actually strike), actuators replaced and so on.
Having had a good look at the setup I thought that if the actuators were removed - simple, remove two bolts and pull it away from the wing; it can be left connected, as there’s plenty of space for it to just sit there - I could then reset the hinges and get the bonnet back down, all as a temporary measure until full repairs could be carried out. However, I can’t get the hinge to go back to its original position: there’s a shear-pin that allows the bonnet to go up and back when activated, easy enough to remove the remains of that and, after resetting the hinge, replace with a suitable bolt I thought, but the hinge still won’t reset flat to enable that to happen. The photo gives a better idea of how it ends up - shear pin to the right.
Maybe a bit academic, but anybody know, how the hinge can be reset to the original, straight position? I’ve seen it mentioned that the hinges have to be replaced, as well as the actuators; is that true?

legoman1985 · 26 March 2019 11:38

Ada5279:

Just to add to the general information on the Active Bonnet issue, I had the misfortune on Sunday to hit a dog that leapt out of a wooded area on my nearside - a couple of seconds later and it would have landed on my bonnet - which set off the aforesaid active bonnet. I was able to drive it home, but now have to get the front bumper replaced, dings in the bonnet repaired where the actuators have pushed it up (though about 100mm away from where the actuators actually strike), actuators replaced and so on.
Having had a good look at the setup I thought that if the actuators were removed - simple, remove two bolts and pull it away from the wing; it can be left connected, as there’s plenty of space for it to just sit there - I could then reset the hinges and get the bonnet back down, all as a temporary measure until full repairs could be carried out. However, I can’t get the hinge to go back to its original position: there’s a shear-pin that allows the bonnet to go up and back when activated, easy enough to remove the remains of that and, after resetting the hinge, replace with a suitable bolt I thought, but the hinge still won’t reset flat to enable that to happen. The photo gives a better idea of how it ends up - shear pin to the right.
Maybe a bit academic, but anybody know, how the hinge can be reset to the original, straight position? I’ve seen it mentioned that the hinges have to be replaced, as well as the actuators; is that true?

I am sorry to hear about your dilemma and I hope the dog is doing OK.

As far as I know the hinges have to be replaced entirely and can not be ‘reset’. This was information given to me by my repairer. The same with the bonnet, as they looked at trying to fix the dented bonnet but unfortunately where the actuators struck the plates underneath was the same place as where the bonnet creases/sculptured.

In principle the mechanism is justified by reduction of injury to others but in hindsight the location of the actuators & one time use bonnet hinges is a design flaw.

I hope you get this rectified swiftly (mine took my repairers & Mazda 3 months to sort - due to parts shipment & systems resetting)

ast · 26 March 2019 12:12

Was the dog alright?

Ada5279 · 26 March 2019 15:18

Last I saw of the dog, the owner was rushing it away to the vet, but it didn’t look good; although it was initially limping about I suspect internal injuries too. Once I have some costs I will have to go see the owner about paying for my repairs so will find out then. As a former dog owner myself, I was gutted to have injured it, but didn’t have a chance to avoid it and I was only doing about 30 at the time. Could have been worse, as there were two of them and the second one had time to change course and escaped injury as far as I could see.

As far as the repair is concerned, my local bodyshop reckon that they can sort the bonnet dings, but it will then need respraying, as will the new bumper, both wings and halfway along the doors, so that they can blend in the Pearl White paint and not have an obvious mis-match on adjacent panels. All in all it’s not going to be cheap!

Countryboy · 26 March 2019 18:27

Ada5279:

Last I saw of the dog, the owner was rushing it away to the vet, but it didn’t look good; although it was initially limping about I suspect internal injuries too. Once I have some costs I will have to go see the owner about paying for my repairs so will find out then. As a former dog owner myself, I was gutted to have injured it, but didn’t have a chance to avoid it and I was only doing about 30 at the time. Could have been worse, as there were two of them and the second one had time to change course and escaped injury as far as I could see.

As far as the repair is concerned, my local bodyshop reckon that they can sort the bonnet dings, but it will then need respraying, as will the new bumper, both wings and halfway along the doors, so that they can blend in the Pearl White paint and not have an obvious mis-match on adjacent panels. All in all it’s not going to be cheap!

My gut feeling is that the dog owner won’t realise that they are responsible for your costs, so be prepared for an uncomfortable encounter.

RubenPriest · 16 April 2019 05:32

Hi lads,

I am also a “victim” of the active bonnet and here’s another sad story.

I bought the car secondhand and got the MX-5 ND on april 13 (2019). The very same day the active bonnet goes off when parking at home. My girlfriend was driving and she was not used to the car yet. While parking she slowly hit the curb with the front splitter of the car. No big deal, a scratch to the splitter. That’s all easy solvable. However it set off the active bonnet . We were ‘driving’ 1 km/h and you can imagine the shock was enormous to us.

We bought the car at a Mazda specialist, not a official dealer. The specialist referred to the handbook saying indeed that Mazda says that even hitting “small objects” like a curb could set off the active bonnet. They are not willing to pay a dime to the damage I have right now even though we got 6 months warranty. I contacted my local Mazda dealership and we’re gonna see from there what to do.

The sensor is waaay to sensitive that it goes off for hitting a curb with a ridiculous low speed (we were parking the car!). You can imagine I am feeling pretty sick of this. As soon as the car is repaired I will unplug anything related to the active bonnet. It scares me shitless that the bonnet airbag can go off from something so small. It feels like driving a timebomb at my residential area with lots of speedbumps.

First_rider_off · 16 April 2019 08:18

t

RubenPriest:

Hi lads,

I am also a “victim” of the active bonnet and here’s another sad story.

I bought the car secondhand and got the MX-5 ND on april 13 (2019). The very same day the active bonnet goes off when parking at home. My girlfriend was driving and she was not used to the car yet. While parking she slowly hit the curb with the front splitter of the car. No big deal, a scratch to the splitter. That’s all easy solvable. However it set off the active bonnet . We were ‘driving’ 1 km/h and you can imagine the shock was enormous to us.

We bought the car at a Mazda specialist, not a official dealer. The specialist referred to the handbook saying indeed that Mazda says that even hitting “small objects” like a curb could set off the active bonnet. They are not willing to pay a dime to the damage I have right now even though we got 6 months warranty. I contacted my local Mazda dealership and we’re gonna see from there what to do.

The sensor is waaay to sensitive that it goes off for hitting a curb with a ridiculous low speed (we were parking the car!). You can imagine I am feeling pretty sick of this. As soon as the car is repaired I will unplug anything related to the active bonnet. It scares me [censored]less that the bonnet airbag can go off from something so small. It feels like driving a timebomb at my residential area with lots of speedbumps.

My God that is terribly unfortunate. I feel your misery. There must have been something wrong with the sensor if it went off that easily. I am surprised that the “Mazda specialist” did not offer to help you in some way as a measure of good will, even if it was to supply the parts required to repair your car at trade prices or even to repair your car at cost. Very poor show by them. It may be possible for Mazda to investigate the incident to check if the system was operating correctly (the electronic systems data log nearly everything for accident investigation purposes) but it would not really be in their interest to do so.

Such an incident is even more likely to occur if the car has been lowered as instead of possible riding over a kerb it is more likely to hit it. The problem with disconnecting the explosive bolts is that the warning light would be continuously illuminated and if you do hit a pedestrian with the system de-activated you could be in real bother if they are injured. I imagine that ND owners will be reverse parking their cars at all times in such circumstances.

I hope that you get your car repaired in a reasonable time and you get somewhere with the Mazda specialist or Mazda themselves. Good luck.

RubenPriest · 16 April 2019 08:30

First rider off:

RubenPriest:

Hi lads,

I am also a “victim” of the active bonnet and here’s another sad story.

I bought the car secondhand and got the MX-5 ND on april 13 (2019). The very same day the active bonnet goes off when parking at home. My girlfriend was driving and she was not used to the car yet. While parking she slowly hit the curb with the front splitter of the car. No big deal, a scratch to the splitter. That’s all easy solvable. However it set off the active bonnet . We were ‘driving’ 1 km/h and you can imagine the shock was enormous to us.

We bought the car at a Mazda specialist, not a official dealer. The specialist referred to the handbook saying indeed that Mazda says that even hitting “small objects” like a curb could set off the active bonnet. They are not willing to pay a dime to the damage I have right now even though we got 6 months warranty. I contacted my local Mazda dealership and we’re gonna see from there what to do.

The sensor is waaay to sensitive that it goes off for hitting a curb with a ridiculous low speed (we were parking the car!). You can imagine I am feeling pretty sick of this. As soon as the car is repaired I will unplug anything related to the active bonnet. It scares me [censored]less that the bonnet airbag can go off from something so small. It feels like driving a timebomb at my residential area with lots of speedbumps.

My God that is terribly unfortunate. I feel your misery. There must have been something wrong with the sensor if it went off that easily. I am surprised that the “Mazda specialist” did not offer to help you in some way as a measure of good will, even if it was to supply the parts required to repair your car a trade prices or even to repair your car at cost. Very poor show by them. It may be possible for Mazda to investigate the incident to check if the system was operating correctly (the electronic systems data log nearly everything for accident investigation purposes) but it would not really be in their interest to do so.

Such an incident is even more likely to occur if the car has been lowered as instead of possible riding over a kerb it is more likely to hit it. The problem with disconnecting the explosive bolts is that the warning light would be continuously illuminated and if you do hit a pedestrian with the system de-activated you could be in real bother if they are injured. I imagine that ND owners will be reverse parking their cars at all times in such circumstances.

I hope that you get your car repaired in a reasonable time and you get somewhere with the Mazda specialist or Mazda themselves. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply and kind words. The Mazda specialist indeed was not really interested to help me, at all. So is the Mazda dealership. I told the dealership about this matter and I send them the link to this forum and also a link to an Australian forum. The manager of the Mazda dealership replied that it’s “internet stories” and they say anyone can say anything online. Of course this makes me very disappointed in both the specialist & the dealership. It’s clearly they don’t wanna get their hands dirty on this matter.

I am now in contact with an old friend garage of mine in my hometown who were shocked to hear the story. Together we are gonna see what’s possible, so I might go to this garage.

GarethC · 16 April 2019 08:34

Given my experience of a number of Mazda dealerships unfortunately their response does not surprise me, it is often difficult enough to get work covered under warranty let alone issues outside of it.

First_rider_off · 16 April 2019 08:36

RubenPriest:

First rider off:

RubenPriest:

Hi lads,

I am also a “victim” of the active bonnet and here’s another sad story.

I bought the car secondhand and got the MX-5 ND on april 13 (2019). The very same day the active bonnet goes off when parking at home. My girlfriend was driving and she was not used to the car yet. While parking she slowly hit the curb with the front splitter of the car. No big deal, a scratch to the splitter. That’s all easy solvable. However it set off the active bonnet . We were ‘driving’ 1 km/h and you can imagine the shock was enormous to us.

We bought the car at a Mazda specialist, not a official dealer. The specialist referred to the handbook saying indeed that Mazda says that even hitting “small objects” like a curb could set off the active bonnet. They are not willing to pay a dime to the damage I have right now even though we got 6 months warranty. I contacted my local Mazda dealership and we’re gonna see from there what to do.

The sensor is waaay to sensitive that it goes off for hitting a curb with a ridiculous low speed (we were parking the car!). You can imagine I am feeling pretty sick of this. As soon as the car is repaired I will unplug anything related to the active bonnet. It scares me [censored]less that the bonnet airbag can go off from something so small. It feels like driving a timebomb at my residential area with lots of speedbumps.

My God that is terribly unfortunate. I feel your misery. There must have been something wrong with the sensor if it went off that easily. I am surprised that the “Mazda specialist” did not offer to help you in some way as a measure of good will, even if it was to supply the parts required to repair your car a trade prices or even to repair your car at cost. Very poor show by them. It may be possible for Mazda to investigate the incident to check if the system was operating correctly (the electronic systems data log nearly everything for accident investigation purposes) but it would not really be in their interest to do so.

Such an incident is even more likely to occur if the car has been lowered as instead of possible riding over a kerb it is more likely to hit it. The problem with disconnecting the explosive bolts is that the warning light would be continuously illuminated and if you do hit a pedestrian with the system de-activated you could be in real bother if they are injured. I imagine that ND owners will be reverse parking their cars at all times in such circumstances.

I hope that you get your car repaired in a reasonable time and you get somewhere with the Mazda specialist or Mazda themselves. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply and kind words. The Mazda specialist indeed was not really interested to help me, at all. So is the Mazda dealership. I told the dealership about this matter and I send them the link to this forum and also a link to an Australian forum. The manager of the Mazda dealership replied that it’s “internet stories” and they say anyone can say anything online. Of course this makes me very disappointed in both the specialist & the dealership. It’s clearly they don’t wanna get their hands dirty on this matter.

I am now in contact with an old friend garage of mine in my hometown who were shocked to hear the story. Together we are gonna see what’s possible, so I might go to this garage.

I think that you should identify the “Mazda specialist” involved. It may shame them into helping you out, especially if they are members of this forum.

Ada5279 · 16 April 2019 16:27

My understanding (via other posts here I think) is that the AB system is only active above 12 mph (15 kph?), presumably so that it doesn’t go off at parking speeds as per the post. So, if it went off at low speed, there must be something wrong with it. Mazda should be able to confirm that, if you can get them to commit to an opinion, given that it may amount to an admission of liability.

rodders · 16 April 2019 17:44

Interesting to see who the ‘specialist’ is???

RubenPriest · 16 April 2019 17:53

This is interesting. Tomorrow morning I’m going to Mazda dealer with the car and we are gonna check things out to see what’s need replaced. I will definitely ask about this, thank you.

At the others. I’m from The Netherlands and so is the specialist. Until this case is closed I don’t wanna mention any names just yet. Maybe I can work something out if the Mazda dealer concludes that the AB system went off to early.

ast · 16 April 2019 19:01

Report it via the DVSA:

Play up the fact that premature activation suggests that the function of this system is unreliable, and may not deploy when actually needed, thereby causing serious injury to or death of other pedestrians. Get other affected owners to do the same in reporting this to the DVSA.

http://owners-manual.mazda.com/gen/en/mx-5/mx-5_8fl9ee16j/contents/03060100.html

Situations in which the system does not activate

The active bonnet does not activate under the following conditions:
The front bumper gets hit while the vehicle is being driven at a speed insufficient to activate the system.

The vehicle gets hit from the side or the rear.

The vehicle rolls or turns over (the active bonnet may operate depending on the accident conditions).

This wording is repeated in the owners manual. There is no mention of this speed; isn’t 12mph the speed at which the locks are engaged?

Ask the Mazdsa specialist at what speed is the system supposed to engage.

Meanwhile, there are now commerical products in Japan to disable this feature:

https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/2699540/car/2275637/4846083/note.aspx
https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/2699540/car/2275637/9281795/parts.aspx

Japanese owner reporting malfunction:
https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/448845/blog/40690825/

Japanese Roadster owner speculating that the issue may be due to tyre/wheel combinations, apparently found with the CX8:
https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/360069/blog/40972054/

Another Japanese owner intimating a concern on this system in Japan, while fitting something to disable it:
https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/2063679/blog/41400094/

Mazda’s patent pon this device, shown fitted to a NC MX5:

Its a bit vague about what the “Collision Predicting Sensor” is, except by provided examples of what it could be.

This is how Denso’s works, pressure sensors incorporated into the bumper bar behind the front fascia:

This came out in 2013 and was first used on some Toyotas. Whats the nature of the sensor on the MX5?