This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
With only 41,289 miles, "Driver Restraint System Malfunction" notification came on soon after the car was started. BMW dealer advised that it was due to faulty knee airbag module on driver side (fault code 930949-short circuit to ground). The wiring harness going to the knee airbag may have been rubbing against the support tube of the instrument panel. Cost to fix is parts $1,288 and labor $1,282. Total cost not covered by BMW since the car is few months over 4 years old. This wiring faulty seems to be a major concerns for owners as this relates to electrical quality control and should be a recall by BMW.
The X3 suddenly slowed down to stoppage on an interstate highway, and the car "shifted" to Neutral by itself. I had to shift back to "Drive" and then drive away. It happened twice in September to October 2023, with my family and other kids in the car. Luckily there was traffic, driving speed was relatively low. Contacted two BMW dealerships and the only thing they could do was change the battery. They said maybe the battery wasn't functioning fully. However, BMW shouldn't stop my car on a highway just because the battery may be relatively low. No warning about battery was ever observed. Four pictures attached: Error Message 1 - Increased Steering Effort on 10.13.23 Error Message 2 - Transmission (suddenly "auto-shifted" to Neutral) Error Message 3 - Four-wheel-drive system Error Message 4 - Front monitor suddenly turned on?
My car, a 2019 X3, displayed a malfunction notification "Driver Restraint System Malfunction" along with the airbag indicator glowing in red in my dashboard all of a sudden when I turned-on my parked car. The malfunction notification has remained ever since, whenever the car is turned-on or driven. My local BMW dealer inspected & diagnosed the issue as a harness failure, requiring a replacement of the air bag harnesses of both knee airbags, and potentially the ACSM module in the center console as well. As per this diagnosis, the failure was caused due to a short-circuit. If this issue was left unattended, it would have prevented the deployment of airbags in the event of a crash, resulting in the death of the driver or severe injuries. A manufacturing fault or other quality issues are clearly to blame for such short-circuits. I request NHTSA to investigate the issue and pursue a recall notice for such faulty driver restraint (harness in this case) control modules.
I am writing about the BMW Telematics Control Unit (TCB). This is a safety device installed on all BMWs for the past 6 years or more. It is an electronic tracking and communication device that is activated either automatically on manually in the event of an emergency. For minor emergencies such as a flat tire or running out of gas, the driver can call for roadside assistance. For serious emergencies such as accidents the system automatically contacts the BMW emergency center who contacts local emergency assistance providers such as police, fire, ambulance. The system provides information such as the vehicle's exact location and the severity of the accident. Obviously, this can be lifesaving information. I have no way to determine how frequently these systems fail, but judging from the countless number of accounts described on the internet and the number of YouTube videos I see, it would appear that these systems are very unreliable. These systems fail for a number of different reasons and are very expensive to repair. This is a serious safety issue. In my own case, water had leaked through the roof aerial and damaged the electronic communication device rendering it useless. Cost of repair would be nearly $3,000. There is at least one BMW Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) that applies to this issue for my vehicle. It is number B651222. There are probably many other TSB's that apply to other models and other causes of failure of this device. BMW owners have spent a lot of money for this device with the expectation of providing themselves with some additional safety in the event of an emergency. This is largely a false sense of security because these devices are very unreliable. I respectly request the the NHTSA look in to this issue. I believe that there are many people that are unknowingly in a dangerous situation.
Multiple times while driving, my key FOB in my pocket has opened the trunk. Extremely dangerous, and apparently very easy to accidentally press. Same thing with the alarm, almost caused me to have an accident.
- Santa Rosa, CA, USA
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On May 20, 2022 at around 10 AM. I pulled into my work parking lot. I proceeded to park the car in front of the main building. I put the car on park but the car accelerated on its own at high speed. It curved around the bushes yanking them out and then smashed into the building. The airbags opened. I called 911 for help. Ambulance took me to a hospital nearby. I lost a lot of blood due to a large cut in my mouth. I had some other minor injuries including a fracture in my sternum and nose.
The contact owns a 2019 BMW X3. The contact stated that after starting the vehicle, an unknown warning light was illuminated with a message displayed stating that the vehicle would turn off shortly, and to keep the vehicle function active, switch to Ready Mode. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed. The contact stated that an unknown part was replaced however, the warning light remained illuminated. The manufacturer was contacted by the dealer but the contact was unaware of what was said. The failure mileage was 9,000.
My digital gauges were frequently going off center in my vehicle. I scheduled service with the dealer however they did not have a loaner available for weeks so they scheduled the appointment for a few weeks out, my car subsequently completely died on the road and after a minute or two I was rear ended by a truck and the car was completely totaled.
After having 'repaired' the instrument panel relay which was causing the display to intermittently blank out, I am now experiencing the following dangerous events: 1) instrument panel will still occasionally blank out, with no consistent causal reason. 2) on occasion, firm acceleration has preceded an instrument panel glitch, but I cannot get a consistent result from this cause/effect. 3) on occasion, instrument panel glitch will result in a warning that indicates a loss of 4 wheel drive system. This glitch currently seems to remedy itself on its own after a few seconds 4) on occasion, while stopped with the auto parking mode engaged, pressing the gas pedal results in a complete engine shutdown. This requires a restart of the engine to proceed and the previous mentioned instrument glitches.
Backup camera not on when reversing: 1. ~Aug. 2019 when I reversed my car, the backup camera did not show up. My car was in BMW springfield NJ for repair from 25 to 27nov2019. I was told there was a recall (NHTSA campaign id 19V684000) and software was updated. 2.problem still existed, my car was in same dealership for repair on10feb2020. 3. raised my concern (lemon law) to BMW corporate, BMW arranged my car for repair on Mar. 19. 2020 after the repair, my rear camera view was back but the left image (sensing obstacle was missing). 4. my car was in BMW on Apr. 9 2020 for repair, still not working. 5. my car was in BMW for pair on May 26, 2020 and I was told to wait the computer to boot up and then drive. 6. I followed BMW's advice, the left image (sensing obstacle was missing) is back without any problem, but my rear view image sometime did not show up. I think the lack of an image in the back-up camera display increases the risk of a crash, which needs further investigation. Picture is attached, showing the whole backup process, the rear view camera was missing the image (~1min).
The speedometer is inaccurate. BMW told me that they have a directive which states that it is normal for a speedometer to be off by up to 7mph. They told me it is impossible to recalibrate. I do not know my true speed which is dangerous and makes it difficult to know if I am driving within posted limits. It also adds false mileage to my vehicle as it always indicates a speed higher than I am actually maintaining.
Without warning, the dashboard lights and indicators go dark. The vehicle can be stationary or in motion when it happens. I have contacted the dealer, fields BMW, twice. The first time the service department replaced the battery on my remote key control, the second time service told me it was a known problem at BMW and they were working on a software fix. My second contact was probably six weeks ago, but it happened again two days ago when my wife lost the dashboard lights in the evening. It is very startling (and unsafe) to lose the dashboard lights and indicators, especially at night. Neither BMW nor my dealer has informed me of any pending software fix.
The issue is becoming more systemic and occurs more often. Issue is as follows: 1) while driving, digital instrumentation will go completely blank for a period of time. This includes speedometer, tachometer, clock, cruise control information. Basically, anything that is on the screen disappears. 2) in addition to the instrumentation malfunction, the following system failures are intermittently occurring (no pattern detected yet): All wheel drive system failure (while driving) - when display does resume, vehicle warning system indicates the vehicle may be driven, but the all wheel drive system is inoperative. Park distance control (occurred while vehicle was stationary) - when display does resume, vehicle warning system indicates pdc system is inoperative. Auto start/stop feature (occurred while vehicle was stationary) - while at a stop and the failure occurred, the engine did shut down incorrect average mileage display - normal mpg for the vehicle is currently around 24.2. vehicle was reporting an average mpg of 9.7 prior to one failure.
The digital speedometer reads in kilometers per hour, instead of miles per hour, so I do not know how fast I am going. A couple of months ago, BMW issued a recall related to the reverse camera on the 2019 X3. To repair this recall, the software in the car had to be upgraded. After the dealership repaired the recall issue and upgraded the software, the digital speedometer malfunctioned. The speedometer defaulted to kilometers per hour every time I started the car. It would not stay on miles per hour. Thus, after every start, I would have to go into the main menu and switch the digital speedometer to miles per hour. I took my car into the dealership today to fix the speedometer issue (so it would stay on miles per hour), and they made the situation worse. The option to switch the digital speedometer from kilometers per hour after every start to miles per hour has disappeared. The digital speedometer is now permanently stuck in kilometers per hour (and cannot be switched to miles per hour). Because of this issue, I do not know how fast I am going (which is a major safety issue), and also makes it difficult for me to know if I am breaking the speed limit and thus susceptible to getting a speeding ticket. The dealership advised me that dozens, if not hundreds of people, have complained about the issue and BMW is working on a software fix, but advised that it could take months. I find this absurd for a significant safety issue. There is an analog speedometer in the dash that is in mph, but it is difficult to read and not specific enough (it increases by 20 mph; for example, 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, etc.). the analog speedometer does not have sufficient specificity to tell whether I am going 22 or 39 mph. The design of the analog speedometer is extremely poor and cannot be relied upon to determine actual speed, which is why the digital speedometer is critical.
Automatic braking spontaneously activated without cause. Happened 2 times. Most recent incident caused injuries to the driver and almost caused a severe accident. This is a full stop from approximately 40 mph
Tail gate opens randomly when car is parked and stationary. Tail gate has also opened when traveling at a low speed (under 30 mph). Issue has happened multiple times since purchase of vehicle. Returned to dealer to address issue but was told there was no issue.
First problem is that one three separate occassions my rear hatch/tailgate has opened on its own while parked. Each of the three times the car was parked in the garage and has hit my garage door causing damage. While in the garage, my keys were inside the house and no buttons were pushed on the key fob. I have complained to the dealer about this issue twice now and have not had success in solving the issue. Second problem is that the seat ventilation on the passenger seat has failed three times. Each time the fans within the seat that activate to push air through the vents sound like they are tearing through the seat. Each time the dealer has repaired the issue, only for it to return again. The car is going to the dealer once again after I asked for them to escalate this issue. I have not yet had the car one year. My purchase date was in September 2018.
I'm having issues with the SUV's "hatch" door opening on it's own. I've owned the car since Feb 2019. Twice it has opened on its own while parked. Yesterday morning, it opened while I was driving in slow traffic on a very busy road during rush hour, and I had a lot of things in the trunk. The hatch would not close with the button on the armrest, nor with the key fob. I had to pull over and get out, and close it by pressing the button on the hatch door itself.
The contact owns a 2019 BMW X3. While driving various speeds, the liftgate spontaneously opened. Additionally, when the push to start was engaged, the vehicle failed to shut off. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was taken to jackie cooper BMW MINI14145 N broadway ext, edmond, ok 73013, (405) 755-3600), but the cause of the failures could not be determined. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 100. Consumer stated while the rear hatch opened and spilled groceries all over the street. Dealer was notified and authorized a retention bar to keep most items in place as payment for the lost items. At that time consumer also addressed an issue with the start button not turning off/shutting down the vehicle completely. Dot was notified.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Irvine, CA, USA