When parking the vehicle the parking brake symbol went yellow and it showed a message stating it was malfunctioning and the vehicle may roll. This car has an electrically actuated parking brake. Since the car moved fine without any noise and it gave no indication otherwise it seemed safe to continue driving. Some time later it starter making a screeching noise from the rear right. After stopping at a truck stop the brakes were found excessively hot in addition to making noise. After being towed to a shop it was revealed the parking brake had partially activated, dragged the shoes until they were worn down, made metal to metal contact with the rotor hat and created enough heat to melt all associated hardware on both sides. Under slightly different circumstances it is not unlikely that one or both rear wheels could have locked up while driving leading to loss of control and an accident. The error message associated with failure of this module is highly misleading, since it seems with the failure of this module the vehicle has no way of knowing whether the parking brake is engaged or not.

- Katy, TX, USA

The parking break switch leaver broke. The design and construction of the plastic switch leaver is very thin (flimsy), therefore, it is impossible for it not to break under repeated normal use. This results in the parking brake becoming inoperative. Please see upload photo.

- Sebring, FL, USA

On 4/6/2017 I parked my 2013 BMW X5 at 7:30pm, around 3am I heard a popping sound and the alarm going off. I looked out the window and fire was coming from under the hood. On 3/20/2017 I took it in for service because it did something crazy and the engine malfunction light came on, also there was a short in the fog lights. BMW said they they changed the coil in the engine and fixed the lights they also told us we need to upgrade the sos button or take a $300 refund and not fix the sos system. They completed that repair on 3/28/17. 8 days later my truck caught fire

- East Stroudsburg, PA, USA

During frontal impact at 34+mph, airbag did not deploy; driver hit steering wheel and passed out; brakes did not function properly either (was serviced by BMW dealership less than 2 months ago); vehicle slid straight into car in front of it and brakes did not engage properly with driver pressing brake petal

- Fulton, MD, USA

I was coming down lakemont blvd (sloping downwards) at about 5 pm and when I was nearing the traffic light at the intersection with SE newport way, I started slowing down as I could see the light was red. I pushed down on the pedal but the brake was not fully responsive. It would slow down and seem to be stopping, but keep going. I was feeling a bit out of control and tried to steer away from the car that was stopped at the traffic light and just for a moment it seemed like the brake had applied and the car almost stopped but it kept going until it crashed the back left bumper of the car in front of us. My daughter was sitting next to me and she kept saying 'O my god, O my god' and I kept saying to her that ' the brake just isn't taking'. I was fully alert because I had slowed the car down all the way down the hill and was able to steer it just before a full-on impact, but couldn't pull away completely. This has happened a couple of times in the past with one incident coming clearly to mind. We were in our neighborhood and coming down park dr, which is a similar inclined downhill road and when I was about to reach the intersection with 15th ave ne, I started to brake but the brakes responded very sluggishly - where it seemed to stop, but then keep going at least a couple of times, with the car eventually stopping almost in the middle of the intersection. It was the middle of the day and being a Suburban neighborhood, there was no traffic and we were safe. I dismissed it as a one off incident, but it hindsight it came clearly to mind after the incident yesterday.

- Issaquah, WA, USA

The contact owns a 2013 BMW X5. The contact stated that when braking to a stop, the vehicle would independently veer to the right or left before completely stopping. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the brakes, rotors and bolts were replaced however, the failure recurred after the repair. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer who advised that there were no further repairs they could perform to the vehicle. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 5,500. The VIN was not available.

- Port Saint Lucie, FL, USA