March 2020 recall check: Airbag safety fault forces BMW to recall 67,548 cars

Published 10 March 2020

A serious airbag problem has forced BMW to recall tens of thousands of cars in the UK.

The DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) recall safety notice affects older versions of the BMW 3 Series built between October 1997 and July 2000. However, despite the fact some vehicles in the recall notice are over 20-years old, BMW estimates that as many as 67,548 cars could be affected.

BMW says the airbag may not deploy correctly in event of an accident and owners will be contacted and asked to visit their local BMW dealer or approved workshop to have the air bag inflators replaced.

>>> What is a vehicle recall and how can you check your car?

BMW has also issued a separate safety bulletin for the X6 SUV after it emerged the ISOFIX child restraint U-Loop may break off the carrier plate, resulting in the child seat no longer being secure. Owners of X6 models built between March 2014 and April 2019 will be asked to return to their BMW dealer so an additional metal angle bracket can be welded to each ISOFIX U-Loop.

Ford is also recalling the new Puma crossover after it admitted the driver’s airbag retention springs may not lock the module to the steering wheel. The issue affects 24,249 cars and each one will need to be recalled to the supplying dealer so a replacement airbag retention spring can be installed.

Honda has issued a recall bulletin for the Civic, CR-V and HR-V after it emerged that some 50,000 cars may not meet regulatory requirements for emission levels. The issue affects cars built between February 2015 and May 2018 and owners will be asked to book their car for an engine software update to improve the performance of the emissions control system.

Recall number	Make	Model	Problem	Build start	Build end
R/2019/403	BMW	3 Series	Drivers airbag may deploy incorrectly.	Oct 1997	Jul 2000
R/2019/397	BMW	X6, X6M	The ISOFIX child restraint U-Loop may break off the carrier plate resulting in the child seat no longer being secure.	Mar 2014	Apr 2019
R/2020/045	Ford	Puma	Passenger airbag may deploy incorrectly if activated.	Nov 2019	Jan 2020
R/2019/421	Ford	Focus	A defect on the Power Distribution Box (PDB) pins may potentially cause an intermittent poor connection on a number of terminals.	Oct 2019	Oct 2019
R/2020/028	Jeep	Wrangler	Insufficient clearance for the transmission wiring harness from catalytic converter.	Oct 2017	Mar 2019
R/2020/016	Hyundai	i30	In the event of an impact on the lower part of the vehicle body the airbag may prematurely deploy.	May 2007	May 2012
R/2019/455	Kia	Sorento GT-Line S	The Forward Collision Avoidance Assist system may have problems identifying pedestrians.	Jan 2019	Nov 2019
R/2020/043	Land Rover	Range Rover Evoque	The Telematics Service Delivery Platform has incorrectly configured the in-vehicle eCall phone number.	Jul 2018	Jan 2020
R/2020/010	Mazda	Mazda3	The engine may stall or fail to restart in some driving situations.	Nov 2018	Sept 2019
R/2020/009	Mazda	Mazda3, CX-30	Passenger air bag may deploy incorrectly if activated.	April 2019	Oct 2019
R/2019/341	Mercedes-Benz	GLE, GLS	The fixation of the trim bar at the rear door windows might not meet specification.	Oct 2018	Sep 2019
R/2020/034	Skoda	Superb	Failure of the front turn signal my not always be detected in certain circumstances.	May 2013	Apr 2015
R/2019/450	Vauxhall	Corsa	Seat belts might stick when pulled out and retracted.	May 2019	Jun 2019

Comments

yokohamapete on 12 March 2020

I was told by BMW that I was the first to take my car in re this recall. I was naturally very surprised as my 1998 318i was in its 22nd year. The outcome was that BMW have offered to buy back the car for a price a little over the market price. They also provided a hire car for 10 days while I found another car, and they have given my new car a health check which was very useful. As far as I understand it, the first cars to suffer from the problem were the facelift models introduced at the end of 1998. Ours was the first of these in the area being manufactured in November 1998. I understood the problem was that the airbag was liable to go off for little or no reason - but I might be wrong on this.
Altogether BMW have been pretty fair regarding this. The car was pretty old, but being the last car my parents owned was quite an heirloom. P Jackson Huddersfield

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NickNike on 13 March 2020

Perhaps they should have engineered this properly in the first place. German cars are way overpriced, and a masterclass of image over quality. I see BMW also came bottom of a UK reliability review by JD Power recently. I look at a BMW driver, and think 'mug'.

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expertad on 23 August 2020

It is a Japanese airbag part.BMW pre 2000 were by far the best cars on the road,which is why my garage contains a 19 98 740 i and 528i from the same vintage.The 'JD power' survey is probably the result of ustomer expectations being so high, VW have the same problem. I imagine Skoda or Kia are probably quite high on it.Having processed BMW warranty claims for twenty years,they did get more frequent as time went on.........

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yokohamapete on 15 March 2020

I understand that the faulty items were provided by Takata of Japan. This problem affects a number of brands - particularly Honda, Mazda and Ford - millions of cars all together. In this case, BMW have at least stepped up and taken responsibility.

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expertad on 23 August 2020

What is the market price for a 98 318i? 500 quid?

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Alexandra Day on 12 February 2022

Hi Pete
It sounds like BMW have been very fair with you. Mercedes, on the other hand… I’ve been waiting close to 5 months now for the part and still have no firm date. I am no longer prepared to risk driving my car. Mercedes have been extraordinarily unhelpful and show no regard for customer safety. I’d like to quote your experience with BMW to them, as you mention Huddersfield I’m assuming you’re based in the UK? Any other info you could pass on illustrating how well BMW have dealt with this issue would be helpful, thank you :-) I’m sure Lewis H isn’t driving around with an unsafe airbag!

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