2004 BMW 525I problems
Owners have filed 123 complaints about the 2004 BMW 525I with NHTSA. Air bags account for 27.6% of them — the clear leader, ahead of electrical system at 17.9%.
Complaints123
Crashes0
Fires25
Injuries2
Deaths0
What owners report breaking
Air bags 27.6% · 34
Electrical system 17.9% · 22
Seats 13.8% · 17
Seat belts 11.4% · 14
Power train 5.7% · 7
Structure 3.3% · 4
Vehicle speed control 2.4% · 3
Unknown or other 2.4% · 3
Severity
Of those complaints, 25 describe a fire and 2 report an injury.
Reading the numbers
Filings have fallen off, 23 in the last three years against 44 in the three before. That is normal as a generation leaves the road.
The median odometer reading at the time of complaint was 89,627 miles.
In owners' own words
Passenger restraint system warning appears each time we get into the vehicle and start the ignition. Airbag deployment red icon constantly illuminated on the dashboard. The air conditioning system is not working properly. The car does not cool or get cold until the car is in motion. We had a mechanic who we purchased the car from 3 years ago to diagnose the problem but it still continues to not cool properly. Air bags · reported at 158,000 miles
Passenger restraint system, right high beam malfunction. BMW dealership denies any responsibility while I referred them to the safety recall. They state that our BMW doesn't have any open items. How do I know that all the 2004 525's were input into the BMW database properly? I can't pay for this $1600 warranty when a safety recall was issued in 2008 (while my car was under an BMW extended warranty. Air bags · reported at 61,000 miles
The contact owns a 2004 BMW 525I. The contact stated that the air bag warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the contact was told that the vehicle was not included in the recall associated with nhtsa campaign id number: 08v384000 (air bag: frontal). The failure mileage and the current mileage was 100,000. Updated 11/22/11*lj updated 02/03/12 Air bags · reported at 100,000 miles
Verbatim from NHTSA filings. Complaints are unverified owner reports.
Safety recalls
Checking NHTSA for open recalls…