Passenger Airbag Light

Hey everyone I just got some great news from BMW! You may remember the recall for some x3s a few years back for the sensor matte under the passenger seat deteriorating and permanently disabling the passenger airbag. Well for some reason my specific ViN wasn't covered... I argued with them for a few weeks and finally gave up after a while. I recently decided to try again and for some reason BMW changed their mind and now says it is covered under an extended 10 year warranty! Lucky me (or my passenger in the event of an accident I guess). For anyone else that was originally turned down, give it another shot it appears they've recognized some of the VINs that they hadn't originally considered as part of the recall.

I am waiting on a call back from my dealer for this problem.They are checking to see if it is covered.If they give me trouble I will show them this.Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by ncord

I am waiting on a call back from my dealer for this problem.They are checking to see if it is covered.If they give me trouble I will show them this.Thanks for the info.

ncord I'd say if you don't get the answer you want contact BMW of North America. I just asked them to explain why my specific vehicle was covered and so many others in the same year were covered even though I had the exact same problem and symptoms. Apparently if your vehicle wasn't covered under the recall it might still have an extended warranty on that item... Good luck!

what are the problem/symptom?
I called BMW NA when I bought my used X3 2004, and they said it wasn't part of the issue according to the VIN #.

They called and said they won`t cover it here in Canada because they did not have the recall for this problem .My car is originally from the USA .
I will be in Florida for the winter ,so I guess I`ll try and get it solved down there.So much for there International Warranty Bull SH--.

Originally Posted by ncord

They called and said they won`t cover it here in Canada because they did not have the recall for this problem. My car is originally from the USA .

Dealer needs to look it up more carefully.

I don't believe there is any difference between Canada and U.S. for handling this particular issue.

The recall campaign # 2008-307 (Attach. 1) did not apply to all VIN's for 2004 - 2006 X3's
(probably most of them, but maybe BMW AG thought some were O.K. for an undisclosed reason)

At the time of the Dec. 2008 recall (in Canada, at least) the 10 year warranty extension for this component was announced (Attach. 2)
(I interpret that as meaning that even for VIN's not originally covered in the recall, if they develop the problem within 10 years, it will be fixed free of charge.
And for ones already fixed under the recall, same applies for subsequent occurrences.)

Don't believe that BMW Canada or BMW NA have changed anything recently in this regard.

It's just that some Dealer Service Advisors have trouble keeping track of these things.

I can see that there could be concerns for Canadian dealers getting reimbursed for fixing this issue on a U.S. car (and vice versa).

^^^^ This explains exactly what happened in my case. The DEALER told me they could do nothing for me because I was looking for my VIN to match the recall, but BMWUSA is the one that indicated that there is an extended warranty specifically for this problem with the airbag light and that it would be covered REGARDLESS of the VIN matching the recall.

crenninger - the problem/symptom is that there is a little red light in the instrument cluster that looks like an airbag is deployed along with a yellow light above your head that says "Passenger Airbag OFF". So in the event of an accident the passenger airbag would not deploy. There is a sensor under the passenger seat that is basically there so that if a person that does not weigh a certain amount, like a child for example, is sitting there the bag will not deploy because it has been known to cause problems for smaller individuals. However, since the sensor becomes defective, the system defaults to Airbag Off mode and therefore you never have an airbag regardless of who is in the passenger seat.

Originally Posted by snowfro

Hey everyone I just got some great news from BMW! You may remember the recall for some x3s a few years back for the sensor matte under the passenger seat deteriorating and permanently disabling the passenger airbag. Well for some reason my specific ViN wasn't covered... I argued with them for a few weeks and finally gave up after a while. I recently decided to try again and for some reason BMW changed their mind and now says it is covered under an extended 10 year warranty! Lucky me (or my passenger in the event of an accident I guess). For anyone else that was originally turned down, give it another shot it appears they've recognized some of the VINs that they hadn't originally considered as part of the recall.

Thanks for the heads up, you can always count on somebody on bimmerfest to give you good information. My 2006 X3 49,000 + miles is going into my dealer JMK BMW on Wednesday to have the problem taken care of. Thanks again
cheers
vern

Originally Posted by snowfro

Hey everyone I just got some great news from BMW! You may remember the recall for some x3s a few years back for the sensor matte under the passenger seat deteriorating and permanently disabling the passenger airbag. Well for some reason my specific ViN wasn't covered... I argued with them for a few weeks and finally gave up after a while. I recently decided to try again and for some reason BMW changed their mind and now says it is covered under an extended 10 year warranty! Lucky me (or my passenger in the event of an accident I guess). For anyone else that was originally turned down, give it another shot it appears they've recognized some of the VINs that they hadn't originally considered as part of the recall.

I took the X3 into JMK BMW to have the sensor matte replaced under the passenger seat yesterday and 6 hours after drop off my X3 was completely fixed, no cost to me and I even had a 2011 535xi loaner car to tool around in. Thanks again for the heads up.
cheers
vern

Yessir picked mine up last Wednesday sure was nice to see a clean cluster with no warning lights! That stupid airbag light had been on for years and I was beginning to think it was going to stay that way.

Paid $0 AND got a 335d for a couple of days (whoa that thing rocked my world).

Apparently the notice about the extended warranty to the dealer just happened very recently so if you've been denied in the past try again.

THANK YOU for posting about this!!! I have the same issue on my '06 X3. My passenger airbag light went off just a month after my warranty ended . Wast told by both the dealer and BMW N.A. that I was not included in the recall. The recall was for X3s made during specific months of 2005. My car missed the reacall by 2 months! It was made in Jan. of 2006. I was pretty much told I was SOL and that the cost to repair was $1100. Ummm, no thanks. The light has been on for over a year and I simply could not afford the fix until now. I was considering getting it fixed after the first of the year. But THANKFULLY I saw this post. I called Niello BMW last night, made an appointment to the get sensor fixed. I guess BMW extended the warranty on this piece this past summer. I was surprised that this was not already covered under a 10-yr warranty... I figured any seatbelt/airbag safety issue was either a lifetime or 10-yr warranty. Thank you soooooo much Snofro!!!

I had my passenger seat mat sensor changed for the recall years ago (free of charge), only to have them either put in another defective one or installed the new one incorrectly and have had the indicator light on ever sense - No one sits in the passenger seat of this car.

Well I arrived in Florida last week and went to the dealer for my air bag problem.
They agreed to fix it,but if the problem is with any part of the air bag system other than the sensor matte,
they are going to charge me $125.fee for the initial testing as well as what ever the repair may cost .
If it ends up being the matte then there would be no fee.
It looks like they have me against the wall any way I look at it.