BMW Air Bag Recall

[j532]

I've had the letter through last week for my E46 drivers airbag. I can't find anything in the history to see that it has had the passenger airbag replaced, as far as I am aware they are both at fault?

I don't have any local dealer to me, nearest 45 mins in the West region.

Has anyone had this done recently as I would rather travel to a reputable dealer knowing of good service, as at the end of the day it is a 'free' job on a old car. Is it a long job or will they have to give me a courtesy car?

My closest BMW dealers are Dick Lovett, Westerly or Ocean. Thanks!

[Longnose]

I've got two E46's and their passenger airbags were replaced after recalls in April and July 2015. The BMW dealer didn't give me any paperwork to say it had been done but assured me that it was all recorded in the BMW database. I suppose they must have some way of recording the replacements.

Recall notices for the driver's airbags received a couple of weeks ago.

[Andy70]

hi, ditto, I took mine to dick Lovett in bristol, they done the job, I asked for paperwork and they said no need as its recorded

[helix402]

Driver’s airbag replacement takes minutes.

[4rephill]

j532 said:

I've had the letter through last week for my E46 drivers airbag. I can't find anything in the history to see that it has had the passenger airbag replaced, as far as I am aware they are both at fault?

I don't have any local dealer to me, nearest 45 mins in the West region.

Has anyone had this done recently as I would rather travel to a reputable dealer knowing of good service, as at the end of the day it is a 'free' job on a old car. Is it a long job or will they have to give me a courtesy car?

My closest BMW dealers are Dick Lovett, Westerly or Ocean. Thanks!

If you've received a letter about the driver's side air bag recall, your car is on the BMW dealer's system, so they will have a record somewhere that will show if the passenger's side air bag recall has been carried out or not.

As it's a safety recall, the job has to be carried out by a BMW main dealer, and whilst they record the work done on their internal system, they don't make a note in the cars history that states that the work has been carried out.

(You should be able to ask any main dealership to check to see if there are any outstanding recalls applicable to the car, and it should be free of charge

[dhutch]

Had mine done a few months ago, both together at Stoke, no issues and they let me take the dog into the showroom as I was enroute elsewhere with him. Got paperwork.

Cant fault it.

[Mr Tidy]

Nice to know that not everybody knew about it.....!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[helix402]

You can check here:

https://www.themotorombudsman.org/vehicle-recalls

[Sardonicus]

Oooh goodie another one cant wait to hear the salemans putting their tongues down customers rear end's again even my youngest was cringing at the patter still had a complimentary coffee to spit out at the right moment I guess not received the drivers airbag recall yet but the passenger one was changed in 2015

[helix402]

I wasn’t informed of the passenger one. I only found by checking the website I linked to. I then phoned BMW customer line to check what the recall was.
It was done without problems apart from on arrival the service advisor asked me which airbag they were changing!

[outnumbered]

I've just booked an appointment for the Driver's airbag recall, and was told by the person doing the booking that they'd need the car for 2-3 hours. not the 1 hour mentioned in the letter. I've taken the airbag out myself previously, so know that it takes about 30 seconds, so not sure what they're doing for the rest of the time. It's already had the passenger airbag done. Perhaps the Service Manager just wants to have a go in a CSL

[4rephill]

Mr Tidy said:

Nice to know that not everybody knew about it.....!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

A lot of the older cars are no longer maintained by BMW dealers and have changed hands a number of times since leaving the BMW network, so BMW cannot easily trace the owners to notify them of the recalls.

[Sardonicus]

They are supposed to contact owners via DVLA its a safety recall after all

[Mr Tidy]

4rephill said:

Mr Tidy said:

Nice to know that not everybody knew about it.....!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

A lot of the older cars are no longer maintained by BMW dealers and have changed hands a number of times since leaving the BMW network, so BMW cannot easily trace the owners to notify them of the recalls.

Exactly, which is why I posted to try to help those in the situation you describe but the replies I got seemed to all be of the "well yes of course, didn't you know, where have you been" variety.

Next time I'll just book mine in because obviously the rest of the world will already know about it!

[stevewak]

Just had my appointment for this Wednesday cancelled by Barons BMW Watford - no parts. Will call direct when parts in.

Edited by stevewak on Monday 25th September 09:44

[RanchoGrande]

stevewak said:

Just had my appointment for this Wednesday cancelled by Barons BMW Watford - no parts. Will call direct when parts in.

Edited by stevewak on Monday 25th September 09:44

I've had my booking cancelled as well. Was due to go in tomorrow but they've run out of airbags.

[dhutch]

Sardonicus said:

They are supposed to contact owners via DVLA its a safety recall after all

I must say, having never been to a dealer and the previous owners histroy being from an indi, I got the letter.

Daniel

[PurpleTurtle]

outnumbered said:

I've just booked an appointment for the Driver's airbag recall, and was told by the person doing the booking that they'd need the car for 2-3 hours. not the 1 hour mentioned in the letter. I've taken the airbag out myself previously, so know that it takes about 30 seconds, so not sure what they're doing for the rest of the time. It's already had the passenger airbag done. Perhaps the Service Manager just wants to have a go in a CSL

Upsell on any other work. I got a kindly 'free safety check' on my passenger airbag recall, with a 'all your discs and pads need replacing, we can do that for £large sum' result. Nice of them to let me know, but I DIY'd those things before the next MOT at considerably less cost, it being a 12yo car.

[PurpleTurtle]

RanchoGrande said:

stevewak said:

Just had my appointment for this Wednesday cancelled by Barons BMW Watford - no parts. Will call direct when parts in.

Edited by stevewak on Monday 25th September 09:44

I've had my booking cancelled as well. Was due to go in tomorrow but they've run out of airbags.

FWIW this is not just BMW, wife's Honda is due into local dealer on 3/10, a date I had to push for 6 weeks ago. It's a global supply issue affecting several manufacturers all using same airbag supplier.

[Sardonicus]

PurpleTurtle said:

outnumbered said:

I've just booked an appointment for the Driver's airbag recall, and was told by the person doing the booking that they'd need the car for 2-3 hours. not the 1 hour mentioned in the letter. I've taken the airbag out myself previously, so know that it takes about 30 seconds, so not sure what they're doing for the rest of the time. It's already had the passenger airbag done. Perhaps the Service Manager just wants to have a go in a CSL

Upsell on any other work. I got a kindly 'free safety check' on my passenger airbag recall, with a 'all your discs and pads need replacing, we can do that for £large sum' result. Nice of them to let me know, but I DIY'd those things before the next MOT at considerably less cost, it being a 12yo car.

Yep same here on the same airbag recall told me I had a serious oil leak told them it wasn't serious it was just a minor weeping VANOS hose and it was slight since been changed but did tell me I had a nail in a front tyre which was handy but found nothing else to price up