BMW has recalled 200,000 of its vehicles for a potentially deadly airbag defect.  It affects certain 2006 BMW 3 series cars (BMW 325i, BMW 325ci, and BMW 330ci), 2004 – 2006 BMW 5 series cars (BMW 525 i, BMW 530i, BMW 545i, and BMW 550i) and 2004-2006 BMW X3 vehicles, depending on the type of seat.

The affected front passenger seats use an occupant detection mat from Siemens as part of an advanced air bag system.  The airbag system uses the data from the mat to determine whether to deploy the front passenger airbags.  Unfortunately, those mats installed in the front passenger seats are vulnerable to cracking along the side of the seat as a result of frequent use.  Some of those cracks could cause a change to the electrical characteristics of the mat.  That electrical change can lead the air bag system to recognize a failure, which can then shut down the passenger air bag system.  If that happens, the passenger air bag can fail to deploy during a crash when it is needed.  According to BMW, this should not affect the head protection system.

The government opened its defect investigation in September 2007.  They upgraded it to an engineering analysis in January 2008, noting that BMW had provided 3,465 owner reports and 28,238 warranty claims.  BMW notified the government that it would conduct this recall in July of 2008.  The government’s recall number is 08V-384.