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BMW 5 Series E39 Accidental Airbag Deployment



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 13th 05, 08:44 PM
BigBazza
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Default BMW 5 Series E39 Accidental Airbag Deployment

Hi Folks,

I own a 1998 model BMW E39 5 series, 523iSE Steptronic Auto Saloon.

I currently have a nightmare situation involving an accidental aibag
activation in it and was wondering if anyone else has ever encountered
any similar occurrences. If so, please read on.

Anyway, my story goes like this.....

A few weeks ago, I reversed from my friends driveway out onto the
roadway. I then selected 'Drive' and began to move forward slowly, at
which point I drove over a small lump of tarmac debris on the roadway.

This 'lump' of tarmac was no more than a couple of inches tall and I
ran into it with the front right hand wheel (drivers side - I'm in the
UK). This was at no more than 2 or 3 miles per hour.....I had quite
literally just started to move forward....but immediately on hitting
the debris, both the Driver's door side impact airbag and the driver's
side-curtain (roof) airbag went off.

To say I got the fright of my life is a bit of an understatement....I
very nearly S**t myself!!

Anyway, I turned off the engine and got out of the car, with the car
still sitting in the middle of the roadway. The hazzard warning lights
had come on automatically, and the doors unlocked automatically too.

I was in a bit of a daze at this point, but soon realised that my car
was pretty much blocking the road, so I got back in and tried to start
the engine....but no joy. The starter relay just clicked and the
engine wouldn't turn over at all (I assume this is normal in the Auto
once an airbag has gone off?).

Anyway, the matter is now in the hands of my insurance company and the
vehicle is undergoing repairs as I type.

What concerns me more is this. Clearly the airbags shouldn't be going
off in situations like this, so following the incident, I contacted
BMW UK to see what they would suggest.

They were completely uninterested to say the least. Basically, they
told me that they had no wish to inspect the car to see what had
caused the airbags to go off. When pressed a bit further regarding the
very dangerous issue at hand, especially if the airbags had gone off
at speed rather than when I was moving very slowly, they simply said
that it was nothing to do with them.

I left it at that as I just assumed that it must be an isolated
incident.

This is where things then got a little intersting, and what prompted
me to write this post came to light.

About 3 weeks after my incident, I had occasion to be back at the
dealers picking up a couple of small trim parts which the coachworks
were going to fit for me whilst my car was in for repair.

Whilst in the Dealership, the parts boy who served me recognised me as
being the owner of the BMW with the accidental Airbag Deployment. He
told me that no more than a week after I had been in to see them
following the initial incident, yet another 5 series owner (also an
E39, but believed to be a lot newer than mine) had been in with
exactly the same problem. The parts boy told me that this other owner
had hit a small pot hole in the road at slow speed and like mine, 2 of
his side impact airbags on the drivers side had activated.

I asked him if he could let me know who this other 5 series owner was,
but at this point his General Manager overheard the conversation and
walked over to us. He immediatelly butted in and told me that in no
uncertain terms would he be assisting me to contact the other owner.
I then requested that if I left my details with him, could he forward
them to the other owner allowing him to contact me if he wished, but
again, he refused point blank.

Clearly, there does seem to be an issue with these side-impact airbags
and by the reaction I got from the BMW dealership it looks possible
that it's something which BMW know about but which they are hiding
from and refusing to address.

I count myself lucky that I was moving very slowly at the time of the
incident, but I shudder to think at how different the consequences
could have been had I been cruising along the motorway at the time.

Which leads me back to my opening point. Is there anyone else on the
group had the same or similar experience?

If so, I'd be very interested in hearing from you as I can't help but
think that this is an issue that needs looked at. If you don't want to
reply on-group, you can e-mail be at



Bast regards,

Barry - AKA BigBazza








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  #2  
Old January 14th 05, 02:24 PM
Coyoteboy
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Default

Jeeeze, scary story! I'd suggest a letter to watchdog, copied to whoever was
unhelpful sorting the issue out.They'll try to keep this covered as much as
possible.There are clear thresholds below which airbags should not fire,
both speed and impact impulse strength - a fault with this system may no
only mean accidental activation, but also non-activation. For your own
safety and others I'd take this as far as you can.

J


  #3  
Old January 14th 05, 03:42 PM
JB
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Default


"BigBazza" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Folks,
>
> I own a 1998 model BMW E39 5 series, 523iSE Steptronic Auto Saloon.
>
> I currently have a nightmare situation involving an accidental aibag
> activation in it and was wondering if anyone else has ever encountered
> any similar occurrences. If so, please read on.
>

<snip: tale of horror and dodgy BMW dealers>

Drop a line to John Burns on his most excellent BMW site forums
www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/bmw.html
Someone on there must know more on this issue.
Hope you get the answer to this one. Have you tried any of the US-based BMW
forums (Roadfly, www.bmwe34.net etc)? The US have much better access to this
type of 'sensitive' info.
JB


  #4  
Old January 14th 05, 11:20 PM
Bob Kegel
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Default

> Which leads me back to my opening point. Is there anyone else on the
> group had the same or similar experience?


The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has an online database
of vehicle defect complaints and investigations at
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ .




  #5  
Old January 14th 05, 11:30 PM
Jim Levie
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Default

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 14:42:14 +0000, JB wrote:

>
> "BigBazza" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I own a 1998 model BMW E39 5 series, 523iSE Steptronic Auto Saloon.
>>
>> I currently have a nightmare situation involving an accidental aibag
>> activation in it and was wondering if anyone else has ever encountered
>> any similar occurrences. If so, please read on.
>>

> <snip: tale of horror and dodgy BMW dealers>
>
> Drop a line to John Burns on his most excellent BMW site forums
> www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/bmw.html
> Someone on there must know more on this issue.
> Hope you get the answer to this one. Have you tried any of the US-based BMW
> forums (Roadfly, www.bmwe34.net etc)? The US have much better access to this
> type of 'sensitive' info.


This doesn't seem to be common problem, at least as far as any of the
on-line forums are concerned.

I don't know if the OBD records information relevant to an air bag
activation or not, but it seems reasonable that it might. It might be
illuminating to know what the OBD readout was.

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

  #6  
Old January 15th 05, 10:06 PM
BigBazza
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

><snip: tale of horror and dodgy BMW dealers>
>
>Drop a line to John Burns on his most excellent BMW site forums
>www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/bmw.html
> Someone on there must know more on this issue.
>Hope you get the answer to this one. Have you tried any of the US-based BMW
>forums (Roadfly, www.bmwe34.net etc)? The US have much better access to this
>type of 'sensitive' info.
>JB
>


Thanks for that link...I'l' drop John Burns a mail tomorrow and see if
he knows or can find out more.

Thaks

BigBazza
  #7  
Old January 15th 05, 10:10 PM
BigBazza
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Posts: n/a
Default


>I assume you pruchased the car used. There was a recall for all
>5series BMW's last year or two years ago because of the possibility
>that the air bag could accidentally deploy.
>
>Go to BMW and discuss the incident with them, it may be a warranty
>issue after the fact.
>
>If you purchased your BMW used, make sure that this recall repair work
>was done, or this can also happen to you.
>
>545i-2004



Yes, I purchased the car used a little over a year ago.

But I find your mention of a recall very interesting indeed. I have
contacted BMW about this possibility, and they say that there has
never been any such recall in the UK. But then again, I don't believe
a single word they say after way thay've tried to bury this matter.

Do you have any more information or details about the recall you
mentioned?

Basically, as it stands at the moment, BMW don't want to have anything
to do with it, and I'd really like to find out what I think they are
hiding.

Cheers

Barry
  #8  
Old January 15th 05, 11:15 PM
Jim Levie
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Default

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:10:36 +0000, BigBazza wrote:

> Yes, I purchased the car used a little over a year ago.
>
> But I find your mention of a recall very interesting indeed. I have
> contacted BMW about this possibility, and they say that there has
> never been any such recall in the UK. But then again, I don't believe
> a single word they say after way thay've tried to bury this matter.
>

I don't know about the UK, but you can look up all notices for USA cars at
http://www.alldata.com/recalls/

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

  #9  
Old January 16th 05, 04:31 PM
BigBazza
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 16:15:57 -0600, Jim Levie >
wrote:

>On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:10:36 +0000, BigBazza wrote:
>
>> Yes, I purchased the car used a little over a year ago.
>>
>> But I find your mention of a recall very interesting indeed. I have
>> contacted BMW about this possibility, and they say that there has
>> never been any such recall in the UK. But then again, I don't believe
>> a single word they say after way thay've tried to bury this matter.
>>

>I don't know about the UK, but you can look up all notices for USA cars at
>http://www.alldata.com/recalls/



Hi There,

Thanks for that bit of info...but unfortunately it seems to be a
subscription only service.

Oh well....

Barry
  #10  
Old January 16th 05, 06:57 PM
Jim Levie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:31:33 +0000, BigBazza wrote:

> On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 16:15:57 -0600, Jim Levie >
> wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:10:36 +0000, BigBazza wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, I purchased the car used a little over a year ago.
>>>
>>> But I find your mention of a recall very interesting indeed. I have
>>> contacted BMW about this possibility, and they say that there has
>>> never been any such recall in the UK. But then again, I don't believe
>>> a single word they say after way thay've tried to bury this matter.
>>>

>>I don't know about the UK, but you can look up all notices for USA cars at
>>http://www.alldata.com/recalls/

>
>
> Hi There,
>
> Thanks for that bit of info...but unfortunately it seems to be a
> subscription only service.
>


In the menu on the left hand side of the page is "Free Technical Service
Bulletins"

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

 




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