2020 BMW X5 Air Bags

Due to a small coffee spill srs light for front and back were triggered, with the potential of having air bags deployed, this is a defect that needs to be addressed. There was a class acton lawsuit that has since been concluded, but how about for new owners of old vehicles. This should be a safety concern.

The contact owns a 2020 BMW X5. The contact stated that the message "Driver Restraint System Malfunction" was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the driver’s side knee air bags needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle was not covered under warranty. The failure mileage was approximately 39,500.

Rear restraint system malfunction. BMW states it’s a faulty airbag that is not under warranty. Car has never been in an accident and only 4 years old so there should not have been any issues. It is a safety issue for passengers.

I have received two malfunction alerts two months apart for both driver and passenger airbags. The first dealership reset the fault codes and the second different dealership found 4 faults and reset it as well. I learned from the second dealership that the airbag sensors sit below the cup holders, secured by a screw in each cup on the bottom base of the housing. They removed the rubber bottom portion of the cup holder and noticed there was liquid reside and the screw appeared rusted. They believe the water may have leaked through the screw and ruined the airbag sensors. If this was true, they mentioned the airbags would not work properly and I would be responsible to pay for the work performed to correct the issue since they consider this a outside influence and not covered by my warranty. I mentioned that this a a huge safety concern, a terrible design flaw, and no where in the owners manual does it warn owners of the potential safety concerns of using cup holders that seat above the airbag sensors. I contacted BMW public relations, filed a complaint, and they have heard of this complaint before and advised different safety teams would see my compliant and wait for a callback.

BMW front cup holders have hole in bottom and it allows condensation/liquid to migrate through bottom to air bag sensor located directly underneath cup holders. Consumers are at risk of air bags going off unintentionally and/or not going off at all. Sensor should not be directly under a cup holder and/or the cup holder should not have a hole directly above safety sensor. BMW design defect. Consumers are having to pay out of pocket for sensor to be replaced as it is not covered under warranty. Additionally, there is a pending class action lawsuit that has been filed and documentation of this being a problem over several BMW models is well documented in forums, etc. on the internet.