Really ? Should I give it a try for a free repair by BMW ? Is it possible ? I was thinking about get a bypass box for it.

 

Is there an expiration for when you can no longer get it done free? The error just popped up yesterday for me.

 

Yahu. We are on the same boat.

 

Did you solve it ? Howitzer

 

If you're in the UK, You should not need to pay for what is an known manufacturing fault.
I work for Citizens Advice and given that this is a known common fault in the 5 (and other) series arisen from a faulty Passenger Seat Occupancy Sensor Mat,(BMW of North America - Recall ID # 08V384000 - Air Bags: Frontal) it follows that it is something you can compel BMW to fix at no cost

Below is an extract from the CAB information system regarding consumer rights.
Satisfactory quality
Consumers have a Statutory right to expect that goods will be of satisfactory quality. When assessing if goods are of satisfactory quality, the following factors are taken into account :-
1) safety of the goods
2) durability of the goods
Unsafe goods
If the goods are dangerous or unsafe, s/he may be able to take action using other areas of law, as well as using her/his statutory consumer rights.
Durability of goods
The goods should last the length of time that a reasonable person would expect for goods of that nature. If the goods stop working properly within this period of time (in general - 6 years) it may be evidence that as such, they were not of satisfactory quality when the item was manufactured and that her/his statutory consumer rights have been breached.


Depending on how far you are willing to push it (it only costs £35 (refundable by BMW wwhen they admit the fault) to apply to the County Court for an Order of Specific Performance i.e. an order that compels BMW to fix a known faulty sensor at no cost to you - using the USA recall as evidence of unsatisfactory quality at the time of manufacture, affecting your safety) you should not have much of a problem getting BMW to foot the bill, because when you win in court, it is a court sanctioned acknowledgement that the sensors were faulty at the time of manufacture and as such, have always been unsafe as well as unsatisfactory quality (therefore breaching your comnsumer rights which they have to rectify at no cost to you). If that happened it would open the floodgates for thousands of similar court actions (that is if VOSA didn't step in and order a nationwide recall of ALL models with the same components - which would cost BMW £millions) - so BMW would settle out of court before any ruling was made.


A letter first (with a heading on it stating "Letter before action") to your local BMW dealer stating this and requesting the sensor(s) be replaced and the car computer reset at no cost is all that you would need to do. If they then don't perform within a "reasonable time (14 days), apply to your local County Court for the Specific Performance injunction.

If you want to verify this advice, get yourself down to your local Citizens Advice Bureau (they'll also advise you on making the County Court application if necessary).

 

Same error message popped up for me yesterday.....again. I had my passenger seat mat replaced about a year ago (under warranty) and received the letter in the mail a few weeks later stating that there was a recall on that item. Ever since then the message has popped up on the drive screen 2-3 times, but disappears once the car is restarted. In other words, the error message came on yesterday and is now gone today. Who knows?

This car has been pretty much trouble free and now Im out of warranty, so I'm thinking that I may be pushing my luck if I keep it much longer.

 

No, didn't call the dealer about it yet.

 

recalls dont work that way, they are VIN specific and run through a select series of VINs that BMW admits to having the issue.

If you have the issue but your VIN isnt in the recall then youre SOL

I had the error, but my VIN wasnt in the recall list and so it wasnt covered. My CPO covered it for $50 and i was on my way

BMW wont fix anything for free because the shops usually have to internalize the defective parts, hence why they try to clear the codes first then replace the part if the code comes back

 

Hey all... In case anybody was wondering, I had the passenger restraint system failure with cruise control malfunction and windshield wipers constantly on... when I took it to the dealer, they replaced the sensor that was listed as a recall. Then a week later same exact problem. Anyway, I got into a minor accident and gave my car in to get fixed. So I got my '04 530i back from getting some body work done and they took it to the dealer to reset the codes. The autobody shop told me they had my battery unhooked for 3 days. It did not solve the problem. Within ten minutes of driving, the exact same errors began again: Passenger restraint system failure, cruise control malfunction, loss of steering wheel controls, and windshield wipers malfunction. I had a long road trip planned and had to drive 18 hours WITHOUT CRUISE!!! I am going to the main dealer in Toronto to see if they can help out, cause my local dealer seems to be clueless. Any advice?

 

I know it's been ages since my last post but I wanted to follow up on my particular issue, in case any other e60 owners face my exact same problem... So it turned out to be my SZL module, also known as the steering column control switch unit??? ($380)... I took pics of the module to show what the part looks like in case anyone is looking for a spare one although I wouldn't recommend a used one...





it basically looks exactly as it should (a round piece that fits in between the steering wheel and the steering column and has sockets where the cruise/wipers/turn signal handles plug into) and it took about an hour to install and another hour to program (although I was charged for 4 hours)... the replacement fixed every single problem and she has worked perfectly ever since...