I just want to share my experience...


I have a 530xi wagon and I brought it in for infant seat installation clinic. The technician installed the car seat base correctly and told me to disable the rear side airbags for safety. So I opened my owner's manual to check and it does in fact states to disable the side rear passenger.

So I went to Town and Country Canada to do the service but they said they require a letter from BMW Canada before they perform the service.. So contacted BMW Canada customer.service@bmw.ca with the email below:

From: xx
Sent: 6/26/2012 12:00:00 AM
To: camailservcust1 <customer.service@bmw.ca>
Subject: ATTN: xxx Re: Deactivating Rear Airbags Transporting Children

Hi xx,

Please advice, we had visited a child seat inspection and was told to deactivate our rear passenger airbags for our 2007 BMW 530xi wagon, (vin #################). I had called Town & Country BMW to perform the service and they require a letter from BMW Canada to allow the deactivation before they can perform the service.

Here is a screen shot of the owner?s manual as discussed.
My contact information is below.

The reply email was this


Dear xxx:

Thank you for your e-mail.

I have forwarded your inquiry to our technical specialists and am waiting on a response. As soon as I have an answer for you, I will be touch. I appreciate your patience in the interim.

If you have any further comments, please reply to this email or contact the Customer Interaction Centre at 1-800-567-2691. Again, thank you for contacting BMW Canada.

Sincerely,

The follow-up email came later...

Dear xxx:

Thank you so much for your continued patience as I researched your inquiry. I apologize again that it has taken much longer than expected.

The Service Manager at Town + Country BMW, xxxxxxx, has been advised of the correct process. We suggest contacting the retailer to set up an appointment to have the rear airbags deactivated. I hope you find this information helpful, and congratulations on your upcoming arrival.

If you have any further comments, please reply to this email or contact the Customer Interaction Centre at 1-800-567-2691. Again, thank you for contacting BMW Canada.

Sincerely,


After 3 weeks I got a phone call from dealership and scheduled for the service to be done. So the car is in the shop now and the bill is expected to be $133 + tax.

Hope this helps.

 

Interesting. Never thought about deactivating the rear side airbags. Though the manual says that the concern is if the child puts its head against the side airbag. If kids are in a booster with a high back and side head supports (like ours) or in a 5 point harness toddler seat, they can't put their heads against the window / airbag.

I wonder if it would not be a big concern then, until they are out of a booster, at which point, they may put their head against the airbag. But not having known that, I'd say if I'm riding in the rear, I've never thought about not leaning against the window to take a nap...

 

Update: car is still at dealership, apparently they are reprogramming the airbags system. I was told initially it was a half day job, but I will see if they even get it done today.

I also asked the same question about infant seat vs toddler and side airbags to BMW Canada when I spoke to agent on the phone. The agent forwarded my question to the engineers and i guess after that they got the answer and that is the reason I got the authorization from eadquarters to get it done. Otherwise I would have left it alone.

Anyway, infants become toddlers and later become too big for booster seat so I just did it earlier than necessary perhaps.

 

Update: The service is complete and did not cost me. It is under warranty work. I am however to pay to re-activate it @ $133 in the future.

They placed a neon orange sticker on both door jams abover the warning sticker.

 

How old are your kids?

And where do the rear airbags pop out of? I tried to look in our car, and didn't see any obvious spots, or the little plastic tag you usually see on the trim. Maybe my car doesn't even have them...

 

there is airbag plastic trim just above the handle on both rear passenger doors.

 

I find this highly interesting that there is a warning issued on this in NA but not in Europe... I have rear side airbags in mine but there is no warning label and nothing really in the manual either.

 

there is warning issued in NA for everything mate