Bmw 325ci, Bmw 325i, Bmw 325xi, Bmw 330ci, Bmw 330i, Bmw 330xi, model years 2002 to 2006. Filed by BMW of North America, LLC and reported to NHTSA on 28 May 2015. 419,235 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2002-2005 325i, 325xi, 330i, and 330xi Sedans, and 325xi and 325i Sportswagons, 2002-2006 330Ci, 325Ci, and M3 Convertibles and 325i, 330i, and M3 Coupes, 2002-2003 M5, 540i, 525i Sedan, and 530i Sedans, and 540i and 525i Sportswagons, and 2003 X5 3.0i …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 15V318 cover?
- BMW 325Ci, BMW 325I, BMW 325Xi, BMW 330Ci, BMW 330I, BMW 330Xi, BMW 525I, BMW 530I, model years 2002-2006.
- What is wrong with them?
- BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2002-2005 325i, 325xi, 330i, and 330xi Sedans, and 325xi and 325i Sportswagons, 2002-2006 330Ci, 325Ci, and M3 Convertibles and 325i, 330i, and M3 Coupes, 2002-2003 M5, 540i, 525i Sedan, and 530i Sedans, and 540i and 525i Sportswagons,...
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Owners are advised not to drive their vehicles until the vehicle has been remedied. BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front driver air bag module, free of charge. The recall began Aug 2016. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 15V318 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | BMW of North America, LLC |
| System at fault | Air Bags:Frontal:Driver Side:Inflator Module |
| Reported to NHTSA | 28 May 2015 |
| Model years | 2002-2006 |
| Vehicles named | BMW 325CI, BMW 325I, BMW 325XI, BMW 330CI, BMW 330I, BMW 330XI, BMW 525I, BMW 530I, BMW 540I, BMW M3, BMW M5, BMW X5 |
This is not an ordinary campaign.
- Owners are told not to drive the vehicle at all. NHTSA applies this to a small minority of campaigns. 28 of the 1,399 we currently hold.
What the notice says today
The consequence
In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
The remedy
Owners are advised not to drive their vehicles until the vehicle has been remedied. BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front driver air bag module, free of charge. The recall began Aug 2016. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417. Note: This recall supersedes recall 14V-348 in its entirety. Additionally, vehicles that have had their driver side frontal air bag replaced previously as part of a recall remedy need to have their air bag replaced under this recall as well. Note: On December 17, 2015 BMW removed the model year 2004 X5 3.0i and 4.4i Sports Activity vehicle from this recall. Those vehicles were mistakenly identified as including the air bags that are subject to this recall.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 846 notices in the record whose component field names air bags. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 46 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
- BMW 325i recalls: 3 US campaigns
- BMW 325xi recalls: 3 US campaigns
- BMW 330i recalls: 24 US campaigns
- BMW 330xi recalls: 3 US campaigns
- BMW 530i recalls: 20 US campaigns
- BMW 540i recalls: 11 US campaigns
- BMW M3 recalls: 12 US campaigns
- BMW M5 recalls: 15 US campaigns
- BMW X5 recalls: 47 US campaigns since 2016
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 15V318, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/15v318/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 15V318 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
783d2281 - Consequence
3e1ca9ec - Remedy
b0a66d6c
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 15V318 · how the whole register is watched
Put this notice on your site
A small badge that links here and names the register's reference. It costs one line of HTML and needs no key.
The badge is free to use. It links to this page and nowhere else, and it never shows advertising.
Owners of these cars
No register publishes what happens after the letter. Owners do: tell us, in two taps.
Anonymous: no account, no cookie, nothing you type is stored beyond these choices. Figures appear once 3 owners have answered, and are published with the record under CC BY 4.0.