Bmw X5, Bmw X6, Bmw X6 Activehybrid Sac, model years 2007 to 2012. Filed by BMW of North America, LLC and reported to NHTSA on 15 January 2020. 4,007 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2009-2012 X5 xDrive35d, 2008-2012 X6 xDrive35i, X6 xDrive50i and X6 M, 2007-2012 X5 30si, X5 xDrive30i, X5 xDrive35i, X5 48i, X5 xDrive48i, X5 xDrive50i and X5 M and 2010-2011 X6 ActiveHybrid vehicles equipped with non-desiccated, passenger frontal air bag inflators …
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 20V016 cover?
- BMW X5, BMW X6, BMW X6 Activehybrid Sac, model years 2007-2012.
- What is wrong with them?
- BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2009-2012 X5 xDrive35d, 2008-2012 X6 xDrive35i, X6 xDrive50i and X6 M, 2007-2012 X5 30si, X5 xDrive30i, X5 xDrive35i, X5 48i, X5 xDrive48i, X5 xDrive50i and X5 M and 2010-2011 X6 ActiveHybrid vehicles equipped with non-desiccated, passenger...
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- An inflator explosion may result in sharp 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 this remedy is performed. BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger front air bag, free of charge. The recall began March 11, 2020. 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: “An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 20V016 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | BMW of North America, LLC |
| System at fault | Air Bags:Frontal:Passenger Side:Inflator Module |
| Reported to NHTSA | 15 January 2020 |
| Model years | 2007-2012 |
| Vehicles named | BMW X5, BMW X6, BMW X6 ACTIVEHYBRID SAC |
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
An inflator explosion may result in sharp 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 this remedy is performed. BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger front air bag, free of charge. The recall began March 11, 2020. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.
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 X5 recalls: 47 US campaigns since 2016
- BMW X6 recalls: 27 US campaigns since 2016
- BMW X6 Activehybrid Sac recalls: 8 US campaigns
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 20V016, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/20v016/
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 20V016 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
722db674 - Consequence
e19b32de - Remedy
6e88add9
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 20V016 · how the whole register is watched
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Owners of these cars
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