19V015000
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
2003 BMW 540I
2 safety recall campaigns, 2 carrying NHTSA's "park it" advisory, 9 owner complaints filed with NHTSA.
Do not drive
2 campaigns covering the 2003 BMW 540I carry NHTSA’s “park it” advisory — the federal government telling owners to stop driving the vehicle until the remedy has been performed. Whether it was performed on any particular car is not something NHTSA publishes in a form anyone can query; a franchised dealer can run the VIN and print the record in a minute, and the repair is free.
The record
Recall campaigns2
Park it2stop driving until repaired
Investigations0
Owner complaints9
Complaints citing a crash0
Complaints citing a fire0
Complaints are reports from owners of this model year, not findings about any particular vehicle, and a model that sold in large numbers will collect more of them. They are counted here as filed; nothing is inferred from them.
Recall campaigns 2 of 2
15V318000
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
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.
What owners report most
- 2STEERING
- 2AIR BAGS
- 1ENGINE
- 1SERVICE BRAKES, AIR:ANTILOCK:ABS WARNING LIGHT
- 1TIRES
- 1POWER TRAIN
- 1ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
This page is about a model, not a car
Two 2003 BMW 540Is can have entirely different histories, and a recall campaign usually covers a build-date window rather than a whole model year — which a VIN does not encode, so only the door-jamb label settles it. Scanning the VIN adds the decode, the crash tests, the fuel economy and the complaints matched to that exact engine, trim and assembly plant.