Consumer Complaint Detail

BMW / X5 / 2001

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 005006512 Incident Date: Feb, 08 2005
Consumer's City: Consumer's State: NY
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: BMW of North America, LLC
Model Name: X5 Model Year: 2001
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Latches/locks/linkages
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Feb, 09 2005 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Jun, 30 2001
Was Original Owner: Yes Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 8 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: I have a 2001 bmw x5 which has problems with freezing front doors (bmw has acknowledged the design defect, reference # 200503100195, si 510204, and s.i. 51 51 02 dated march 2002.) that pose a significant safety hazard, and have not received an adequate response in dealing with the matter. i have filed a complaint with the nhtsa. i am an active duty army officer stationed in garmisch, germany. the car was with us in california and kansas from 2001 to 2004. the car did not have the door freezing problems while under warranty; we kept it in a garage and the bowden cables did not get wet during cold weather. we have no garage here, and any time the weather gets a few degrees below freezing, the front doors cease to operate. one must run the car between 15 minutes to 1.5 hours before the doors operate normally. when the car cools down, the doors freeze again. the problem with the doors here in germany is severe and poses a significant safety risk; does bmw really want to risk litigation for someone trapped in the car in the event of an accident? i do not understand why the car was not recalled for such a serious and acknowledged safety design defect. our local dealership in garmisch is unable to locate the below si in his database. he does not know how to fix the problem. i am also disturbed that i will have to pay upwards of $1000 to fix the problem---this would have been covered under warranty and should have been fixed when the car went under services in late winter of 2004 (and also had other si work done, such as a faulty radiator fan that could have caused the car to burn----heck of a combination if the freezing doors had been acting up at the same time!).*ak