BMW says its recalling 1 million vehicles in North America
BMW AG had
on Friday, said it is recalling about a million vehicles in North America for
two separate issues involving fire risks and said it may expand the recalls to
other countries.
One recall
covers 670,000 2006-2011 U.S. 3-Series vehicles to address a wiring issue for
heating and air conditioning systems that may overheat and could increase the
risk of a fire.
The second
recall covers 740,000 U.S. 2007-2011 vehicles with a valve heater that could
rust and lead to a fire in rare cases. The recall includes some 128i vehicles,
3-Series, 5-Series and X3, X5 and Z4 vehicles.
BMW
spokesman Michael Rebstock said the recalls overlap and cover about 1 million
vehicles, nearly all in the United States and about 15,000 in Canada. He said
the recalls may be expanded.
"We are
examining whether it will be necessary in the future to widen this (recall)
into other countries," he said.
BMW said
both recalls followed recent meetings with the U.S. National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA).
In the
heating and air conditioning recall, BMW told NHTSA it first got a report of an
incident in 2008 involving heat- related damage to a 2006 3-Series sedan, but
did not determine a root cause. The automaker continued to monitor additional
field incidents in the following years.
In 2011, BMW
made a quality improvement to the blower-regulator wiring harness. No injuries
were reported between 2007 and 2014, but in 2015, BMW was made aware of three
incidents in which there were allegations of injuries. In early September, BMW
learned of another incident involving a 2011 BMW 3 Series vehicle.
Dealers will
replace a wiring harness if necessary and potentially additional parts.
In the valve
heater issue recall, BMW first received a report in 2009 of an incident in a
2007 X5 involving heat-related damage to the engine compartment, the company
told NHTSA. It received other reports and continued to review the issue and
inspect returned parts, but had no reports of injuries or crashes related to
the issue. Dealers will replace the valve heater.
Comments