2023 BMW X3

The contact owns a 2023 BMW X3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 26V056000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was not contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. 

On the evening of Wednesday March 6th 2025, as I turned into the street where I live, my car became difficult to steer. It felt like I had developed a front flat tire on one side, but there was no indication of low tire pressure on the dash. I was moving around 5 miles an hour and with some difficulty, could navigate the car to the curb on my street and park it in front of my home. I could not attend to the car on Thursday or Friday since I was busy at work. On Friday night I contacted BMW towing and arranged the car to be towed on Saturday to the dealer from whom I had purchased the car. The dealer confirmed that the car was not steerable. They put up the car on the rack and sent me a video. They noted that the left tie-rod steering linkage was broken. They noticed scratches on the under side of the car, and "Curb rash" on the wheels suggestive of possible brushing of the front wheels to the curb which may have caused the steering problem. They indicated that because it was caused by accidental damage, it was not covered under warranty. I cannot recall any accidents, big or small , while driving this vehicle. I have brushed along curbs occasionally, but none that should break a steering linkage. The scary part of this whole thing was how I could not steer the car, fortunately it happened at low speeds. It could have been worse if the disruption had occurred at freeway speeds. If a car can become non-steerable by just hitting the curb, because the steering linkage broke, that is not acceptable level of quality from a safety standpoint. I would expect better performance from a BMW. I can understand the car getting out of alignment, but to lose the ability to steer is just not acceptable. I have attached pictures of the broken linkage from the video that was sent by the dealer. I have attached the pictures from the

The driver-side front door sometimes gets stuck and cannot be opened from the outside. Additionally, the left rear door cannot be opened from the inside. This issue has been occurring since [provide the earliest date you remember, e.g., “mid-2023”] and happens intermittently. It poses a serious safety risk in case of an emergency, as passengers may be unable to exit the vehicle quickly. The problem has not been confirmed or repaired by a dealer yet. There were no warning lights or error messages related to this issue. Additionally, the air conditioning system is not functioning properly, and there is no cold air even when the A/C is turned on. This issue started around [2024], and no warning lights were displayed.”

As I was driving today in the freeway my sunroof exploded. As far as I can tell, It was not caused by rocks or other cars, it just exploded putting my wife and I in a dangerous situation having to park on the side of the freeway. We first thought someone shot at us. We stopped the car and it took us a minute to feel safe to go out, trembling, to check car for gun fire. We looked the entire body while the freeway was full, even for a Sunday, and discovered nothing wrong. As we entered the car and closed our door, we heard the noise of shared glass, so we both left the car again to reinspect it putting our lives in danger as other drivers were passing by. We re-enter the car again and the same thing happened, left the car again to inspect the tires at this time, each time exposing our lives to the freeway traffic. Upon entering the car for the third time, heard freeway noise and thought window was probably opened. It was then that we realized our sunroof was probably broken, upon checking, we were shocked when saw hundreds of pieces of glass on top of our car. It was then that we realized we would have to clean the top of our car with the wind blowing glass everywhere, risking an eye injury, and we were worried another car would be hit with the glass or even worse than that, it would be someone riding a motorcycle which is common on Sunday afternoons and get blind from glass flying from our car to their face. So we spent a while cleaning most of the glass to be able to drive off the freeway, again exposing our lives. During our cleaning of the glass, we put it inside of our car on the floor by the back seats so we would not leave that on the freeway exposing other people to get hurt. During this cleaning time, my wife cut her hand with glass that entered her skin. Not understanding why the accident happened, I’ve decided to research online, only to find that BMW’s x3 having problems with sunroof exploding since 2018, but no recalls! Very upsetting! My car is 2023.

The contact owns a 2023 BMW X3. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle independently accelerated. The contact depressed the brake pedal however, the vehicle independently accelerated. The contact also stated that the failure had previously occurred several times. The vehicle was scheduled for an upcoming service appointment. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and advised the contact to schedule an appointment with the dealer. The failure mileage was approximately 20.

The 2023 BMW X3 is equipped with automatic high beams that includes an anti-dazzle feature. The anti-dazzle/non-glare (matrix) feature have been available on non US Spec vehicles since 2013 but US legislation did not allow this feature to enabled in the United States. In the meantime legislation has changed however my BMW has been decoded by the manufacturer so that my car does not have that feature and they cite legislation as the issue. My car is capable of the feature but bmw is refusing to enable it thus reducing night time visibility and safety for myself and others on the road. I’m also reading there are people and shops who will enable the feature but with only an 80% solution which means there’s a potential to have a lot of cars on the road that are not correctly providing anti-glare to other vehicles. I think BMW should stop decoding (removing) this feature and recall all cars that have been decoded to have the feature re-enabled. This is 100% a safety issue.

Rear differential bolt failure: Failure has not happened yet, but will happen eventually with enough mileage as seen with many other BMW X3M vehicles. Problem is with the rear differential bolt. The bolt is prone to shearing or snapping, noises may be heard from differential up until failure occurs at some point. Once this occurs it can wreak havoc on the differential and associated parts and cause thousands of dollars worth of damage if you are outside of the warranty period. The bolt needs to be stronger or something needs to be added to the bolt area to lessen the movement of the differential under power. If bolt is to snap on the road this will cause safety issues as you will lose power and potentially break many things on vehicle that could cause road debris and also require you to pull over immediately. Problem can't be reproduced as it's a single bolt that can fail at any time. No inspections have taken place, no warning lights or problems before hand. However, some may hear noises in the rear differential under power.

Sensor for forward collision warning failed to work and I was involved in an accident.

When a passenger front door is opened, it is possible for the person exiting the car to catch an upper arm in the metal opening and sustain an injury.

I have noticed that my vehicle seems to be lagging behind when driving at the poster speed limit. Other vehicles were catching up rapidly and stacking up behind me. I compared the indicated vehicle speed with two separate GPS devices and found the indicated speed was slower the the GPS indicated speed. At highway speed, 75 mph as indicated on the speedometer, the vehicle is traveling at 70 to 71 mph as reported be the GPS. I confirmed this by pacing another on vehicle with an accurate speedometer. I took my vehicle (2023 BMW X3 with 2218 miles on it) to the dealer for warranty service to address the issue for inaccurate speed reading on the speedometer. They provided me with a BMW service information bulletin (#B26 06 12 SI dated April 2012) which indicated that most speedometers have a tolerance of approximately 10% plus 2.5 mph, being necessary to compensate for negative tolerances in tire diameter and other outside factors. If a vehicle speedometer reads within that tolerance, no repairs should be attempted. This means that a vehicle traveling at highway speeds (75mph) as indicated on the vehicle’s speedometer, the vehicle could be actually traveling at 65 mph. While traveling at 65 mph in a 75 mph speed zone in legal, it is not really safe and leads to unsafe traffic slow downs and possibly road rage incidents. I questioned the impact of the “speed advance” on the total actual mileage the odometer, along with the computed MPG performance of the vehicle. Interesting enough, the service bulletin notes that the mileage does not incorporate any “advance tolerances” yet it obtains its information from the same source as the speedometer. A 10% “speed advance” (as identified) is unrealistic, unsafe, and unnecessary. Additionally, as related to tire diameter, as a tire wears and thus has a reduces circumference indicate speed becomes higher than actual speed, thus negating the need for the speedometer advance. I want an accurate speed reading while driving.