10 Of The Biggest BMW Recalls In Recent History, Ranked

While many of us will thankfully get by without ever having to deal with one, Recalls are an inescapable reality for just as many car owners (if not more). Sure, we'd all like automakers to get things right the first time, but that's not how things work: Mistakes happen, and recalls are the best way to ensure that these mistakes don't end up having serious consequences.

These recalls range in size from 10 or 20 cars up to the millions and can happen to cars from any automaker, no matter their reputation for reliability. A great example is BMW. While BMW cars are generally reliable, the German automaker is still listed among the car brands with the most recalls in recent years, with problems ranging from faulty door locks to dangerous fire hazards in the engine bay.

While this may seem like a bad look (and it probably is), it's worth noting that this list isn't an attempt to dissuade you from buying a BMW, or to make you feel bad if you already have. But if you're interested in how badly things can go wrong for an automaker and how much hassle one such as BMW has to go through to fix its mistakes or oversights, this is the article for you. Today we're focusing on U.S. recalls, but we'll mention global numbers too when they're particularly eye-catching.

The smallest recall on our list is also the most recent and the one that involves the newest cars. This recall involved the 2022-2024 model years of the BMW X3, one of the handful of vehicles that BMW builds in America. BMW announced the recall in February 2025, covering 40,736 BMW X3s built between August 11, 2021, and August 27, 2024.

The issue here was the rear door locks, which, in the words of the NHTSA's recall notice, "may not function properly and allow the doors to be unlocked with a single motion." Which, of course, isn't ideal. Not only is it potentially dangerous, but it also means that affected X3s don't comply with federal requirements that require rear doors to have locks that need two separate actions to open from the inside. It's not as complicated as it sounds, and your car probably does this: You have to unlock the door before you can open it, and pulling on the door handle without unlocking won't open the door.

BMW discovered the fault during internal testing and identified a faulty door lock module as the culprit. Thankfully, no injuries related to the problem had been reported as of February 2025.

Turning the clock back a few years, we come to a 2021 recall involving a range of diesel-powered BMWs built in the mid-to-late 2010s. Unlike the X3 recall, this one covered a wider range of models. These included selected 3 Series sedans and wagons from 2013-2018, 2014-2016 5 Series models, the 2015 740Ld xDrive, as well as certain 2014-2017 X3s and X5s.

These cars all sported a 2.0-liter turbodiesel — not one of BMW's most powerful diesels, admittedly — that suffered from a problem with the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) module. BMW's EGR module had an integrated cooler, which could develop a leak and allow coolant to mix with the diesel engine's exhaust soot. This had potentially disastrous consequences, with the mixture capable of resulting in melted intake manifolds and fire.

BMW recalled 50,404 vehicles in this recall. It wasn't BMW's first attempt at fixing the fault, with the company having previously issued a recall for 44,368 diesel vehicles in 2018. Unfortunately for owners, the initial fix proved inadequate, resulting in BMW having to recall all 44,000 of those vehicles again in 2021. The EGR cooler continues to pose problems, resulting in a large recall involving 800,000 vehicles worldwide as of 2024. Despite that, BMW hasn't recalled any additional vehicles in the U.S. since this initial 2021 recall.

The first six-figure recall on our list is from 2024, when BMW recalled 105,588 vehicles across its range over a starter issue. Products involved were the 2019-2020 BMW X5 and X7, the 2020 BMW 3 and 8 Series, the 2020 BMW X6, and the 2020-2021 BMW 7 Series.

Affected examples of these vehicles suffered from a temporary change to a different starter design during production. This alternate starter could suffer from mechanical damage and be unable to start the engine. While that wasn't too drastic, the situation was compounded by the fact that drivers could trigger an electrical overload via long and repeated attempts to start their stricken vehicle. The overload would then stop the car from starting outright. BMW also admitted that the issue could, on paper, result in overheating and fires in certain situations, although the company had not received any reports of fires stemming from an overloaded starter up until August 2024.

Thankfully, the solution was quite simple: BMW shipped a software update that dealers would install on affected vehicles, preventing the system from overloading the starter.

BMW's VANOS is the German automaker's take on the variable camshaft timing system common to many modern engines. It's a fundamental part of many of BMW's engines, from exotic examples such as its classic late-1980s M70 V12 to the more common — yet no less impressive — turbocharged B58 inline-six available in its SUVs and large passenger cars.

Unfortunately, the VANOS system in a selection of early-2010s BMWs proved to be flawed enough that BMW had to recall 155,627 vehicles to address faulty timing bolts in the system. The bolts could loosen on their own or even break off, either of which could cause the engine to stall — not great, especially when on the move. Failed bolts could also result in other symptoms, such as rough running or the vehicle only wanting to run in its reduced-power limp mode.

This 2023 VANOS recall involved the following BMWs, all manufactured between 2010 and 2022: 5 Series sedans; 3 Series sedans, coupes, and convertibles; 1 Series coupes and convertibles; 6 Series coupes and convertibles; X3, X5, and X6 SUVs; and the Z4 convertible. This wasn't BMW's first VANOS-related recall, and BMW had recalled some of these 155,000 cars in 2014. BMW had also provided an extended 10-year warranty for some vehicles due to this issue back in 2018, with some of those also subject to the 2023 recall.

We're getting into the big numbers now with this 2024 recall for a troublesome braking system. It's likely one of the biggest if we go by global numbers, with over 1.5 million BMWs worldwide affected by the issue. American BMW owners weren't impacted that heavily, though, with only — relatively speaking, at least — 278,000 vehicles needing repairs.

In North America, the vehicles involved in the recall were 2023 to 2025 examples of the 5 Series and i5, 7 Series and i7, X1, X2, X5, X6, X7, and XM. The culprit here was the Continental-provided integrated braking system (IBS). The IBS had an electric actuator that it used to maintain brake pressure, which could fail. Thankfully, this didn't lead to total brake failure since the affected vehicles had a fallback safety mode. However, it did result in owners needing to apply more force when braking. Some reports suggested that the IBS failure may also have impacted the ABS and stability control systems. BMW initially only recalled 79,670 North American cars in February 2024 but eventually recalled nearly 200,000 more by September.

This recall had a notable effect on BMW's financials, with the company scaling back its 2024 expectations and telling the Associated Press it had budgeted to spend "high three-digit million" euros to resolve the issue globally. Vehicles from other BMW Group brands, Mini and Rolls Royce, were also affected.

BMW's X3 has something of a reputation as a particularly unreliable BMW, and so the presence of two X3-specific recalls on this list may just reinforce this reputation in the eyes of some of you out there. In the X3's defense, neither recall involved failures with the suspension or drivetrain, and instead concerned troublesome interior components. Sure, both impacted the safety of the vehicles, but does that necessarily make them unreliable? We'll leave that for you to decide and focus on the facts. 

BMW issued this recall in 2024 for 291,112 X3s — including the sDrive30i, xDrive30i, M40i, and M variants — spanning the 2018 to 2023 model years with the optional interior cargo lashing rails installed. Unlike most of the recalls thus far, which were prompted by BMW's internal testing, this recall was the direct result of a lawsuit from an X3 owner in August 2022. After investigating the car, the company decided to issue a recall.

The problem with the rails was that they could fail in the event of a rear-end collision, coming loose and potentially leading to injuries — be it from loose cargo or even the detached rails themselves. BMW stopped offering the rear cargo rail setup starting with the 2024 model year, meaning that this fault ended with the 2023 X3s.

Sometimes, recalls aren't necessarily because a component is faulty or failure-prone. Instead, they can involve oversights that allow owners to do things that endanger themselves, a great example of which is this 2019 recall involving the backup camera systems in a handful of BMWs. Well, more than a handful, really: 257,481 vehicles were potentially affected, covering a selection of BMW and related vehicles from the 2018 to 2020 model years.

The models in question were the 540d; 540i Xdrive; 530i xDrive; 640i xDrive Gran Turismo; X3, X3 M, and X3 sDrive; X4 M40i, and Z4 sDrive. A couple of models from the BMW-owned Rolls Royce models were also affected, as was the 2020 Toyota Supra (which, if you needed reminding, was a collaboration between Toyota and BMW).

All of these vehicles had infotainment systems that allowed owners to disable the rear camera view when reversing their cars. To add further fuel to the fire, the systems would remember this setting, essentially permanently disabling the rear-view camera unless the owner knew how to re-enable it. While we're all for owner choice, not showing the rear camera display when reversing was arguably quite dangerous. More importantly, it was a violation of U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for rear visibility in vehicles. Thankfully for owners, the fix involving nothing more than a quick software update at BMW dealerships.

If you're even remotely familiar with automotive news, you're probably aware of the recall and safety nightmare that is the Takata airbag saga. Takata's troublesome airbags have required 67 million vehicles to be recalled since the NHTSA began actively requiring recalls in the mid-2010s, with almost every major car brand having had to recall vehicles due to Takata's faulty airbag inflators. BMW is no exception.

The German carmaker first issued a recall in 2023 covering 90,000 sedans and SUVs, mostly built between 2000 and 2006. These included the 2000-2003 5 Series, 2000-2004 X5, and the E46 M3. BMW also issued a "do not drive" warning for these cars in light of the age of their Takata inflators and the risks they posed to drivers — more than two dozen people have died from them exploding to date, after all. 

Unfortunately for BMW, this 2023 recall wasn't the end of the story. In 2024, the company recalled an additional 394,029 cars. These were 3 Series sedans built for the 2006-2012 model years, including a range of sedans — 324i, 325i, 325xi, 328i, 328xi, 330i, 330xi, 335i, and 335xi — and wagons. The 2009-2011 335d was also one of the 3 Series models recalled. The issue was with these models' replacement M Sport steering wheels, which featured faulty Takata inflators. 

The 2020s haven't been particularly kind to BMW, with multiple six-figure recalls covering most of its product line, but the top two really take the cake. First of the mega-recalls — as if the Takata airbag recalls weren't mega enough — is the recent 2024 recall for faulty water pumps, involving 720,796 BMWs in the U.S. alone.

As you might expect for such a huge recall, the BMW models involved were quite varied, although all were from the 2012 to 2018 model years. Selected X1, X3, X4, and X5 SUVs had the faulty water pump, as did a range of the company's 2, 3, 4, and 5 Series cars (including the convertible 4 Series) and Z4 convertible. The failure here was not with the water pump's functionality itself (or lack thereof), but instead had to do with the power connector. Blow-by fluid from the intake system could leak into the connector, causing a short circuit that could ignite a fire in the engine bay.

The Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport first made BMW aware of the issue in March 2024, but it took until August 2024 for the company to determine that it needed to recall affected vehicles. By that point, BMW had been made aware of 18 incidents related to the issue — thankfully, without any injury or loss of life.

Finally, we come to the big daddy of all recent BMW recalls. 2022's positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve recall, which required a whopping 917,106 BMWs to go back to dealers to address a potential fire hazard. The problem lay in the aforementioned PCV valve and its heater, which recirculates unburnt blow-by gases back into the combustion process to help reduce engine emissions.

BMW's mistake lay in its use of plastic in the heater element, which was prone to manufacturing inconsistencies that created gaps between the plastic and the heating element. The gaps allowed moisture to get in and potentially lead to a short circuit, which could then overheat the element and cause the engine to go up in flames. This was a long-running issue for BMW, with the company having issued recalls in 2017 and 2019 to replace faulty PCV heaters. Unfortunately for BMW's reputation, even cars that were supposedly fixed under the previous recalls had to go in again for another replacement PCV heater.

Affected BMWs were from the model years 2006 to 2013. These included the X3; 3 Series coupes, sedans, wagons, and convertibles; 5 Series sedans and wagons; Z4 coupes and convertibles; and 1 Series coupes and convertibles. Most of these models were powered by the N52 inline-six, with some N51 and N52K engines also suffering from the faulty PCV heater.