Four problems related to air bag have been reported for the 1998 BMW 323. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Control display that the electric circuit, license plate light, brake circuit, has failed. On my dashboard the following lights are airbag, check engine, brake pad wear, abs, and the asc+t lights are illuminated at all times. Nothing happened to my car, no wreck, no quick stops, I am an extremely cautious driver. All these things start to occur out of no where,.
No summary listed for above vehicle.
A driver, on a 5 lane st, in a center turn lane, driving the same direction as myself struck my car on it's left-side, causing my car to spin. Attempting to avoid further injury in early am traffic, I was able to slowly veer to the far right at a reduced speed of 3 mph, and could not stop enough to prevent collision with a stationary brick wall. I remember making impact and the airbag popping out of the steering column like a small pillow, then suddenly erupting with painful magnificent force throwing by head and chest back, then my falling to the right-side arm-rest. I managed to unbuckle my seatbelt, and murmur as best I could to my two young daughters in the car with me, to get my cell phone, get out of the car, and call their father. Fortunately, a witness called 911 and police and a life-flight helicopter arrived to extract me from the totaled car and fly me unconscious to a local trauma hospital. I was assessed and it was found every bone in my face was broken, the fumes of the airbag caused my lung to collapse, me to �code�, requiring shock epinephrine and electrical shocking to revive my breathing. I required total facial reconstructive surgery with titanium plates placed over broken bones in my face, and dental pins in 4 places of my broken upper and lower jawbones. My teeth were chipped/broken and later needed extensive veneers and dental repairs. I suffered memory loss which has ceased m6 career as a registered nurse. We took BMW, the driver, and taka to court 6 years later, but takata denied any responsibility for my $2. 7 million in expenses. The driver was solely found at fault. I just rec'd a card about takata's guilt. My attorney has now retired. I am attempting to find related documents and records for my substantial costly injuries many years since this occurred. This airbag's mal-deployment has immensely altered my life beyond words here.
Report#2:06/08/1999, my left front driver's door was struck by another driver,causing my car to spin. I regained my correct driving path. To avoid additional collisions, I departed the road to the right non-curbed wet grassy roadside. To avoid striking a wood telephone or electrical pole, I turned sharply right. I firmly braked & my car slid on wet grass, coming to a complete stop, making frontal low impact with a brick roadside wall. My car fortunately had a automatic front seat-belting system for my closed-top convertble. My 2 daughter passengers & I were all seat-belted. My 10 yrs old, in the right front passenger's seat & my 4 yr old was in the rear left passenger seat, directly behind me. We were all startled by the event. I could see my daughter to my right side was unharmed. Knowing we would all need to soon exit the car & I would need to assist my youngest, I unbuckled my seatbelt. I next turned myself to the right, to check on my youngest daughter, behind me. I saw she was ok. I next heard a loud pop in front of me, so I turned forward to see a small rectangular plastic pillow filling with air. I realized it must be the airbag. Next I felt a extreme painful, forceful blow against my face & upper chest. The airbag over-aggressively deployed late. The over-aggressive force of the airbag caused me to suffer a traumatic brain injury, with a current life-threatening brain lesion. My 2 mandibles jaws were ea. Broken in 4 places, requiring 8 perm. Dental pins. Every bone in my face was broken, requiring titanium plate placement over the broken bones. My skull-top had to be cut open to relieve the increased intracranial pressure. I technically died due to my lungs collapsing and eart-stopped during the life-flight helicopter transport, which the emts revived me for my nearly one month hospital recovery & rehabilitation. My airbag should have been recalled.