Front Seat Heater/cooler Problems of BMW X5

The contact owns a 2005 BMW X5. While the vehicle was stationary, the driver's side seat heater burned a hole in the seat and the contact's pants. The contact was not injured. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 100,000. The VIN was not available.

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The contact owns a 2004 BMW X5. The contact stated that the driver side seat heat warmer burned a hole through the seat. There were no injuries; however, the contact felt the heat of the burner coming through the seat. The dealer determined that the seat would need to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 170,000.

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The contact owns a 2004 BMW X5. While driving, there was a burning odor inside the vehicle. The contact noticed a hole burned into the driver's seat. The contact's jacket was also burned. There were no injuries. The dealer diagnosed that the seat heater had a malfunction. The heater mechanisms failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 94,000.

Seat heater got too hot . It made a burnt hole in seat, my pants and burned me. I was driving the vehicle.

When pulling into my driveway I noticed a burning sensation on the left side of my butt burning my coat. I stopped the BMW and jumped out . With the courtesy light on I could see that the leather seat had a burn hole where I could see the electricity like Mini lightening. When I turned off the seat heater and the burning stopped. Had I been on the highway, serious injury could had occurred. BMW referred me to have the problem evaluated and determined that they were not responsible and repair would cost about $1400. BMW is aware of their seat heater problem as see by numerous blogs online but refuses to recall the affected vehicles. I have not yet contact my insurance company.

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The heaters in both the driver's and front passenger seats overheated to the point that it was too hot to touch and melted the leather seats. We are not sure if the heaters were even engaged at the time. We brought the car to the local BMW service department and were denied any assistance or warranty coverage. We then called the national BMW customer service number and were also turned down. The costs to fix this very dangerous issue would be close to the value of the vehicle. We are still pursuing this with local management but at this time, despite recalls in previous years for this same safety problem, we have been denied any assistance or relief.

The contact owns a 2003 BMW X5. The contact stated that there was a abnormal burning odor. The contact then noticed that the driver's side seat heater had malfunctioned and burned a hole through the leather. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer for diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 90,000.

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Started X5 up and turned on driver 's seat warmer. Let car warm up for 5 minutes and commenced to drive away. One minute down the road I smell smoke like an electrical fire. I feel my left hip getting hot at the same time. I stop car and look down and see a dull red glow from the seat. Immediately turn off heater and get out of car. The driver seat warmer had shorted and burned a hole through the leather seat along the left side of the seat. How hot was it! my pants had been burnt and had a small red mark on my skin. Think goodness I was not severely burned due to the area of my pants that was burnt was also the left back pocket area so the interior pocket fabric help protect me. Wow! will BMW fix this?????.

The seat heater was turned on to the highest setting. While driving with my 4-year old son in the back, I smelled smoke, then shortly after, my left butt cheek felt burning. I looked down and sure enough smoke was coming out of a an amber glowing hole in the leather seat. Luckily I didn't panic. . . Slowed down and pulled over and turned off the heater. I don't use the heater anymore because even at the lowest setting it starts smoking again.

Driver side seat heater gets very hot, even at the lowest setting. Will burn my leg if left on. For this reason, the seat heater in no longer safe to use.

The contact owns a 2001 BMW X5. The contact stated that while driving 30 mph, the front driver’s seat caught on fire. The contact jumped up from the seat and hit his head on the windshield, causing him to become dizzy. The contact was able to safely maneuver to the shoulder. The vehicle was then towed to the contact’s home. The contact stated that the heater for the seat became very hot. The vehicle was not taken to have the failure diagnosed or repaired. The VIN was unavailable. The failure and current mileages were 140,000.

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Seat heater burned hole through driver side seat cushion & burned my leg.

While driving vehicle observed smoke coming out from the left side of driver seat. Slowly felt the heat sensation growing stronger in the area. Almost in a panic, and at great risk to myself and others on the road, tried to navigate through traffic on the busy street, to the right hand turn lane, while trying to avoid what was obviously growing into a fire in the seat. Had to avoid sitting in that area of the seat, while keeping the seat belt on in case there was a crash. Finally made it to a parking lot and jumped out. There was a hole in the leather seat that was smoldering. The seat heater had burned a hole through the leather seat. Tried to find something to douse it out with before it spread to other parts of the seat. Also, discovered that my pants were still smoldering on the rear left leg towards the hip area. There were two holes burned into the pants from contact with the burning seat. Called the dealer and scheduled a service appointment. Called BMW na, who said they were not aware of any other such incidents and they would have to wait for the diagnosis from the dealer. Their attitude also seemed very laissez-faire about the whole thing, seemingly not to care since I wasn't reporting any injuries. Just the fact that my seat was on fire and I barely avoided getting in a crash and getting burned, while my pants actually did get burned! meanwhile researched the incident and found one case reported on this very NHTSA website, several others on the X5 on various forums and a documented recall on the 5 series for a similar issue with the seat heater. Now BMW wants to cover only the cost of the parts and not even the labor to get it installed? forget about my pants, or the time/effort and stress all this has caused, that I didn't even ask to be compensated for. Nhtsa - why has there not been a recall on the BMW X5 for this issue as yet? is it necessary to wait until someone is killed in an accident due to this or gets burned?.

Driver side seat heater malfunction causing a hole to burn through leather and nearly created fire. When heater is turned on it creates an intense and concentrated heat on seat bolster too hot to touch. Replacement from dealer is over $700 and its been reported on numerous forums that this is a defect.

2006 BMW X5. Seat heater turned on. Smell of burning rubber in cabin. Smoke. Burn to driver back leg.

The contact owns a 2006 BMW X5. The contact stated that the electric seat heater on the driver's side caught fire. While at a stop light, he noticed that the seat was smoking and his leg was burned. The seat heater was activated prior to noticing the failure. He took the vehicle to the dealer, where it currently remains. The manufacturer stated that they were aware of the issue; however, the failure was a result of the risk of having seat heaters. They also stated that they would repair the vehicle for free. The current and failure mileages were approximately 27,000.

Starting smelling a burning odor in car. Shortly after, noticed (felt) a "hot spot" on the left side of the driver's seat so I turned the heater off. I had the dealer look at the seat - the response was that the leather had worn therefore I was feeling a little more warmth in that spot (at the time I took the car in, I must have had only 40-50,000 miles on it as I only put an average of 8,000-10,000 miles per year on the car. It seems ridiculous to me that the leather would wear that much in such a short amount of time especially since I am of slight build). I advised that it smelled like burning and the spot was so hot that it felt like something was wrong with the electrical. Again, I was told there was nothing wrong with the heater; it was simply me feeling more heat due to the thinning leather. Shortly after, since the dealer told me there was nothing wrong with the heater, I tried it again. This time though, a hole actually burned through the leather (enough that I felt the burn). I haven't used the seat heater since. I'm told the entire seat bottom must be replaced and the cost is about $2400. The cost of the seat is high and labor is very high since the entire seat must be taken out.

Driver's seat heater malfunctioned. I first noticed a burning odor and ultimately found 2 scorch marks in the leather. . . 1 on each side of the seat back near the base. The marks were dark brown and hard (from the dried leather).

Quote from dealer's repair notes: "drivers heated seat became very hot, burning oder in vehicle, back of seat was very hot and leather was burned". Wife was driving at time. Seat was very hot to touch,she had skin burn sensation. We were told that there have been other similar failures, and were fortunate that situation was not worse but feel very strongly that BMW should have addressed this proactively, not on the ad-hoc basis that seems to be its policy.

While driving dashboard light/headlights flickered on and off. This happened 90% of the time when the heater for the seats was used.