| Subject: | Inadvertent side-impact air bag deployme |
| Components covered: |
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| Investigations Summary: |
This investigation was opened on Jul. 15, 2002.
It was closed on Jun. 24, 2003.
Note: this investigation has resulted in
a vehicle safety recall. The subject vehicle's air bag electronic control module contains programmable logic for deploying the side-impact air bags. BMW revised the module several times over the span of the model years 1999 through 2002 (identified as mrs2. Ca, mrs2. Bb, mrs3, mrs3+ and mrs4). Although model year 1999. 5 vehicles with version mrs2. Bb had 6. 5% of the subject population, it accounted for 29% of the total reports received. The mrs2. Bb exposure adjusted report rate was almost 4 times higher than other 3 series air bag module versions. In August 2002, BMW initiated a recall campaign for 20,500 model 323i and 328i vehicles with version mrs2. Bb (NHTSA recall # 02v223000). In addition to experiencing a lower rate of non-crash deployments, most of the non-recalled vehicles also showed evidence of significant pothole/curb impact with some having additional undercarriage contact/scrape or suspension damage. See additional information |
| Vehicles Affected by this investigation: |
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