I believe the steering angle sensor (aka szl) in my 2005 bmw x3 is faulty and thus poses a serious safety risk given its role in providing inputs to the dynamic stability control (dsc) system. It certainly warrants investigation. My vehicle has gone into an uncontrolled skid on three occasions, each time while traveling downhill at moderate speeds on curves. (only once did it do so following a light rain; on all other occasions the pavement was dry.) luckily, no accidents or injuries ensued. I first noticed the problem the year I purchased the vehicle used in 2010; the previous owner likewise had noticed the issue and informed me of it at the time I purchased the vehicle. Today, sept. 15, 2014, my local bmw dealer proposed replacing the steering angle sensor (szl) in our vehicle, saying a readout of the fault codes detected faults in the sensor. I have elected to replace the sensor at a cost of $1098. Based on the seriousness of the issue, which some cursory investigating on my part appears to be a problem shared by multiple owners of similar model/year vehicles, I urge the federal safety agency to investigate. Thank you.
2005 BMW X3 electrical complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 18 of 18, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Front passenger side air bag is turned off (light notification), when no one is in passenger seat and no items are on seat the warning light goes on and buzzer will not stop, as if some weight is on seat. Bmw has issued recall for this problem (76536 & 72651), but not for this VIN. This is a severe safety issue since airbag is turned off by car and can not be turned on by driver or passenger. Also, have to have seat belt activated all the time. Have noticed that several people have made this same complaint online and bmw has not corrected issue.
I was driving the vehicle and turned on the driver side heated seat. I turned it on to the first setting which is the highest. After about 2 minutes I started to smell something burning. Then I also felt my leg burning. The heated seat had heated up so much that it melted a small hole in the leather where my left outside thigh would touch the seat. I am unable to use the heated seat anymore because I am afraid of getting burned worse.
Seat warmer caught on fire! While parked in the driveway with the engine running, I turned on both manufacturer-installed front seat warmers (outside temp. 36 degrees farenheit) for my son and I. I felt a pinching on upper left thigh / buttock. Thought it was a bug. Shifted in the seat, and felt it again, more painful this time. Lifted myself from the seat a bit to look at the seat and see what was poking or pinching me, saw smoke coming out of a new hole on the left side of the seat. Looked through the hole, and saw flames and smelled burning. Immediately, turned off the seat warmer, got out of the vehicle, reached over and turned off the vehicle. The seat smoldered for another couple of minutes. Called my spouse to check if it was still smoldering, but it had stopped. Took the vehicle to the dealer to get it checked out.
Heated drivers seat burned through leather and scorched drivers pants.
Heated seat caught fire, burning through thick leather upholstery. 2005 bmw x3, 36,000 miles. Not repaired, out of warranty, bmw only willing to pay for half of replacement, consumer cost 700 dollars.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 bmw x3. The contact stated the vehicle exhibited an electrical shortage and was taken to the dealer. The dealer was unable to duplicate the failure but did advised that the sun roof exhibited a leak and would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure and current mileages were 51,000
I was in a unsafe area so I locked the doors an closed all the windows with my keys inside with me to wait for my husband to return. When he returned a few mintues later I could not open the car to let him in. I was locked inside my car with keys in hand. Power windows would not open,sunroof would not open, door locks would not open. The car would not manually open even when tried on all doors many times using the "2 pull" method. I could drive the car and drove to the dealer where I bought it at. They could not figure out how to unlock the car and they had me crawl to the back hatch to try to use a release but there was none. I had been in the car a few hours aat this point and began to feel panicked. At that point they had to break a window to get me out. The car is still at dealer and I was told they are looking into why and no response is yet as to why the manual unlock would not work when all the electric stopped working. I had paid for a extra warrenty on the car and it is currently covered.
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