Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES | |||
| 08/14/2012 | 63000 | ||
| Tl* the contact owns a 2007 bmw 328i. the contact stated that the rear driver's door would not unlock. the contact was unable to unlock the door using the manual key or the electronic key fob. the front driver's side door was also affected. the vehicle was taken to the dealer but a diagnostic was not performed. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure who was waiting for the results of the diagnostic. the vin was not available. the approximate failure and current mileage was 63,000. | |||
| 08/15/2012 | 44500 | 1 | |
| A copy of an email to bmw: i have been reasonably happy with my 2007 328i until the electronic locks failed. i could not get in my car except with a key. i couldn't open any door except the driver's door even from the inside! if i had an emergency both my passengers and i would have been trapped. when i looked online, i found that my problem was not at all unique many others have experienced the same issue with failing actuators. what troubles me is not the failure of a part (though i do expect better of bmw), but the fact that my family's safety was potentially compromised. more importantly, bmw has not addressed this issue with corrective parts and procedures so, i am told that if this happens again, i could still find myself trapped in my car after an accident. i expected better with the purchase of a bmw. i am profoundly disappointed that bmw does not think enough of its customer's safety to appropriately address and correct this issue so that there are always mechanical overrides of the electrical system. perhaps you have decided, like ford did 40 years ago with the pinto, that the costs of settling a few wrongful death claims is cheaper than correcting a safety design defect. in lieu of a proactive action on your part, i have filed a complaint with the nhtsa. *tr | |||
| 07/20/2012 | 57000 | 1 | |
| A blown fuse caused the door unlocking mechanism to fail, trapping occupants in the car. the doors could not be opened by any means, as the failure also disabled the normal mechanism by which pulling on an interior door handle released the associated lock. the sole exception is that the driver's door could be opened by rolling down the window, and reaching out awkwardly through the window to the exterior door handle with the mechanical auxiliary key. however, the only exit available to backseat passengers was through the windows, assuming the passengers were small enough to fit through them. neither of these modes of egress would be satisfactory if exit needed to be quick. fortunately, this particular failure happened to my family while the car was safely parked. in the event of a collision or fire that required rapid evacuation of the vehicle, however, this would be a potentially life threatening situation. ideally, the locks should be mechanically linked to the door handles so that an electrical failure would not render it impossible to open the doors. absent that, at least having individual fuses for each lock actuator would leave three functioning doors if one failed. *tr | |||
| 09/21/2011 | 0 | ||
| Tl* the contact owns a 2007 bmw 328i. the contact stated the key lock actuator failed; whenever she unlocked the doors the latch on the front drivers and front passengers side failed to lock. the vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated she needed all four actuators to function in order for the locks to work properly. the contact was advised that the repair cost was $1200 at her expense; however, the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was not notified of the failure. the failure mileage was unknown. | |||
| 08/05/2011 | 37800 | ||
| My wife was unable to open the door on our 2007 bmw 328i. the door locks seem to be stuck with no way to open them except the drivers door which will still open with two pulls on the door release latch. all other doors and the fuel filler door are stuck closed. very dangerous situation as everyone has to exit through the drivers door or through the electric windows. obvious safety issue which seems to be very common with these cars. should be recalled and have a fix which makes the doors open even with an electrical failure | |||
| 07/30/2011 | 56015 | ||
| Door locks failed to unlock either with the remote control or the inside door lock button (central locking system). doors except for the drivers door would not open even using the inside door handles. the drivers door had to be opened from the outside using the key. my wife and i were locked in the car in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. we did not even realize the locks did not work until we returned home from a brief trip. had we been in an accident we would not have been able to get out of the car. the gas filler door is linked to the door locks and would also not open. it seemed that the door locks are only electronically controlled with no manual linkage since lifting the button on the door did not unlock the door. after finally getting out of the car i did some quick research online and found this to be a common problem. the fuse had blown so i replaced the fuse but i am sure it will fail again. cannot trust the car now so will be getting rid of it. this is a dangerous design when the doors will not open from the inside when there is an electrical failure. | |||
| 05/21/2011 | 39000 | ||
| Passeger and rear doors will not unlock even from the inside. key fob, interior unlock button and manual door handals will not unlock the doors making passengers have to exit through the drivers door or windows. | |||
| 04/30/2011 | 48300 | ||
| Drivers side door will not unlock from inside. pulling on handle will not unlock the door nor will the unlock button for all locks on car. in addition the remote key fob will not lock or unlock the door. random occurrence. worked perfectly fine in the morning and then malfunctioned later on in the day. serious safety hazard. what if there is an accident. i can not get out of the car. | |||
| 11/19/2010 | 52146 | ||
| 2007 bmw 328i doors would not lock/unlock. | |||
| 11/05/2007 | 56000 | ||
| The door locks failed to unlock (with both the remote entry and the door lock switch located in the car) with the exception of the driver side door. this resulted in all passengers (including small children) to have to exit the car through the driver's door. in the event of an emergancy this could cause safety issues for all occupants. this was repaired by increasing the size of the fuse (to a 20 amp from a 15 amp). after research, this appears to be just a temporary fix. i am concerned with the safety issues this could cause for other families. | |||
| 10/23/2010 | 23500 | ||
| Bmw 328i 2007. my whole family {4} of us were locked in car.we could not open the car from inside. that is most crazy thing ever happen to me. this is the safety issue and bmw need to recall all vehicles and fix problem before somebody gets really in trouble. i made some research and find out that more people had the same problem as i had. i had to pull out my children trough the window to get them out of car. what would happen if some bigger adult was siting in the back of car or if we had crash on our way home. this issue with this car need to be recalled!! | |||
| 08/13/2010 | 64000 | ||
| Door actuators on my 2007 bmw 328i failed. it began with just the front two doors and then the rear doors. a very expensive repair, mostly labor expense. i am thankful that this did not occur when away from home as locking and unlocking the doors was not possible. also, if someone had been in the backseat they may not have been able to get out. | |||
| 04/07/2010 | 52726 | ||
| The doors on my 2007 bmw 328i would not open with the push button lock. i removed the manual key and was able to open the door from the outside. when i returned to my house, i reviewed the owners manual and checked to see if the setting was wrong with the key. pushing the key, open-close button the doors locked but would not open. i had the foresight to roll my window down prior to checking the lock. if i had not done so, i would have been locked in the vehicle. this happened in florida and could have been fatal if locked in the car without a way out in the florida heat. also, the gas door was locked shut and i was unable to put gas in the vehicle. i contacted the bmw dealership (quality imports- ft walton beach) and took the car to them for repairs. it took two days instead of the two hours that i was promised. also, i found out that they had a technical repair bulletin that had been issued regarding faulty locks on this model vehicle. besides the safety complaint i feel that i was charges when i should have been taken care of (no cost to the consumer) since this vehicle | |||
| 04/13/2010 | 48000 | ||
| Repeated door lock actuator failure in 2007 bmw 3281. when this happens, both rear doors and the front passenger doors are impossible to open from outside or inside. this is an obvious safety hazard. | |||
| 02/16/2009 | 29000 | 1 | |
| While driving on the highway at about 60 mph, the front passenger door opened by itself and door open warning showed up. it has happened only once on my car so far but a few other owners of similar bmw cars have had the same issue. when reported to the manufacturer's dealership service department, the standard response from the dealership is unable to replicate problem and they will not do anything else about it. *tr | |||
| 10/20/2009 | 17000 | 1 | |
| All doors on a 2007 bmw 328i, 4-door, would not unlock for an unknown reason. all passengers were trapped inside the vehicle and had to climb out the windows to exit the vehicle. *tr | |||
| 09/29/2009 | 35113 | 1 | |
| Model: 2007 bmw 328i. the electronic door actuators failed. as a result, it became impossible to open any door of the vehicle from the inside, except the driver's door. when these electronic door actuators fail, passengers are trapped in the vehicle, and are exposed to injury or death in the event of a fire or if the vehicle becomes submerged. the service advisor at the dealership (weatherford bmw, berkeley, california) suggested that even if the electronic door actuators were disabled the doors could still be opened by pulling twice on the opening latch. however, when this was tried, the doors still could not be opened. the service advisors did comment that this problem had occurred in other 328i models; and, in fact, another vehicle was being serviced for the identical problem. in view of this extremely serious defect which apparently exists with the 328i model, resulting in trapping passengers if the electrical system controlling the doors fails, we strongly suggest that this defect be investigated, and that the subject vehicles be recalled so that the defect can be corrected before deaths or injuries occur. *tr | |||
| 09/03/2008 | 15800 | 1 | |
| A simple fuse failure in the automatic door locking system rendered the inside door handles unusable, except for one, whose actuator caused the original electrical overload. had something else caused the fuse to fail, we would be unable to egress the vehicle except through the windows, and, with a complete electrical failure that also would have been impossible. the bmw tech people tell me that the system is designed that way. i feel that it is a safety hazard. *tr | |||
| 04/01/2008 | 4 | ||
| My 2007 328i has been in the service department a total of 4 times (that i have paperwork on, it might be more). i have had major mechanical problems with the most recent being electrical. my key will not open any of the doors, i have to use the valet key to get inside. once i get inside the button on the dash that opens and locks the doors was unresponsive as well. when this started the drivers side mirror also became unresponsive and would not adjust, i can't adjust it to see the road and have almost been in 2 accidents. the same day the air conditioning, which i had set on 60, turned itself to 84 blowing full blast. that is actually the second time this year that the air conditioning has automatically turned to the heater. short list of other issues: recurrent break squeaking, oil sensor and engine harness wires breaking, and problems accelerating. the computer software malfunctioned as well (another electrical issue which was causing the car to malfunction). after the brake pads & sensors were replaced, the brakes sound the same to this day, horribly squeaky almost grinding. the front driver & passenger windows have a mysterious electrical malfunction. they will cease to go up or down. i hold the window button in the up position, the window will roll up an inch then stop. i will have to do this several more times before the window will go up or down. my car goes in again tomorrow am. this time i even mentioned that if i did have passengers in the vehicle and we had gotten in an accident, or worse yet the car catches on fire, my passengers would be trapped. the service advisor didn't seem to care. i can't drive my friends or family anywhere for fear they will be stuck in the vehicle if an accident occurred. as well, i'm not going to ask my parents, who are in their 50's, to crawl through a window to get in or out of my vehicle. my car has been out of commission for me at least 30 days since i've owned it. *tr | |||