Just when the motoring world thought the terrifying Takata airbag saga (the one involving 67 million recalls and literally explosive defects) had finally sputtered to an end, BMW has decided to reintroduce the fear. The German automaker is initiating a recall for 5,361 units of its X5 crossover, spanning model years 2000 through 2021. While these vehicles are nearly two decades apart, the potential danger is the same.
The culprit, according to the government’s official warning, is the notorious Takata PSDI-4 inflator, found lurking potentially inside Sport Steering Wheels. This particular inflator uses a propellant that, after “prolonged exposure to absolute humidity, temperature, and temperature cycling”, can degrade the propellant wafers. In layman’s terms, if your airbag deploys, it risks exploding with “excessively aggressive combustion”, potentially turning the otherwise luxurious cabin into a zone of fragmentation and shrapnel.
The current situation is particularly absurd because it centers on a handful of fastidious American owners who might have upgraded their standard steering wheel to a Sport version. In doing so, they may have inadvertently swapped a non-ammonium-nitrate inflator for the ticking time bomb of the PSDI-4.
BMW, while preparing official “technical campaigns” for markets outside the US, combed its records and discovered this aftermarket potential, leading to this very specific, very necessary stateside alarm. BMW is recalling all 5,361 vehicles, even though they estimate that only a microscopic 0.1% of the recalled X5s are actually fitted with the defective part. Simple math suggests this is a matter of life or death for approximately five people, which, to be fair, is still too many.
In a charming pre-holiday gesture, owners will receive notification just before Christmas. Their instructions will be simple: drive the potentially explosive crossover to a nearby BMW dealership, where technicians will inspect and, if necessary, replace the driver’s frontal airbag.
