2016 BMW 7 Series sales temporarily stopped due to airbag issue

BMW AG has announced the recall of the 2016 7 Series in the US due to an issue with the airbag control unit. Under the recall, around 6,110 units of the flagship model have been affected. The company has clarified that the recall has nothing to do with the Takata airbag recall since the affected parts have been manufactured by Continental.

As per reports, the airbag control units manufactured from July 1 to December 11, 2015 are expected to be affected with the issue. The company has mentioned the control units were not manufactured to the required specifications and claims the affected modules could contain metallic stamping particle residue. These particles might get dislodged from the base on the unit and come in contact with the circuit board of the module causing a short circuit. This can cause the unit inoperable and in an event of a crash might not deploy the airbags causing injury to the occupants.

The possibility of manufacturing defect was first informed by Continental AG to BMW on December 4, 2015. A report was submitted with initial information of the error with proper analysis of its potential consequences. The 2016 year 7 Series variants of the 740Li, 750Li, and 750 Lxi sold in the US have been affected. Apart from the recall in the US, BMW also mentioned 2,600 cars have been affected in Germany and 4700 units in China will be recalled.

Under the recall, BMW will be contacting the customers requesting them to send the cars for performing the required corrections. The time required to carry out the replacement procedure will be around four hours and will be done at no expense to the customers.

In India, BMW had launched the 2016 7 Series flagship model at the Delhi Auto Expo at Rs 1.1 crore (ex-showroom, New Delhi). The Indian arm of the German automaker as of now hasn’t yet made any announcement referring to the recall of the luxury sedan.

Source-Automotive News