20V018000
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:PASSENGER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
2004 BMW M3
3 safety recall campaigns, 3 carrying NHTSA's "park it" advisory, 4 defect investigations (1 open), 38 owner complaints filed with NHTSA.
Do not drive
3 campaigns covering the 2004 BMW M3 carry NHTSA’s “park it” advisory — the federal government telling owners to stop driving the vehicle until the remedy has been performed. Whether it was performed on any particular car is not something NHTSA publishes in a form anyone can query; a franchised dealer can run the VIN and print the record in a minute, and the repair is free.
The record
Recall campaigns3
Park it3stop driving until repaired
Investigations41 open
Owner complaints38
Complaints citing a crash0
Complaints citing a fire0
Complaints are reports from owners of this model year, not findings about any particular vehicle, and a model that sold in large numbers will collect more of them. They are counted here as filed; nothing is inferred from them.
Recall campaigns 3 of 3
14V428000
AIR BAGS
In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the passenger's frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure could cause rupturing of the inflator resulting in metal fragments striking and potentially seriously injuring the passenger seat occupant or other occupants.
15V318000
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
What owners report most
- 9AIR BAGS
- 4POWER TRAIN
- 4VISIBILITY
- 2ENGINE
- 2EXTERIOR LIGHTING
- 2STRUCTURE:BODY
- 1FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
- 1POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
This page is about a model, not a car
Two 2004 BMW M3s can have entirely different histories, and a recall campaign usually covers a build-date window rather than a whole model year — which a VIN does not encode, so only the door-jamb label settles it. Scanning the VIN adds the decode, the crash tests, the fuel economy and the complaints matched to that exact engine, trim and assembly plant.