The defect
BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2014-2016 MINI Cooper S and MINI Cooper two-door vehicles, 2015-2016 MINI John Cooper Works and MINI Cooper S and MINI Cooper four-door vehicles and 2014-2015 BMW i3 vehicles. Due to a manufacturing error, the passenger frontal air bag may not deploy properly in a low speed crash. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."
The risk
In the event of a vehicle crash, an air bag that does not deploy properly increases the risk of injury to the front seat passenger.
The remedy
MINI and BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger frontal air bag module, free of charge. The recall began on November 25, 2015. Owners may contact MINI customer service at 1-866-825-1525 and BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| BMW i3 | 2014, 2015 |
| MINI Cooper | 2014, 2015, 2016 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2014, 2015, 2016 |
| MINI John Cooper Works | 2015, 2016 |
Components: AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:PASSENGER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| BMW i3 | 2014 | 54 | 4 |
| BMW i3 | 2015 | 47 | 3 |
| MINI Cooper | 2014 | 34 | 7 |
| MINI Cooper | 2015 | 56 | 6 |
| MINI Cooper | 2016 | 28 | 1 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2014 | 13 | 4 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2015 | 18 | 4 |
| MINI Cooper S | 2016 | 9 | 3 |
| MINI John Cooper Works | 2015 | 0 | 2 |
| MINI John Cooper Works | 2016 | 0 | 1 |
Other air bags recalls in 2015
61 of the 863 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2015 concerned the air bags; BMW of North America, LLC filed 347 campaigns in all.
| 15V830000 10 Dec 2015 | General Motors LLC |
| 15V823000 8 Dec 2015 | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. |
| 15V815000 4 Dec 2015 | Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. |
| 15V787000 23 Nov 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 15V739000 9 Nov 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 15V714000 29 Oct 2015 | Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) |
| 15V711000 27 Oct 2015 | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| 15V695000 23 Oct 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2015