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2006 BMW 530XI — Complaint #1080655

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:TAILGATE:HINGE AND ATTACHMENTS filed June 29, 2014

NHTSA complaint #1080655 (ODI reference 10606734) concerns a 2006 BMW 530XI and was filed on June 29, 2014. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 27, 2014. The vehicle had 102,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Tennessee based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:tailgate:hinge and attachments, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same BMW 530XI cohort independently describe similar structure:body:tailgate:hinge and attachments failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2006 BMW 530XI shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2006 BMW 530XI
Component
STRUCTURE:BODY:TAILGATE:HINGE AND ATTACHMENTS
State
Tennessee
Mileage
102,000 mi

Complaint Description

I DISCOVERED FAILURES OF MULTIPLE WIRES IN THE TAILGATE/REAR WINDOW WIRING HARNESSES. THROUGH RESEARCH ONLINE I HAVE FOUND THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH THIS VEHICLE OVER SEVERAL MODEL YEARS - SEARCH FOR BMW E61 TAILGATE WIRING PROBLEMS. THE FAILURES ARE CAUSED BY A POOR DESIGN WHERE THE WIRES ENTERING THE HINGE GUIDES (4) FOR THE GLASS AND TAILGATE ARE REPEATEDLY FLEXED AT A SHARP ANGLE UNTIL THE INSULATION, THEN THE COPPER WIRE BREAKS. SAFETY ISSUES - POSSIBLE ELECTRICAL SHORT CIRCUIT LEADING TO FIRES (HIGHEST LOAD IS FOR REAR DEFROSTER); LIGHTING FAILURES (REAR HIGH BRAKE LIGHT, LICENSE PLATE LAMPS AND OTHERS); REDUCED VISIBILITY DUE TO LOSS OF WIPER/WASHER/DEFROSTER; REAR GLASS LATCH OPENING WHILE UNDERWAY, POSSIBLY RESULTING IN LOSS OF CARGO OR INGRESS OF EXHAUST FUMES. CENTRAL LOCKING MECHANISM FAILS. IF THERE WERE TO BE AN ACCIDENT AND/OR INTERIOR FIRE ESCAPING THE VEHICLE WOULD BE DIFFICULT THIS IS NOT AN EASILY REPAIRED PROBLEM. IT WOULD BE BEYOND THE CAPABILITIES OF ALL B

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1080655
ODI Number 10606734
Date Filed June 29, 2014
Failure Date June 27, 2014
VIN WBANN73546C

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.