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2011 BMW 328I — Complaint #1476711

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NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:FAN/MOTOR filed June 19, 2018

NHTSA complaint #1476711 (ODI reference 11102535) concerns a 2011 BMW 328I and was filed on June 19, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 13, 2018. The vehicle had 140,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to North Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:fan/motor, 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 328I cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:fan/motor 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 2011 BMW 328I shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2011 BMW 328I
Component
VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:FAN/MOTOR
State
North Carolina
Mileage
140,000 mi

Complaint Description

TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2011 BMW 328I. WHILE DRIVING AT LOW SPEEDS, THE BLOWER MOTOR FAILED WITHOUT WARNING AND THE AIR CONDITIONER STOPPED BLOWING COLD AIR. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC AND IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE BLOWER MOTOR NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED PER NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 17V676000 (ELECTRICAL SYSTEM). THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 140,000.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1476711
ODI Number 11102535
Date Filed June 19, 2018
Failure Date June 13, 2018
VIN WBAPH5G56BN

Similar VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:FAN/MOTOR Complaints for 2011 BMW 328I

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