2017 BMW 230I — Complaint #1957238
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION filed January 11, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1957238 (ODI reference 11564841) concerns a 2017 BMW 230I and was filed on January 11, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 9, 2024. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:sensor:occupant classification, 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 230I cohort independently describe similar air bags:sensor:occupant classification 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 2017 BMW 230I shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
BMW Passenger Restraint sensor failure due to a faulty sensor mat, so the passenger seatbelt will not lock or tighten when braking or in the event of an accident. Took it to the dealer and no evidence of a spill or user error that can tamper with the mat, the sensor simply died after minimal use of the passenger seat. This part should be recalled & BMW should have to cover the cost of this safety hazard caused by faulty parts. BMW only covers the sensor mat for 2 years even after replacement, which is unacceptable for a component that is vital to passenger safety.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1957238 |
| ODI Number | 11564841 |
| Date Filed | January 11, 2024 |
| Failure Date | January 9, 2024 |
| VIN | WBA2K9C55HV |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.