2021 BMW X5 — Complaint #2152508
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:DRIVELINE:DIFFERENTIAL UNIT filed November 28, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2152508 (ODI reference 11701920) concerns a 2021 BMW X5 and was filed on November 28, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 1, 2025. The vehicle had 36,400 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New Jersey based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:driveline:differential unit, 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 X5 cohort independently describe similar power train:driveline:differential unit 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 2021 BMW X5 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2021 BMW X5. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, there was an abnormal grinding and clanking sound coming from the front end of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed that the front differential was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 36,400.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2152508 |
| ODI Number | 11701920 |
| Date Filed | November 28, 2025 |
| Failure Date | November 1, 2025 |
| VIN | 5UXJU4C02M9 |
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.