2003 BMW Z4 — Complaint #570824
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:HANGER,BRACKET filed January 30, 2006
NHTSA complaint #570824 (ODI reference 10148964) concerns a 2003 BMW Z4 and was filed on January 30, 2006. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 29, 2005. The report was geocoded to Oklahoma based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:springs:leaf spring assembly:hanger,bracket, 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 Z4 cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:springs:leaf spring assembly:hanger,bracket 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 2003 BMW Z4 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THERE IS A POTENTIAL PROBLEM WITH THE FRONT SHOCK TOWER SUPPORTS AND FRONT CHASSIS ASSEMBLY ON THE BMW Z8. IT IS PRONE TO DEFORMATION OF THE SHOCK TOWERS AND FLEXING OF THE FRONT CHASSIS ASSEMBLY, LEADING TO STEERING PROBLEMS AND ALIGNMENT PROBLEMS. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN KNOWN BY BMW AG IN GERMANY SINCE AT LEAST NOVEMBER 2005, BUT AS OF TODAY, THERE HAS BEEN NO OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM BMW AG OR BMW IN THE USA TO THE OWNERS OF THIS VEHICLE. THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE FRAME / CHASSIS OF THE BMW Z8 IS MADE OF ALUMINUM, AND AS SUCH, CAN UNDERGO A GREATER DEGREE OF FATIGUE. FAILURE SHOULD THERE BE A DEFECT IN THE DESIGN, MATERIALS OR BOTH. THIS DEFECT COULD LEAD OR HAS ALREADY LEAD TO THE FRONT STRUT / SHOCK TOWER ASSEMBLY DEFORMING AT ITS ATTACHMENT POINTS, AND WILL OR COULD LEAD TO A FAILURE OF THE ATTACHMENT, CAUSING A SERIOUS OR FATAL ACCIDENT. THUS FAR, BMW HAS NOT RESPONDED TO COMPLAINTS. THIS WAS A LIMITED PRODUCTION LUXURY SPORTS CAR OF WHICH 5,550 WERE PRODUCED AND AB
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 570824 |
| ODI Number | 10148964 |
| Date Filed | January 30, 2006 |
| Failure Date | December 29, 2005 |
| VIN | WBAEJ134X3A |
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.