2004 BMW 330I — Complaint #865235
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS:CONCEALMENT DEVICES filed July 5, 2011
NHTSA complaint #865235 (ODI reference 10410518) concerns a 2004 BMW 330I and was filed on July 5, 2011. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 5, 2011. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:headlights:concealment devices, 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 330I cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:headlights:concealment devices 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 2004 BMW 330I shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
HAVING RECENTLY PURCHASED MY 2004 BMW 330I WITH XENON HEADLAMPS, I HAVE BEEN RESEARCHING THE CAR AND ANY RECALLS THAT MAY HAVE OCCURRED OR ARE ONGOING. IT WAS BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT THE XENON HEADLAMPS DESIGNATED ZKW WERE UNDER POSSIBLE INVESTIGATION FOR SCORCHING WITHIN THE ASSEMBLY THAT CAN LEAD TO DECREASED LIGHT OUTPUT AND POSE A SAFETY HAZARD TO NIGHTTIME DRIVING. I CONFIRMED THAT MY CAR IS EQUIPPED WITH THE ZKW HEADLAMPS, AND NOTED THAT SOME DISCOLORATION WITHIN THE ASSEMBLY WAS OCCURRING. I WANT TO MAKE SURE THIS PROBLEM IS SUFFICIENTLY DOCUMENTED SO THAT A PROPER INVESTIGATION CAN LEAD TO THE RESOLUTION TO THIS RELATIVELY COMMON OCCURRENCE. *KB
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 865235 |
| ODI Number | 10410518 |
| Date Filed | July 5, 2011 |
| Failure Date | July 5, 2011 |
| VIN | WBAEV53414K |
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.