The past several days must have been really difficult for BMW.

The Munich-based premium and luxury vehicle manufacturer will initiate a recall that affects BMW vehicles worldwide. The problem stems from a brake-related matter and covers vehicles that were produced from mid-2022 to August of this year. As you can imagine, the problem is very wide: over 1.5 million vehicles are affected, with a further 320,000 undelivered cars in inventory.

So what is the problem with the car? We have been reading that it’s concerning an integrated electronic control unit for the braking system produced by Continental.

We reached out to BMW Philippines, who in turn relayed our query to BMW Asia. The representative from BMW Asia stated that yes, they will be reaching out to customers to address the issue. They did say that there will be indicators of a fault, but braking itself will be within legal standards. The challenge will be the scale of the recall; as you can imagine, with about 1.8 or 1.9 million vehicles total, the fix will take time to fully complete.

This is a sensitive matter and it’s best to get a clear idea and explanation, so BMW Asia contacted BMW Group. After a few hours, our contact at BMW Asia came back to us with an official explainer from BMW Group in Munich.

An internal quality check revealed that in some vehicles, signal problems in the brake system electronics could occur. The BMW Group decided to issue a safety-related recall in February. Since field cases occurred outside the scope of the recall measures at the time, the vehicle population has now been expanded again for the recall measure. In addition, a Diagnosis Software, using BMW ConnectedDrive, is already available to detect such a fault well before it occurs. This Diagnosis Software then notifies BMW Philippines or MINI Philippines who will prompt the driver, via a phone call, to visit a BMW or MINI partner as soon as possible. This partner will then replace the brake system free of charge, regardless of the vehicle’s age and mileage. 

Some of the potentially affected vehicles are equipped with BMW ConnectedDrive. For potentially affected vehicles that do not have BMW ConnectedDrive, the BMW Group has decided on a safety-related recall to replace the affected parts on the vehicles. Appropriate measures before handing over the vehicles to customers are being coordinated with the global authorities.

In the very unlikely event that the malfunction occurs despite the Diagnosis Software or early warning, it would be necessary for the driver to increase the force required to brake, depending on the situation. At the same time, other brake control functions, such as Antilock Braking System (ABS) and Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), would not be available. In any case, the driver would be informed before or during the journey if this signal fault occurs by lighting up the brake warning lamps in the dashboard and by displaying a check control message on the central screen.

The brake system is then in safe mode, which continues to provide a high level of safety. The legally required standards for braking performance are also met in this case; braking can always be carried out.