BMW Recalls 318,495 Vehicles in the US: Starter Motor Can Overheat and Catch Fire
D.Novikov
BMW is recalling 318,495 vehicles in the US after NHTSA flagged starter motors that can overheat and catch fire. A separate 744,234-vehicle campaign covers Europe.
BMW is recalling 318,495 vehicles in the United States over a starter motor that can overheat and potentially catch fire. The scale makes this one of the automaker's largest campaigns in the past year, though NHTSA's brief notice hasn't disclosed the full list of models involved yet. Owners should check their VIN rather than rely on the model name and year alone.
In parallel, a separate campaign has been registered in Europe covering 744,234 vehicles worldwide, including 42,300 in Germany. The list includes the BMW 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 Series, the X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 crossovers, as well as the Z4, built between July 31, 2020 and February 26, 2026. The exact scope of the US recall may differ.
The cause is deposits building up inside the starter relay contacts due to manufacturing variation. They raise electrical resistance, the unit runs hotter, and in a worst case a short circuit can occur. To eliminate the risk, dealers will replace the starter assembly free of charge.
BMW has already recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the US over similar starter and relay issues, with campaigns rolling out one after another since last autumn. This isn't a single, ever-expanding list, but several campaigns with similar consequences, different root causes and different production windows.
Owners of BMWs imported outside their original market should check the VIN against the database of the market the car came from, and additionally contact a specialized service center. BMW warns that involvement in the campaign can't be determined from model and engine alone — checks are done by the 17-character VIN. Repairs under an official recall are performed free of charge, but terms for a vehicle outside its original point of sale will need to be confirmed separately.
The European portion of the campaign is overseen by Germany's KBA regulator (reference 16790R). As of publication, NHTSA had not disclosed a separate campaign number specifically for the US action covering 318,495 vehicles — once it appears in the NHTSA.gov database, owners should verify it directly by VIN.
