Pay to have rear aribags activated??

[X5 Meister]

You might be right that it could be different in Europe, but let me ask how you know that they are armed already? Did you get a printout of the settings showing that they are armed? Unless you have that, then you cannot be certain. Whether or not independent shops can do this, I don't know, but BMW will do it for free so there is no reason to go elsewhere for this service.

PLEASE READ POST # 15 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND REFERENCES

[Scotty]

In the US, rear side airbags are deactivated upon delivery from the factory. There is a liability concern about rear side airbags and children (or adults) sitting or lying with their hear too close the airbag. Check the manual.

In order to activate, BMW require that the dealer obtains a signed statement explaining the possible risk of injury.

In summary : if you will have children in the rear or have adults who might rest or sleep with their head close to the airbag; don't order the rear airbag option !

[WOOD56]

I opt not to have the R/B's installed when I place my order. I was told that if you have children under 10 Yrs of age, your child can get hurt. so my question is if you have the R/B install and "ACTIVED" and there's no one sitting in the Rear seat, and you get hit in the Rear side, do the R/B deploy????

[X5 Meister]

If you didn't have them installed (option code 261) when you bought the car then you don't have them. (!)

If you had them installed when you bought the car and your production date is before October 2003 then they need to be activated, if they haven't already been activated, otherwise they won't deploy.

PLEASE READ POST # 15 BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND REFERENCES

[X5 Meister]

There are several relevant BMW Tech Bulletins on this issue. (Please see attached)

These two bulletins are identical to each other and reference which BMW models came from the factory with rear seat side-impact airbags activated or deactivated.

# SIB 722406 dated 10/2006
# SIB 655506 dated 10/2006 (identical to above)

Both supersede SM B 72 206 03 dated November 2003. They state that various BMW models, including E53 (X5) since October 2003 with option code 261 (rear seat side-impact airbag) come from the factory with rear side airbags ACTIVATED. It also states that vehicles with option code 261 (rear seat side-impact airbag) will no longer be shipped with deactivated rear side airbags.

This might seemingly be contrary to what others have written, and this is most likely due to the fact that BMW's older bulletins (such as SIB 720399 and SIB 652299) only mention that the airbags came from the factory DEactivated, which was a true statement at the time those bulletins were issued, but as reference above, the situation has now changed.

IMHO the mistake BMW made which has led to confusion is that the bulletins (SIB 720399 and SIB 652299 both dated 9/2002) cover not only the airbag status from the factory, but also the technical procedure for activation and deactivation of the airbags. Then BMW issued bulletins (SIB 722406 and SIB 655506 both dated 10/2006) that cover only the airbag status from the factory and DO NOT cover the activation/deactivation procedures (as those have not changed). So a tech looking for the activation/deactivation of the side airbags would locate the 9/2002 bulletins and not the 10/2006 bulletins when in fact both sets of bulletins should be referenced for complete information. (The 10/2006 bulletins fortunately do reference the 9/2002 bulletins, but unfortunately the reverse is not true (9/2002 bulletins do not reference the 10/2006 bulletins))

My final suggestion is if you have any question about the air bags go to your dealer and have them hook the car up to their computer so that you know for sure what the status is of your airbags.

The two bulletins that discuss the activation/deactivation procedure for these airbags are also identical to one another (see attached). For reference, I have also included the forms that must be filled out by the tech doing the work.

# SIB 720399 dated 9/2002 (split into 2 parts due to upload size limitations)
# SIB 652299 dated 9/2002 (identical to above; also split into 2 parts due to upload size limitations)

In regard to the question of who pays for this work, which can be quite extensive, please take special note of the following two piece of information that is in the above two bulletins (SIB 720399 and SIB 652299) and it should be clear that BMW pays for it in full.

Note 1 and Note 2

[xnsf]

I'm confused. All of then basically come deactivated? So there's an airbag in the rear even though there is no airbag icon on the rear door in the padded leather part like the front doors? and what about the rear curtain airbags?

[X5 Meister]

Let me try to explain better. I am referring only to the rear side door airbags (option code 261), not the head (curtain) airbag. It is the door airbags that are a concern when hauling kids and infants in car seats. Since BMW strongly advises against anyone small in the front seats your only choice is to put these critters in the back seat. However if you bought an X5 with rear side door airbags (option code 261) then they will need to be deactivated until the rear seat passengers are a bit more grown up. You'll know if you have these airbags by visual inspection. You should see an "Airbag" badge on each door that has one. If your rear doors do not have these badges then you don't have the airbags and there is no further worry. However, if you do have these airbags, and your car was built from October 2003 to the present (not just X5's qualify for this by the way check the service bulletin) then instead of BMW shipping the cars out of the factory with the rear side door airbags turned OFF they shipped them with those airbags turned ON. So again, if you have kids in the back then go to the dealer and make sure you know the status of the rear side door airbags for certain.

[xnsf]

ohhh....okay

thanks for the info

[resilva]

I know this is 13 years after 'X5 Meister' first posted this info, but this is exactly what I was looking for.


Has anyone had their pre 10/2003 built X5's rear airbags activated at no charge by a dealer with this info?



I will call my local BMW dealer tomorrow and see if they will honor this Service Information Bulletin (SIB). I hope they do.



Thanks for the info and SIB bulletins X5 Meister!!

[Clavurion]

Originally Posted by resilva

I know this is 13 years after 'X5 Meister' first posted this info, but this is exactly what I was looking for.


Has anyone had their pre 10/2003 built X5's rear airbags activated at no charge by a dealer with this info?



I will call my local BMW dealer tomorrow and see if they will honor this Service Information Bulletin (SIB). I hope they do.



Thanks for the info and SIB bulletins X5 Meister!!

This can easily be coded with for example NCS expert.