Buying Report · £14.99
Tools

Vehicle recall R/2005/001

BMW 7 Series and BMW 5 Series recall: Front seat back-rest heater may overheat

DVSA recall R/2005/001 names the BMW 7 Series and BMW 5 Series. It was launched 23 December 2004. It covers vehicles built 25 September 2002 to 9 June 2004.

Recall data updated

Recall
R/2005/001
Launched
23 December 2004
Issued by
BMW
Vehicles
DVSA lists 3,009 on each model line

What can go wrong

Mechanical loads exerted on the back-rest heating element of the front seats when persons enter or exit the vehicle may result in damage to the door side contact line in the back-rest padding. In the event that this causes a break of a contact line the damaged area may overheat to unacceptable levels with the heater switched on. It would then not be possible to rule out the risk of minor burns to the occupants clothes and possibly their skin.

The fix

Recall affected vehicles and check condition where necessary fit an additional in-line fuse.

Models and build dates

As listed in the DVSA recall file. DVSA lists the same vehicle number on each line: 3,009. It may be a figure per line or for the whole recall.
ModelBuiltVehicles
BMW 5 Series25 September 2002 to 9 June 20043,009
BMW 7 Series25 September 2002 to 9 June 20043,009
Is a specific car affected? A recall lists models and build dates, not individual vehicles, so these pages cannot tell you whether one car is included. Enter the registration on the DVSA vehicle recall checker on GOV.UK, or give the vehicle identification number (VIN) to the manufacturer or one of its dealers. Buying used? Ask the seller for proof that any recall work was done.

Other recalls for these models

  • R/2005/022 The bearings of the fuel injection pump may fail 8 February 2005, BMW 5 Series, BMW 7 Series, BMW X5 and others
  • R/2004/141 Seat occupancy detector may fail and inpact on airbag protection 11 August 2004, BMW 7 Series
  • R/2004/131 Possibility of inadvertnent loss of engine power 14 July 2004, BMW 7 Series, BMW 5 Series, BMW 6 Series and others
  • R/2004/084 Possibility of inability to engage gear or declutch 6 May 2004, BMW 5 Series
  • R/2004/056 Possibile fault in the dsc yaw rate sensor 22 March 2004, BMW 5 Series, BMW 7 Series
  • R/2003/169 Unintentional deployment of airbag 1 November 2003, BMW 5 Series

More on these models

Found one you might buy?

A recall is one part of the picture. See how often it fails its MOT at each age, or what the VetTheCar Buying Report tells you about a specific car.

See an example Buying Report Free car tools

Source

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: DVSA vehicle recall records (RecallsFile.csv), recalls launched 1992 to 2026. Recall data updated 22 September 2026.

Recall wording is DVSA's, with capitals and punctuation tidied and American spellings such as tire, center and windshield given in British English. We list a recall when its make and model match a car or van family with at least 1,000 DVSA MOT tests from 2022 to 2025, and when the maker of the vehicle issued it.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by DVSA. Methodology · Data sources