1999 BMW 540I problems
Owners have filed 29 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 BMW 540I. Cooling system is the most reported problem area, at 17% of complaints. After that come brakes (14%) and electrical system (14%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 29 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Cooling system 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 1 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 71,000 miles 24 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 0 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 5 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 8 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 0 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 2 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 5 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 24 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 71,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 1 complaint mentions a crash. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 92% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 6th most-complained-about out of 6 model years of the BMW 540I with enough data (8 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
During a down shift, my car sometimes jump forward a foot or so and makes a thump down shifting noise. This forces me to apply the break quickly. Just a week ago, I hit a curve because of this defect and the bottom bumper cover of the car got hit and became cracked! Luckily this problem is rare. This is about 4th failure in a span of 10 months. For about 10 months, my car also stalls (engine loses power) during a slowdown. Usually this happens when I slow to make a right turn.
While consumer was driving at about 25 MPH and passenger's air bag deployed. There was no accident. Contacted dealer, and dealer was willing to replace air bag.
On occasions when slowing, transmision downshifts "hard" maybe 2-1or 3-2-1 and even a thumb??and difficult to control at that time??
Vehicle was driven at highway speed (55-60MPH) and a loud metallic 'thunk' noise was heard as if something struck or bounced off the underside of the car. The serpentine drive belt was discovered to have come off the drive pulleys, and upon closer inspection the power steering pump was discovered to be loose. The upper mounting ear was broken, and the lower mounting bolt was missing entirely.
Tl* the contact owns a 1999 BMW 540I. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the positive battery cable was burned. The vehicle was repaired. The vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 99v004000 (electrical system). The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 147,076.