2004 BMW 7 Series problems
The 2004 BMW 7 Series has 35 complaints on file with NHTSA. The largest share (17%) concerns brakes. Next are air bags (9%) and electrical system (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 35 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 0 and 1
- Injuries and deaths
- 2 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 52,000 miles 27 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 | 5 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 3 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 9 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 4 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 2 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 2 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 27 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 52,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 1 complaint mentions a fire; 2 injuries reported.
It is also covered by 4 safety recall campaigns.
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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 BMW 745li. The contact received a warning from the computer to engage his seat belt. The seat belts were already engaged, however, he continued to receive the message. The dealer stated that there was a glitch in the program and they would need to service the computer. Approximately three weeks later, the front passenger seat caught fire. The dealer did not provide an explanation as to the cause of the fire. The dealer replaced the leather and wiring in the front seat.
I started my BMW 745I to warm it up along with the heated seats. Came out of my house three minutes later to leave and smelled something burning on the inside of the car. I looked around but didn't see anything outright obvious. I started to drive away when I felt burning sensation to my left side. I turned to look and saw that seat heater was burning through the leather on the left side of the back of the seat.
While driving at 45 MPH consumer heard a loud bang outside of the vehicle. Consumer pulled over and inspected the vehicle, but could not find a problem. A day later, the check engine light came on and remained on. Dealer found that the fender cover came off, and could be the cause of the check engine light being on.
When vehicle comes to a complete stop on an incline with the steering wheel turned full chocked to either the left or right the steering wheel freezes and cannot be turned to the opposite direction. It will not free up until I shift the transmission in reverse and back up a few feet. At that point it will unfreeze with a jerk and operate correctly. This has happened on about 6 occasions. I notified the local dealer where I purchased the car, used with 52,000 miles.
I applied the brakes and they got hard and went to the floor. Brakes would be soft initially and as pressure was continued would get hard and required sustained intense effort to stop the vehicle. This is a known problem by BMW involving the booster and they claim to have inspected vehicle for this problem in 2011 and it did not require being fixed. This was before I bought the vehicle from the dealer. They now refuse to fix the vehicle.
Other model years of the 7 Series
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010
- 2009
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
- 2005
- 2004
- 2003
- 2002