2008 BMW Z4 problems
NHTSA has received 27 complaints about the 2008 BMW Z4, and 48% of them involve air bags. Next are steering (19%) and engine (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 27 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 48% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 0 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 56,000 miles 17 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 | 0 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 5 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 4 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 5 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 3 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 17 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 56,000 miles.
None of these complaints report a crash, fire, injury or death. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 100% 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 2008 ranks 8th most-complained-about out of 8 model years of the BMW Z4 with enough data (6 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 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.
All four rims are bent. The vehicle has never been taken off-road, nor has the vehicle encountered major potholes. A logical explanation for this occurrence is shoddy manufacturing. Bent rims potentially cause hazardous driving conditions.
Steering failure with DTC failure and brake yellow warning lights. Must fight with car to drive straight wants to veer to the left with shaky steering.
After starting up the car (but during ignition, the key slipped in my fingers causing a missed start, I therefore had to turn the key again to get engine to turn over.) and driving from my driveway, there was a complete failure of the steering assist which caused extremely difficult steering/cornering. I pulled over, thinking it had to do with the missed start, turned off the engine and restarted it; still no power assist.
While turning on a constant radius clover-leaf on-ramp (right or left), a sudden change in steering angle was required to avoid an obstacle. As the electrically-assisted steering was quickly adjusted, a flat spot (or a heavy spot or a delay in boost) in the steering wheel/feel was encountered. In other words, more force was required than expected to quickly change the steering angle. If this is normal, it could interfere with emergency maneuvers to avoid obstacles.
A failed front passenger air bag seat sensor mat causes the air bag warning lamp and the passenger air bag 'on-off' lamp to be illuminated simultaneously. In august 13, 2008, BMW issued a voluntary recall involving front passenger seat sensor mat on u.s.a. Model bmws regarding the front passenger air bag seat sensor mat involving approximately 200,000 model year 2004-06 vehicles. My similarly affected 2008 vehicle was not included in the recall.