Fuel filler tube gaskets are improperly installed allowing water to enter the left rear quarter panel causing the steering electronics to be flooded and short out causing a loss of power steering without warning. This is a recurrent problem that dealerships are refusing to acknowledge or fix without charging $1,000.

- Stony Point, NY, USA

Creaking noise in the front suspension when turning steering wheel when parked and at low speeds. Diagnosis from shop indicated the lower control arms and ball joints were loose. Both sides replaced.

- Indianapolis, IN, USA

While making a slow right turn the vehicle's engine suddenly shut down and immediately restarted a few moment later. However, when the vehicle stalled all power steering was lost which was followed by multiple system failure warnings that were displayed, such as: Rear differential is locked, power steering has failed, seat belt tensioner system failed and to stop driving the vehicle immediately and contact a service center immediately. I drove the vehicle into my driveway which was 100 yards away and shut the vehicle down and called orange county BMW in harriman, NY. I was told to shut the vehicle off and let it sit for ten minutes and the system should reset itself, which I did. I was told this is a common problem in the 5 series and it happens all the time from the sales manager, [xxx], to whom I spoke to about the problem. The errors cleared but I was able to recreate the failure making the same turn with the same failures occurring as listed above. If I had been driving at a higher speed this would have resulted in loss of ability to steer the vehicle. When the first failure occurred I ended up driving into the oncoming lane of traffic until I was able to forcefully steer the vehicle back into the right side of the road. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Stony Point, NY, USA