I drove our 2002 BMW M3 home during the middle of the week - big mistake. Don't get me wrong; the car is fine. But on this particular day, traffic choked my route more than usual. Let's just say I didn't get to savor any of the M3's finer points.
So I'm going to talk about door stickers instead. I can tell by your sharp intake of breath that you can hardly wait for this one.
Our M3 sure has a lot of them - door placards and warning labels, I mean. The most prominent one is the dire warning about the side airbag and what it can do to children. But immediately below that disturbing nugget of information there sits a bright orange sticker that demands attention:
Whew, that's a relief. We sure dodged a bullet there. But seriously, why bother at all with a lawyer-excreted warning label if it's to be followed by a "Ha ha! Just kidding!"? Did the previous owner have them disconnected? The sticker does look a little like it was added later.
One theory around the office was that perhaps the M3's sport seats don't allow for airbags. But according to our site and other sources, the 2002 M3 is supposed to have side airbags and, from what I can tell, they are door-mounted anyway. If that theory were true, how hard would it be to synchronize the label with the seat, both of which are installed at the same factory? I can't find any documentation or web forum posts to explain this. Any BMW fans or E46 M3 owners have the answer?
And then there's this tire pressure placard. It might be hard to read, but that's the point. You're looking at a matrix with three tire sizes (M3 sizes differ from front to rear), two load conditions, two pressure units and two languages. One load condition and tire pressure set point exists for 4 or fewer persons, another is for "Max Vehicle Weight" (which could be just 3 or 4 persons if they happen to live a sedentary lifestyle of video games, pizza and 6-packs.)
But who has a set of vehicle scales at home? "Wait, guys. Before we go to the bowling alley, let's all stop by the truck scales and air-up." Yeah, right.
According to the chart and the key in the upper left corner, our M3 has triangles up front (225/45 ZR 18) and circles in back (255/40 ZR 18). So our tire pressures, with four or less aboard, are 33 psi front and 35 psi rear. Above the 4 person limit (whatever weight that actually is), the requirement jumps to 41/48, but that's for max vehicle weight (aka GVWR). It's unclear what the pressures should be in the range between 4 persons and GVWR.
Of course this is insanely complicated. Because tire pressure has been a hot topic since the Ford Explorer / Firestone debacle led to the TREAD act, the government has taken steps to clarify this situation. For one, a single tire pressure placard is longer allowed to serve a range of optional tire sizes. The placard on a new M3 (and any other car) must now relate to the specific tires fitted on that individual car. The font size and layout is standardized so that tire pressure placards are recognizable as such and are easy to read. And they added-in the spare tire's pressure for good measure.
Enough with the engineer-excreted material. I've got to make sure I drive the M3 on the weekend next time and steer clear of traffic. I know this was exhilarating, but I hear the steering and handling are worth blogging about, too.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 51,080 miles
teekay13 says:
11:30 AM, 01/17/08
I have not seen all those stickers before. My '05 has side airbags, and as far as I know, they work. No "not operational" stickers. In fact, I have yet to come across that on the forums.
As for tire pressure, it's all about feel and personal preference. 33/35 is a bit low for me, while 41/48 is way too high. After being compulsively obsessed with this for about 6 months, I've arrived at the perfect (for me) setting that results in perfect tire wear, neutral handling (OEM settings have understeer), and great steering feel -- 39psi on all four corners. Try that and see if you like it.
opfreak says:
11:41 AM, 01/17/08
hmm.
Possiblitys about air bags:
Its obivous they were there, and are now broken (if I saw this at purchase I would not have bought this car)
1) car was in an acciedent that somehow you missed with side air bag deployment, and when it was rebuilt, the side air bags were never replaced.
2) Car has bad side air bags, and BMW disabled them instead of fixing them.
altimadude00 says:
11:51 AM, 01/17/08
This reminds me of a Top Gear episode where Jeremy Clarkson was addressing the safety stickers on the door sill of the driver's door of a Dodge Viper.
"Place children in the back seat" was the best sticker I can remember him reading.
langjie says:
11:55 AM, 01/17/08
The sticker has a number on it. Might be worth it to call BMW and ask them why they would have that sticker. 7 008 026
It is most likely the car was in an accident and they never bothered to fix the side air bags (AFAIK, it's not a safety requirement yet)
SubyTrojan says:
12:34 PM, 01/17/08
That number is usually the last 7-digits of an 11-digit BMW part number. It might be 71 21/22/24 7 008 026 (I'm not sure about the third and fourth digits as I couldn't find this label using the parts catalog at www.realoem.com).
I sent an e-mail to my friend at a local BMW dealership to see if this car has been in an accident or has any special information I didn't get earlier from BMWNA's dealerspeed.net Vehicle/Service History Report.
opfreak says:
12:37 PM, 01/17/08
WAIT. I have a better reason.
The air bags might have been deactivated on REQUEST by the previous owner. And when BMW did that, they put the sticker on the car.
heres and edmunds article. and if you google it, you find more instances where it was possible to have side air bags deactivated. The previous owner should have told you why.
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/105563/article.html
SubyTrojan says:
12:40 PM, 01/17/08
opfreak, that's what I'm hoping to confirm through my friend. We'll see.
opfreak says:
12:45 PM, 01/17/08
good luck suby.
I actually found an m3 manual...
http://www.bimmer.ru/frames/manual/pdf/M3-E46manual.pdf
Page 50
"
The side airbags in the rear
passenger area* of your vehicle
may already have been deactivated
either at the time of manufacture or by a
BMW center. You may have them activated
if you desire to do so. Please
contact your BMW center for additional
information."
actualsize says:
01:05 PM, 01/17/08
Deactivation at the request of the previous owner is what I have been thinking, too. I'm surprised to see that it could or would have been deactivated "at the time of manufacture," let alone sold that way.
Our car is not Certified Pre-Owned, because, as a 2002, it's at the back edge of the 5-year window. The car came from a dealership where the original owner traded it in for a new 335i, after having been originally purchased and serviced at that same dealer. One of our operatives who lives nearby is paying them a visit.
Still, I find it odd that a BMW dealer would have sold a used BMW product without first re-activating the airbags, CPO or not.
For our part, the orange sticker didn't catch anyone's eye...until now.
blueguydotcom says:
01:18 PM, 01/17/08
Never found BMW's door info complicated. Shrug. Simple chart and then you putz around to figure how you like the PSI for the performance you demand.
opfreak says:
01:28 PM, 01/17/08
Well, The dealer Should have TOLD you about it. and then asked if you wanted it back on or left off.
still waiting on suby's report.
g__ says:
07:07 PM, 01/17/08
All the labels and PNs here
http://bmwlife.lv/?coll=2&fn=1&qw=Label%20%22deactivation%20side%20airbag%22
Would there be a seperate PN for the "side airbag reactivated label" ?
SubyTrojan says:
08:33 PM, 01/17/08
Great find, g__!
72 12 7 008 026
I was thinking the P/N started with 71 because that group contains most labels. Since this is a(n) airbag/safety-related part, it makes sense that it would be part of the 72 group.
noflash1 says:
11:47 AM, 01/18/08
There are two kinds of side airbags.
Side-Curtain and side-torso bags.
The curtain covers the front and rear seats and is to protect your head. This is standard for the car.
The front side-torso are seat mounted and are standard.
The rear side torso are optional and could probably be deactivated -- maybe as easily as removing a fuse.
Kids in the back will not be affected by the standard side curtain because they are too small.
You should not mix kids and side-torso bags because their little torsos can't handle it.
Ian
SubyTrojan says:
03:21 PM, 01/18/08
I'm still waiting to hear from my friend, folks. His computer at the BMW dealership was/is having problem.
bimmerjay says:
04:50 PM, 01/18/08
noflash1, the BMW HPS system on the E46 consisted of an inflatable tube that provided head protection for the front seats only. Curtain-type airbags covering the front and rear side windows were not introduced until the 2006+ E9x 3-Series.
The torso bags are door-mounted, not seat-mounted and rear side bags were optional on the E46. Again, on the 2006+ E9x, BMW switched to seat-mounted torso bags and eliminated the rear side airbag option.
If it was possible to deactivate the rear side bags by pulling a fuse, the control module would throw up a glaring SRS warning on the IP. The dealership has to perform the deactivation/reactivation procedure.
On a side note, since this car was purchased at a BMW dealership, I would be having a FIT at them for selling you a car with a vital safety device deactivated and not disclosing it at the time of sale. Wouldn't their pre-sale inspection have caught that? I too eagerly await Suby's findings...
majin_ssj_eric says:
09:40 AM, 01/21/08
I'm still thinking that it was probably wrecked and the airbags were not replaced.....
actualsize says:
02:33 PM, 01/22/08
Here is the latest:
As opfreak pointed out, page 50 of the manual states that the "airbag may have been deactivated either at time of manufacture or by a BMW center."
BMW NA told me that the process for getting it done after sale requires heinous paperwork. The owner must sign a NHTSA letter of authorization after reading a NHTSA "Are you sure you really want to do this?" brochure.
SubyTrojan's friend came back with a warranty history that indicates nothing like an after-the-fact deactivation - or an accident.
But that warranty history document also contains a listing of the options installed on our car. Under "option information," things like: 0522 - xenon headlamps and; 0ZCW - cold weather package appear. Also on th list is option 0257, which is described as "rear side airbag deactivation." So it would appear that this car was built with deactivated rear side airbags at the factory.
I don't know yet what that means. Does an assembly-line deactivated car have all the parts, or has something important (and costly) been left out? We intend to take the car to a dealership for an estimate.
But, like the rest of you, I'm very surprised the dealership that sold this car to us said nothing.
Moral of the story: When buying a late 90's through early 00's used BMW (or any other car, I guess,) look for the small but bright-orange sticker on the door jamb.
seattletopaz says:
04:03 PM, 01/22/08
BMW offers (or at least did) side-airbag deactivation as a factory option. I have the same stickers for the rear side airbags on my 2002 X5, and indeed all the parts are there, except the airbags are disabled via computer, and the cables disconnected inside the door. However, most importantly, the airbag modules are there so it's possible to have them reactivated. I believe when I looked into this it would cost me the labor of taking the door panels off and reconnecting the cables plus whatever the dealer had to do via computer to reactivate them. It's done if you have small children that could be hurt by the airbags. You can reconnect them yourself if you don't mind doing the work to take the door panels off but I expect that would code the airbag system and would require a trip to the dealer anyway.
My X5 was a lease-return subsequently sold by BMW to an auction, and eventually purchased at a local dealer... I'm surprised an item such as this isn't reconnected/activated by BMW when they get the car back, but I guess it is exactly how the car was optioned from the factory.
SubyTrojan says:
06:49 PM, 01/22/08
Silly me! I didn't even think about looking at the option code list! Great find, Dan!
st2 says:
03:06 AM, 01/25/08
Regarding the orange sticker side airbag sticker. It only applies to the rear side airbags. The sticker is original and came from the factory/dealer on the car when new. I purchased my E46 M3 in 2001 new, and the dealer asked me whether I wanted the rear side airbags activated or not, I chose not as we were planning on having a child soon. The head/curtain, and front side airbags are active. Hope that helps.
actualsize says:
10:12 AM, 01/25/08
Another chunk of information from BMW North America: all of the components of rear side airbag system are present. Re-activation is a simple dealer-performed procedure. We'll ask about the cost at our next service vist and post an update.