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2018 BMW 540D

Owner reports · Recalls · Investigations

Limited comparison data

There is not enough comparable history to draw a useful model-year comparison.

About this comparison →
3Owner complaints

Model-year median: 3

4Recall campaigns

View recall details →

1Investigations

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How this year compares

Owner complaints by model year

Other model years Selected year
3
2018
Compare all 540D years →

Counts vary with age, sales and reporting. They are not failure rates.

What owners reported most

Engine
2Air Bags
1Fuel/propulsion System
1

Tap a category to read its complaints. One report may name several components.

When problems were reported

Mileage at the reported incident

Limited mileage data: 0 of 3 reports include usable mileage. There isn’t enough coverage to show a useful chart.

NHTSA’s mileage field refers to the reported incident, not necessarily the filing date. This shows report counts, not the likelihood of a failure.

What to inspect

Issues worth paying extra attention to based on owner reports.

  • Engine. Review the 2 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
  • Air Bags. Review the 1 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
  • Fuel/propulsion System. Review the 1 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →

NHTSA owner reports · September 18, 2026 snapshot.

0 crash reports0 fire reports0 injury reports

Engine complaints

2 reports
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Mileage unknown · Jul 15, 2024
EngineFuel/propulsion System

The 540d has swirl flaps on the intake manifold to regulate air intake so it adjusts how much air the intake manifold feeds the engine. There's an actuator motor that connects to the swirl flap shaft that connects via a plastic linkage. When the linkage breaks, the flaps are no longer controlled by the actuator and stays in it…

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The 540d has swirl flaps on the intake manifold to regulate air intake so it adjusts how much air the intake manifold feeds the engine. There's an actuator motor that connects to the swirl flap shaft that connects via a plastic linkage. When the linkage breaks, the flaps are no longer controlled by the actuator and stays in its semi closed state. The result is when you give it full throttle, it spews out plumes of black smoke that is thick and the equivalent to rolling coal on a deleted diesel truck. The car still runs, but this poses a danger to those behind you and not very environmentally friendly to spew out soot. BMW's solution is a $6,000 repair bill, because the entire intake manifold has to be replaced for that linkage. This will be a guaranteed fail again - considering I had a check engine light for swirl flap issues starting around 40K miles.

NHTSA ODI #11602418

Mileage unknown · Jul 20, 2022
Engine

There is an exhaust leak which has developed in the turbo. This causes untreated fumes and soot to be emitted in the engine compartment. This untreated exhaust makes its way into the passenger cabin, putting passengers at safety risk due to untreated exhaust fumes entering the cabin. The dealership has acknowledged the issue a…

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There is an exhaust leak which has developed in the turbo. This causes untreated fumes and soot to be emitted in the engine compartment. This untreated exhaust makes its way into the passenger cabin, putting passengers at safety risk due to untreated exhaust fumes entering the cabin. The dealership has acknowledged the issue and describes it as follows: "The soot that you have seen and the smell is coming out of the wastegate shaft which by design there is a tolerance for it to move, but due to back pressure from the soot build up before the regen has occurred there is some soot that comes out." This problem happens every time I start and drive the car. The dealership is stating that this is not covered by the factory warranty. An exhaust leak like this is a serious passenger safety issue.

NHTSA ODI #11474850

Official recalls

4

24V588000 · Engine And Engine Cooling:exhaust System:emission Control:gas Recirculation Valve (egr Valve)

Aug 8, 2024

BMW of North America, LLC. (BMW) is recalling certain 540d xDrive vehicles that were previously repaired under recall number 22V-614. The exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler may leak internally, causing coolant to mix with diesel engine soot, which could result in smoldering particles and a melting intake manifold.

Consequence & remedy

Consequence: An EGR valve with smoldering particles and a melting intake manifold increases the risk of an engine fire.

Remedy: Dealers will inspect and replace the EGR module and the intake manifold as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed October 7, 2024. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

22V614000 · Engine And Engine Cooling:exhaust System:emission Control:gas Recirculation Valve (egr Valve)

Aug 10, 2022

BMW of North America, LLC. (BMW) is recalling certain 2018 540d xDrive vehicles equipped with an Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) module with an integrated cooler. The EGR cooler may leak internally, causing coolant to mix with diesel engine soot, which could result in smoldering particles and a melting intake manifold.

Consequence & remedy

Consequence: A melting intake manifold increases the risk of fire.

Remedy: Dealers will replace the EGR module, and the intake manifold will be inspected and replaced, if necessary, free of charge. Interim owner notification letters were mailed on October 7, 2022. Owner notification letters were mailed December 30, 2022. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

19V684000 · Back Over Prevention: Sensing System: Camera

Sep 27, 2019

BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2018 540d, 2018-2020 530i, 530i xDrive, 540i, 540i xDrive, M550i xDrive, M5, 530e, 530e xDrive, X3 sDrive, X3 xDrive, X3 M40i, X3 M, and 2019-2020 X4 xDrive, X4 M40i, X4 M, X7 xDrive, X7 M50i, 740Li, 740Li xDrive, 750Li, 750Li xDrive, 8 Series Convertible and Coupe 840i, 840i xDrive, M850i xDrive, X5 sDrive, X5 xDrive, X5 M50i, X6 xDrive, X6 M50i, 330i, 330i xDrive, M340i, M340i xDrive, Z4 sDrive, Z4 M40i, 740Le xDrive and 745Le xDrive, 2018-2019 640i xDrive Gran Turismo and Rolls-Royce Phantom, 2019 M850i xDrive Gran Coupe and Rolls-Royce Cullinan and 2020 Toyota Supra vehicles. The back-up camera and display settings can be adjusted such that the rear view image is no longer visible and the system will retain that setting the next time the vehicle is placed in reverse. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 111, "Rearview Mirrors."

Consequence & remedy

Consequence: The lack of an image in the back-up camera display increases the risk of a crash.

Remedy: BMW will notify owners, and dealers will update the back-up camera software, free of charge. The recall began November 8, 2019. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417 or Rolls-Royce at 1-877-877-3735. Toyota owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-888-270-9371.

18V465000 · Engine And Engine Cooling:engine

Jul 11, 2018

BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain 2018 BMW 540d xDrive vehicles. The crankshaft sensor may be equipped with incorrect firmware, preventing the sensor from properly processing input from the crankshaft reluctor ring, possibly resulting in a vehicle stall. On September 12, 2018, BMW expanded the recall to a total of 5,309 vehicles including certain 2018-2019 BMW 540d xDrive, 230i M240i, M240i xDrive, X2 sDrive28i, X2 xDrive28i, X1 sDrive28i, X1 xDrive28i, 330i, 330i xDrive, 340i, 340i xDrive, 330i xDrive Gran Turismo, 530i, 530i xDrive, 540i, 540i xDrive, 530e, 530e xDrive, 640i xDrive Gran Turismo, 330e, 2019 430i Gran Coupe, 430i xDrive Gran Coupe, 440i Gran Coupe, 440i xDrive Gran Coupe, 430i, 430i xDrive, 440i, 440i xDrive, 740i, 740i xDrive, MINI Cooper, Cooper S, JCW, MINI Countryman (Cooper, Cooper All4, Cooper S, Cooper S All4, JCW All4), and MINI Clubman (Cooper, Cooper S, Cooper All4, Cooper S All4, JCW All4) vehicles.

Consequence & remedy

Consequence: A vehicle stall can increase the risk of a crash.

Remedy: BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the crankshaft sensor, free of charge. The recall began September 6, 2018. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

Model-level recall history does not show whether a particular VIN is affected or has received a repair. Check a VIN with NHTSA ↗

NHTSA investigations

1

EA23001 · High Pressure Fuel Pump Failure

Opened Mar 17, 2023 · No close date supplied

Status: open (inferred from source dates) · Fuel System, Diesel:delivery:fuel Pump

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened PE21-021 on October 14, 2021, to investigate incidents alleging a stall/loss of motive power as a result of high-pressure fuel pump failures in certain model year (MY) 2019-2020 Ram 2500, 3500, 4500, and 5500 heavy duty trucks equipped with 6.7L Cummins turbodiesel engines. During the investigation, ODI sought to determine if the related defect allegation was limited in scope to the recalled population. After review of information request response materials from both FCA and BMW, NHTSA determined that sufficient information to identify a comprehensive recall population could not be produced by FCA and BMW.During the investigation FCA filed recalls 22V406, 22E048, 22V767, and 22E087 which include vehicles not identified in the initial subject population by ODI. ODI also received recall 21V586, involving loss of motive power due to failed CP4 fuel pumps on certain BMW manufactured vehicles. An information request letter response received from BMW indicated that failed pumps on their vehicles were caused by an interaction between pump internal components and US market diesel fuel, leading to increased slip and eventual particle-generating wear surface. Additional work will be done to identify whether a similar root cause is associated with the FCA recalled population and if similar wear dynamics occur on pumps supplied to vehicle manufacturers other than those included in the recalled population.ODI has upgraded this investigation to an EA in order to 1) determine engineering specifications of internal pump components that are correlated with pump failure leading to loss of motive power or other safety related hazards, 2) identify vehicle populations equipped with alleged defective pump variants, 3) assess if vehicles equipped with alleged defective pump variants result in an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety and 4) gather and review any other relevant information related to high pressure fuel pump failure associated with the subject populations of recalls 21V586, 21V880, 21E094, 22V406, 22E048, 22V767, and 22E087.Review of the above information will allow NHTSA to confirm root cause and recall remedy viability, and identify and evaluate vehicle populations equipped with pump components that may pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.The ODI reports cited above can be reviewed at: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchNHTSAID using the following complaint identification numbers: 11257550, 11351441, 11361603, 11361616, 11365300, 11365426, 11365858, 11366401, 11372337, 11373793, 11374797, 11376793, 11377871, 11378173, 11384377, 11386063, 11387018, 11399710, 11402550, 11415339, 11418868, 11418870, 11427075, 11434276, 11436807, 11437226, 11437249, 11437273, 11437292, 11437294, 11437394, 11437399, 11437403, 11437405, 11437423, 11437528, 11437565, 11437579, 11437580, 11437590, 11437679, 11437744, 11437781, 11437842, 11437993, 11438006, 11438008, 11438121, 11438138, 11438155, 11438392, 11438629, 11439359, 11439879, 11440397, 11443030, 11446542, 11448163, 11453556, 11458918, 11460558, 11469337