2018 BMW 540I

On and off system notification of "Passenger Restraint System Malfunction" with and without a passenger in the seat. Also, the Airbag off/disabled light on the instrument cluster illuminated. Can't seem to declare if it is an electrical shortage, seatbelt buckle related or passenger pressure sensor sensor in the seat. Find this to be a major safety concern should there be an accident, and unsure whether the airbags will deploy or not. BMW should investigate this concern.

"Passenger Restraint System (Malfunction)" warning appears on the main screen and instrument panel blocking other information and cannot be removed from instrument panel WHILE THE SEATBELT HAS WORKED NORMAL. I researched the problem and found several threads about this problem on the BMW owners forums and found several discussions by numerous owners that said it is FAULTY SENSOR problem which is WIDESPREAD and deserves a recall. The odometer reading of this car, which was purchased in 2017, is about 28,000 miles now; the problem started when the odo was about 18,000. As a faulty sensor problem, or a real malfunction problem, a widespread problem started on a lightly used car at low odometer reading is a serious problem that the manufacturer should take care of. In the forum discussions, it was said that the problem might be triggered by putting a cold drink of a bag on the passenger seat. I never put a cold drink on it but did backpacks. Putting a backpack on a car seat should be a normal thing. In the forum some reported dealers fixed the problem free of charge and some refused and would charge thousands of dollars. My dealer refused to fix it for free. Machines, and humans, make mistakes and should be allowed to be reset/corrected. That the manufacturer designed and installed a known widespread fault sensor, does not allow the fault to reset or correct, and force owners to pay thousands of dollars to have dealers fix the faulty sensor warnings, created at least the appearance of impropriety of undue profiteering. Please help us consumers to have BMW take responsibility to fix its problems. Thank you.

i was just driving my bmw and a airbag light and a malfunction error popped up on my dashboard, that read that the Passenger restraint system has malfunctioned. and i was doing some research on what was wrong with my car, and all the forums are indicating that this is a very common issue on these cars due to a bad seat occupancy sensor mat. to fix this you either still have to have an extended warranty if you don’t have one you have to pay upwards of 3,000$ to get this part replaced at a dealer. and me personally i don’t have the money to just spend on car repair of that amount and im sure alot of the other people with this same problem are in the same boat as me. this could be very dangerous because it puts all my passengers at risk if i were to get in a auto collision it would be devastating. i mean this should 100% be a recall because of this is a wide spread problem that puts many many people at risk. i haven’t been to the dealer with it yet, but i can self diagnose because countless people have been reporting on forums and online the same issue with the same error on the dash. my car hasn’t been in an accident yet so i haven’t had it inspected by insurance companies or police. this problem first appeared today and my heart dropped.

1) Passenger restraint system malfunction. According to information on the web and several BMW forums, this is a common problem on these vehicles and it is a serious and inherently unsafe issue that should necessitate a recall from the manufacturer. The root cause is typically a malfunction of the passenger seat pad that is utilized by the passenger restraint system. BMW service repair cost is $2,700-$3,000. This is really outrageous given that it's part of the safety restraint system and many BMW 5 series (and likely others) have this problem.

When i have a passenger in the car I will intermittantly get the warning "Passenger restraint system malfunction" which will turn off the air bag to the passenger side when driving even when there is a passenger in the car. From forums it sounds like there is a pressure pad in the seat that is a very common malfunction for BMW. This seems like a pretty critical part to ensure the airbags are operational when a passenger is in the car, and feel it should not be as common a problem as it seems to be.

Passenger seat restraint malfunction error code. Code will show fault when no one is in the passenger seat and if the person is light enough in weight, it will also pop up. The issue means that the air bag will not deploy when there is someone in the seat. A HUGE safety concern and online search shows that this is a very common problem with BMW’s. BMW needs to issue a recall for this and fix the issue. Please note that the date the incident occurred below is an approximation and the code has been continuing since the first code came up.

My car has around 74k miles on it. I had the following service request warning present itself this last week, 'Passenger restraint system malfunction:' on my drive into work in the morning. At first I dismissed the message and closed it to see if it would clear itself. It did not clear. It came back up a couple of minutes later. This time I left it alone. It proceeded to close itself and reopen every minute or so for about 10-15 minutes. Then it turned off and didn't come back on until I started my car later in the day and again the following morning. After taking it into the BMW dealer, the warning light was able to be replicated by the dealer and they've told me it is the seat mat (occupancy sensor) that was faulty. No outside influence appears to be at fault for the failure. Just that the part went bad. This is the diagnostic message given: CHECK CONTROL MESSAGE PRESENT FOR PASSENGER RESTRAINT MALFUNCTION. PERFORMED VEHICLE TEST, FAULTS PRESENT REGARDING PASSENGER FRONT SEAT OCCUPANCY DETECTION. PERFORMED TEST PLAN AND INDCATED PASSENGER SEAT OCCUPANCY DETECTION IS FAULTY. RECOMMEND REPLACING PASSENGER SEAT OCCUPANCY DETECTION. According to the dealer, if this if not fixed the airbag and/or seatbelt won't perform in the event of an accident. This appears to be a very common issue for BMW and similar to a 2017 BMW Technical Service Bulletin MC-10146769-9999. There was no warning of this issue prior to receiving the error message. There has been no opportunity for moisture to compromise the sensor (via window, sunroof or drinks spilled). Nor has any cellphone been stored on the passenger seat as I've read of some reasons provided to other Owners with the same error message. This seems to be an ongoing issue with this part for some time and it would seem to be an important issue for BMW to resolve in their design for the safety of the user.

- Passenger Airbag and passenger restrain system malfunction. - Malfunction of passenger airbag not deploying during accident even passenger seat is occupied with recommend weight. - Issues has been reported to Dealer. In turn dealer responds to as "External Factors" with issue could be presence of moisture in the seat. - Passenger Airbag light illuminates - Warning was never consistent. After reporting to dealership warning stays permanent and advised to replace seat mat sensor. - This has been a know issue over a decade and 2017-2018 manufactured BMW 5 series (G30). - This is clearly a poor material and workmanship costing people life's.