BMW Tells 29,919 Owners To Keep Their Hybrids Away From The House

Fire-related recalls just got a tad more luxurious as BMW needs to fix 29,119 vehicles that could short circuit. The issue is serious enough that owners are being advised to “park outside and away from structures until the remedy is complete.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a handful of models are equipped with an engine starter relay that can corrode. This can result in the relay overheating and causing a short circuit.

More: Over Half A Million BMWs Recalled For Fire Risk, And Toyota’s Caught In It Too

The issue impacts a number of old plug-in hybrids including the 2016-2018 330e iPerformance, the 2017-2019 740Le xDrive iPerformance, and the 2018-2020 530e iPerformance as well as its all-wheel drive counterpart.

The safety recall report says water can come in contact with the starter’s electrical relay and cause corrosion. This can lead to problems starting the engine as well as the aforementioned short circuit and overheating. More importantly, “in an extreme case, this could cause a thermal event during vehicle operation or when the vehicle is parked and the ignition is off.”

The issue is related to a previous recall in 2025, which impacted 196,355 vehicles including several that had caught on fire. That campaign involved a number of different models, but not the plug-in hybrids.

Following the initial recall, BMW continued investigating and monitoring the situation. As part of this process, a number of incidents were reported and approximately 150 starters from the field were examined. The report is coy on specifics, but the findings pushed the automaker to conduct a voluntary safety recall.

To address the problem, dealership techs will replace the starter with a new one featuring an improved design. Owner notifications are scheduled to go out in late August, so owners can likely expect to park outside for awhile.