BMW Recalls 2011 X3 Due to Power Steering Issues

The new BMW X3 has only been on sale in the US for a few months, and the German carmaker even lets its customers watch as their compact crossovers are built in Spartanburg, South Carolina. However, an issue has already occurred with the 2011MY, and it could potentially be a serious one at that.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a control module in the crossover's electric power steering system may malfunction, resulting in a loss of power steering. As a result, BMW is recalling certain model year 2011 X3 units to fix the problem.

The affected units were built between April 27th and June 8th, 2011. Fortunately, this only means 50 vehicles in total, and some of them are probably still on dealer’s lots. However, the issue is very severe, and could result in very serious crashes.

To rectify the situation, BMW will soon notify all affected owners about the mandatory recall. Dealers will then replace the faulty control module in the electric power steering unit free of charge. Notifications are expected to begin being sent out this month, but if you want to know whether your X3 is affected as well, feel free to contact BMW Customer Relations and Service at 1-800-525-7417.

It might be serious, but BMW’s 50 X3s pale in comparison to Nissan’s steering recall that affected 303,000 Frontier pickup trucks and 283,000 Xterra sport utility vehicles in the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries.

In the US, the X3 is offered in two variants - xDrive28i and xDrive35i - both standard with all-wheel drive and BMW's eight-speed automatic transmission.