If you had told us a decade or two ago that BMW would be having trouble with its front driveshafts, we’d likely have wondered what you were smoking. BMWs, we’d say, don’t have front driveshafts, because they’re all rear-wheel drive. Right?
Well that might have been the case back then, and it still is largely the case today. But not exclusively so. These days BMW is building vehicles in front– and all-wheel drive, and a wide array of the latter are now being recalled.
According to the statement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the problem comes down to “water and debris [that] may enter the front driveshaft’s universal joint, causing excessive wear and possibly resulting in the joint’s failure.” In other words, the front wheels on some of BMW’s all-wheel drive vehicles may not actually drive because the system’s all rusted out.
The problem affects an array of X5 and X6 crossovers (including M and ActiveHybrid models) from the 2011-13 model years. All told, that’s estimated to come to 121,737 vehicles in the United States alone, and likely many more in other markets. Fixing the problem will require replacing the entire front driveshaft, which strikes us as a more complicated fix than tightening a bolt or updating some software as many recalls require.
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