NHTSA Complaint #11557903 — 2018 BMW 440I

- My car started having intermittent electrical issues. The first warning something was wrong was always the cars instrument cluster would start flashing, and the audio system would also drop in and out. Then later other malfunctions would start to show up on the center Nav Screen, some of the warnings are listed here : ○ Audio/speakers would cut out randomly while listening to music ○ Air Conditioning instrument cluster display lights would flash going in and out ○ “Parking assistance malfunction” warnings ○ "Increased Steering effort required" warnings (one time the steering locked while driving ~30mph for half a second) ○ Transmission malfunction warning (I have the transmission ‘jerk’ suddenly 1 time when I was slowly backing up in a 3 point turn), ○ Drivetrain malfunction warning. - My safety was put at risk because the power steering locked once, sometimes the steering would become difficult, and the engine jerked while driving - I brought it into a mechanic: they originally thought it was something wrong with my alternator (Invoice 1), but they couldn't really figure out the problem since it was intermittent. The alternator ended up not fixing the problem. I brought it back to them after the alternator was replaced and the same issues were present. They ended up checking the battery and saw that the positive battery cable had come loose (Invoice 2). Once they replaced the positive battery cable the issues went away. - I did research on the NHTSA Safety database and it looks like this has been a problem for ~400,000 BMW vehicles over the last ~15 years. See references: SIB 61 06 17, SIB 61 09 18, SIB 61 11 19, SIB 61 14 12 - The vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives. It was brought into an independent service center - There were warning lamps and other symptoms that showed up after the instrument cluster started flickering while driving (that was always the first sign). I attached screenshots of those warnings.