Other electrical problem on the 2004 BMW 325I
3 fires 3 of the 9 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other electrical problem gets reported
There are 9 reports of other electrical problem on the 2004 BMW 325I, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 100,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 3 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 52; the 2004 has 9. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 bmw 325i. The contact stated that the faulty lamp warning indicator would intermittently illuminate on the instrument panel. The electrical harness that plugs into the rear of the lamp harness for the exterior lighting had a faulty ground in the connector. The dealer stated that the wires could not take the heat distribution, which caused the wires to fry inside the connector. The failure also caused the turn signals and rear lamps to not operate correctly. There were no recalls for the failures; however, the contact was able to locate technical service bulletins pertaining to the issues (NHTSA item numbers 10025585 and 10020856). The current and failure mileages were 85,000.
The vehicle had been parked approximately 15-20 minutes when we were alerted by the fire alarm in our condo building. Upon evacuating the building, we were told that our 2004 bmw 325i was on fire. We still have not been given any specific cause for the fire, except that it was probably electrical in nature. Special agents from our insurance company were also called in, who, in turn, called in two more experts. Evidence was bagged and the car was shrink wrapped to be taken to a lot with at least three other bmw's which had also caught fire while parked. This is one of the most frightening things to ever happen to us. We are posting this hoping it can help this from happening to anyone else. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 bmw 325i. The contact stated that the turn signals and the headlights failed to activate. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the light module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 202,000. Updated 4/7/15*cn
Also reported on the 2004 BMW 325I
Airbag inflator rupture
Other lighting problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other body or interior problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 2004 BMW 325I?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2004 BMW 325I?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed