Steering wheel

[fromkrypton]

I was thinking of getting a new steering wheel off eBay from Germany.

They are mention single, dual, and 3 stage airbags. How do I know which I have in my current wheel?

[Koer]

Us spec cars have Airbags with two stage.
Europe Spec cars have airbags with one stage.

Depends on where your car was built.

You could check if you remove yours, but it requires a bit of disassembly.

[RED_Y_]

North America is two stage. You can take yours out and check how many connectors you have on the back.

[F15GorDe]

Originally Posted by Koer

Us spec cars have Airbags with two stage.
Europe Spec cars have airbags with one stage.

Depends on where your car was built.

You could check if you remove yours, but it requires a bit of disassembly.

Ehhh, unless you have an X1 more than 95% of all Xs are built in Spartanburg. However they are built to accommodate dozens of different specifications required by the specific country of sale.

[Qsilver7]

Your VIN reveals where your BMW was built.

The 1st 3 digits indicate the country of the manufacturing plant :

• 4US – BMW NA (North America)
• NCO – BMW South Africa
• WBA – BMW AG (Germany)
• WBS – Motorsport

The 11th VIN digit reveals the Plant’s code where the vehicle was manufactured/assembled:

• A, F, K – Munich, Germany
• C, B, D, G – Dingolfing, Germany
• E, J, P – Regensburg, Germany
• L, M – Spartanburg, U.S.A
• N – Roslyn, South Africa
• W – Graz, Austria
• V – Leipzig, Germany

[ems328i]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

Your VIN reveals where your BMW was built.

The 1st 3 digits indicate the country of the manufacturing plant :

• 4US – BMW NA (North America)
• NCO – BMW South Africa
• WBA – BMW AG (Germany)
• WBS – Motorsport

The 11th VIN digit reveals the Plant’s code where the vehicle was manufactured/assembled:

• A, F, K – Munich, Germany
• C, B, D, G – Dingolfing, Germany
• E, J, P – Regensburg, Germany
• L, M – Spartanburg, U.S.A
• N – Roslyn, South Africa
• W – Graz, Austria
• V – Leipzig, Germany

Sorry for the off topic, but great info! Seems my car was built at the Regensburg plant; funnily enough I was in that town 3 yrs ago to visit the Damasko watch store, I had no idea there was a BMW plant there too

[Rotzy]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

Your VIN reveals where your BMW was built.

The 1st 3 digits indicate the country of the manufacturing plant :

• 4US – BMW NA (North America)
• NCO – BMW South Africa
• WBA – BMW AG (Germany)
• WBS – Motorsport

The 11th VIN digit reveals the Plant’s code where the vehicle was manufactured/assembled:

• A, F, K – Munich, Germany
• C, B, D, G – Dingolfing, Germany
• E, J, P – Regensburg, Germany
• L, M – Spartanburg, U.S.A
• N – Roslyn, South Africa
• W – Graz, Austria
• V – Leipzig, Germany

Cool info, but my vin doesn't fit any of these categories. It starts with 5UX and the 11th digit is 0.

[speedracerM4]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

Your VIN reveals where your BMW was built.

The 1st 3 digits indicate the country of the manufacturing plant :

• 4US – BMW NA (North America)
• NCO – BMW South Africa
• WBA – BMW AG (Germany)
• WBS – Motorsport

The 11th VIN digit reveals the Plant's code where the vehicle was manufactured/assembled:

• A, F, K – Munich, Germany
• C, B, D, G – Dingolfing, Germany
• E, J, P – Regensburg, Germany
• L, M – Spartanburg, U.S.A
• N – Roslyn, South Africa
• W – Graz, Austria
• V – Leipzig, Germany

I don't think this is correct. All x5s are built in the US. The different vins are for countries of destination.

[MK2018]

Originally Posted by speedracerM4

I don't think this is correct. All x5s are built in the US. The different vins are for countries of destination.

Mine also starts with 5UX and 0 is 11th digit

[Jars914]

Originally Posted by MK2018

Mine also starts with 5UX and 0 is 11th digit

Same here

[ponytuning]

5UX are manufactured in Spartanburg, US per https://quizlet.com/109251062/bmw-vi...n-flash-cards/

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

Your VIN reveals where your BMW was built.

The 1st 3 digits indicate the country of the manufacturing plant :

• 4US – BMW NA (North America)
• NCO – BMW South Africa
• WBA – BMW AG (Germany)
• WBS – Motorsport

The 11th VIN digit reveals the Plant’s code where the vehicle was manufactured/assembled:

• A, F, K – Munich, Germany
• C, B, D, G – Dingolfing, Germany
• E, J, P – Regensburg, Germany
• L, M – Spartanburg, U.S.A
• N – Roslyn, South Africa
• W – Graz, Austria
• V – Leipzig, Germany

Originally Posted by speedracerM4

I don't think this is correct.

Nothing I wrote in the original post is incorrect. It may be incomplete as the 5UX & 5UM info posted by others reveals that BMW has added two additional nomenclature for the South Carolina plant (I wonder if its due to the additional X models that have come to be built there since the plant first opened and was building 3 series and some Z3s (??) as well as X5s.

Originally Posted by speedracerM4

All x5s are built in the US. The different vins are for countries of destination.

I think you mistook/misunderstood what I wrote in this regard...it wasn’t my intent to say that any of the info I posted was specific to the BMW X5...which is why I didn’t write X5...I wrote “BMW” to indicate you could tell where your 3/5/6/7/8/x3/X5/X6/x7/etc was built. I wasn’t just zeroing in on the BMW X5 models. .

Hope that clarifies what I initially wrote. And thanks ponytuning for the additional info that touches on the 5UX & 5UM nomenclature.

One last thing, too...the use of “0” (zero) in the US market must be something new....because the US DOT set regulations for this country in regards to VIN digits. To bring consistency to VINs, starting with the 1980 model year...the 10th digit of the VIN reveals the “official” model year regardless of the year the car may have been built/produced. This is how you can tell what an early or late build vehicle is here in the USA. Here in the states starting in 1985...the 10th VIN digit is an A, the 1986 model year it’s a B...and this continued all the way to Y for the 2000 model year. Then numerical digits starting with 1-9 for the 2001-2009 model years...starting over again with an A for the 2010 model year. The exceptions for the USA market is that letters and digits that can be confused for other alpha or umerical digits are skipped...so cars for the USA market will not use the alpha characters I/O/Q/U/Z and the numerical digit “0”.

If you live in another country...this 10th VIN digit nomenclature may not apply because this is a US DOT nomenclature convention for designating an “official” model year. One of the latest examples was the EOP (end of production for the f06/f12/f13 six series. These models were phased out starting between the 2017 - 2019 model year (for the US market). The f06 grand coupe`was the last to go...and they were designated as 2019 model years...but they were built between May/2018 - Oct/2018. So you can effectively see f06 GCs with build dates from Jan/2018 - Oct 2018...but the ones built between Jan-April are officially 2018 model year cars (as well as some built from some point in late 2017 - Dec/2017...but the ones built between May-Oct Of 2018 are officially 2019 model year cars...and the 10th VIN digit will also reveal this with the 2018 models having a “J” and the 2019 models having a “K”.

{this 10th VIN designation does NOT apply to every country...this is a USA/DOT (dept of transportation) mandate}