
Transporting children safely
58
Transporting children safely 
The right place for children
Children always in the rear
Accident research shows that the safest 
place for children in a vehicle is in the rear 
seat.
Older children should be tightly secured 
with a safety belt, after they have outgrown 
a booster seat that is appropriate for their 
age, height and weight.
A child sitting in the rear seat and not 
properly restrained may place his or 
her head on or near the airbag, if so 
equipped. For example, a child, even 
though belted, may fall asleep with his or 
her head against the side airbag. It may be 
difficult for a driver to ensure that children 
in the rear seat will remain properly posi-
tioned at all times and do not place their 
heads on or near the side airbags. There-
fore, we recommend that the rear side air-
bags, if provided, be deactivated if you plan 
to transport children in the rear seat.<
Child-restraint system in the rear
Children under 13 years of age and 
children less than 5 ft/150 cm tall 
should always ride in the rear and the 
restraint systems should be secured with 
the vehicle's safety belts.<
Younger children should be secured in an 
appropriate forward-facing child-restraint 
system that has first been properly 
restrained. We strongly urge you to care-
fully read and comply with the instructions 
for installation and use provided by the 
child restraint‘s manufacturer whenever 
you use such a device. 
All rear sitting positions in your vehicle 
meet the recommendations of SAE J1819, 
an industry-recommended practice for 
securing child-restraint systems in motor 
vehicles. 
Exception for front passenger seat
Should it become necessary to use 
a child-restraint system on the front 
passenger seat, the airbags on the passen-
ger‘s side must be deactivated. The pas-
senger airbag indicator lamp above the 
interior rearview mirror must light up con-
tinuously. Otherwise, the front passenger 
airbags remain active and there is consid-
erable risk of injury to children if the airbags 
are triggered, even with a child-restraint 
system. In this case, children should be 
seated in the rear and the system should be 
checked at your BMW center.<
Never install a rearward-facing child-
restraint system in the front passen-
ger seat of this vehicle if the passenger air-
bag is not deactivated. If you do so, the 
child could be severely injured when the 
airbag is triggered. 
Your vehicle is equipped with an airbag 
supplemental restraint system for the front 
passenger. Because the backrest on any 
rearward-facing child-restraint system, of 
the kind designed for infants under 1 year 
and 20 Ibs./9 kg, would be within the air-
bag‘s deployment range, you should never 
mount such a system in the front passenger 
seat, since the impact of the airbag against 
the child restraint‘s backrest could lead to 
serious or fatal injuries.< 
More information on Automatic deactiva-
tion of the front passenger airbags, refer to 
page98.
Installing child-restraint 
systems 
Before installing any child-restraint system 
or child seat, read the following:
Observe the child-restraint system 
manufacturer's instructions for instal-
lation and use. Otherwise the degree of 
protection can be reduced.
Following an accident, have all parts of the  

Technology for comfort, convenience and safety
98
Airbags 
The following airbags are located under the 
marked covers:
1Front airbags for driver and front pas-
senger 
2Head airbags in front and rear
3Side airbags in front and rear
* 
4Knee airbags for driver and front pas-
senger
Protective effect 
The front airbags help protect the driver 
and front passenger by responding to fron-
tal impacts in which safety belts alone can-
not provide adequate restraint. When 
needed, the head and side airbags help 
provide protection in the event of side 
impact. The side airbags help restrain the 
side of the occupant's upper torso, and the 
head airbags help support the head while 
also helping provide protection against any 
objects penetrating into the passenger 
compartment. The knee airbags help pro-
tect the legs against impact against the 
cockpit. 
The airbags are deliberately not triggered in 
every impact situation, e.g. less severe 
accidents, certain roll-over conditions, or 
rear-end collisions.
The rear seat side airbags may 
already have been deactivated by a 
BMW center. Labels in the rear door open-
ing should indicate the status of your rear 
seat side airbags. If you are uncertain of 
their status, or wish to have the airbags 
activated or deactivated, please contact 
your BMW center.
Do not apply adhesive materials to 
the cover panels of the airbags, cover 
them or modify them in any other way.
Do not attempt to remove the airbag reten-
tion system from the vehicle. Never modify 
or tamper with either the wiring or the indi-
vidual components in the airbag system. 
This category includes the upholstery in the 
center of the steering wheel, on the instru-
ment panel, the doors and the roof pillars 
along with the sides of the headliner. Do 
not attempt to remove or dismantle the 
steering wheel. 
Do not touch the individual components 
directly after the system has been trig-
gered, because there is a danger of burns. 
In case of malfunctions, storage or after the 
airbag restraint system has been triggered, 
only have checking, repair or dismantling 
and the scrapping of the airbag generators 
carried out by a BMW center or a workshop 
that uses personnel trained in accordance 
with BMW requirements and equipped with 
the required explosives permits. Unprofes-
sional attempts to service the system could 
lead to failure in an emergency or undes-
ired airbag activation, either of which could 
result in personal injury.<
Airbag warning information is also provided 
on the sun visors.
Automatic deactivation of front 
passenger airbags
Your BMW has a seat occupation detection 
system. By evaluating the weight on the 
front passenger‘s seat, the system detects  

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whether or not the seat is occupied by a 
child in the child-restraint system or an 
adult.
>When a child is seated in the child-
restraint system or with an empty seat, 
the front and side airbags are automat-
ically deactivated on the passenger's 
side
>When an adult is traveling in the front 
seat, the front and side airbags remain 
active on the passenger side.
Although not desired, it can occur in 
the case of heavier children that the 
front passenger airbags remain active or in 
the case of very light adults or young per-
sons that the front passenger airbags are 
deactivated.
The state of the front passenger airbags is 
shown with the indicator lamp, refer to Indi-
cator lamps in the following. In this case 
transport the corresponding persons on the 
rear seat.
Except when persons to be transported, do 
not increase the load on the front passen-
ger seat with additional items. Do not fit 
seat covers, seat cushion padding, ball 
mats or other items to the front passenger 
seat unless they are specifically recom-
mended by BMW. Do not place any items 
under the seat. Otherwise, the function of 
the seat occupation detection could be 
impaired.<
Indicator lamps
Airbag system ready for use 
The warning lamp indicates the operational 
readiness of the entire airbag system and 
the safety belt tensioners from the radio position: the warning lamp goes out after 
afew seconds.
The indicator lamp above the interior rear-
view mirror indicates whether the front-pas-
senger airbag system is activated or deacti-
vated as of ignition key radio position.
The indicator lamp refers exclusively 
to the front-passenger airbag sys-
tem.<
>The indicator lamp goes out after a few 
seconds.
The front passenger airbags are active, 
e.g. when transporting an adult
>The indicator lamp lights up continu-
ously. The front passenger airbags are 
deactivated, e.g. when transporting a 
child in the child-restraint system or 
when the seat is unoccupied.
For more information on the operating prin-
ciple of the front passenger airbag system 
and seat occupation detection, refer to 
Automatic deactivation of the front passen-
ger airbags.
Airbag system malfunction
Have the airbag system checked 
immediately if a malfunction occurs, 
as otherwise there is a danger of the sys-
tem failing to respond in the expected man-
ner to an impact occurring within its normal 
response range.< 
A fault has occurred in the airbag 
system:
>The warning lamp fails to come on as of 
ignition radio mode
>Warning lamp lights up continuously
>Warning lamp lights during driving.