[PuchasGracias]

I have a 2011 e91 with sport/luxury packages and nav/bluetooth, 50k miles, had it since 38k, and am having a strange issue the dealer was unable to diagnose. Occasionally, once every other week or so, the car will make an SOS call when unlocked. If you catch it in 10 seconds or so (it counts down) you can cancel it with the idrive, but if you miss that window, you get to have an awkward conversation with 911. Had about 10 of those conversations so far.

The dealer (Cooper BMW in Edmond, OK) kept the car for two days and were unable to replicate. They did a system software update for $150, which didn't seem to help.

I've tried everything I can to trigger it, but it seems to happen only when unlocking and starting the car, and it's very intermittent.

I disassembled and put electrical tape between the contacts on the SOS switch in the headliner thinking it was close to the pano sunroof and had possibly gotten wet at some point, thought this wouldn't explain it only happening on start.

Has anyone else run into this issue? Is there a SIM card somewhere I could pull out and at least keep the calls from completing?

Googled and searched here and haven't seen anything. Any help appreciated.

[mxchris727]

I thought BMW disabled SOS connectivity when their wireless carrier retired the 2G network. Your car is calling 911 directly? Not BMW Assist?

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Originally Posted by mxchris727

I thought BMW disabled SOS connectivity when their wireless carrier retired the 2G network. Your car is calling 911 directly? Not BMW Assist?

+1, I can't use BMW assist anymore.

Are you sure it's not your cell phone having Bluetooth issues with the car?

[PuchasGracias]

According to the dealer, now that BMW assist is disabled, it calls 911 directly. It's not from my phone, I asked one of the 911 operators one time if the call was from my number.

On coding out the functionality, I'd probably do that if it wasn't under an extended warranty through 100k miles, don't want to do anything to jeopardize that.

I get a solid blue screen on the nav that says it's Making an SOS call, and it takes a solid minute or so to create a connection, you can see GPS coordinates onscreen while it's doing it.

You cannot stop this process, removing the key does nothing, you only have that first 10 seconds to stop it. I think it's doing it asynchronously, as sometimes when you get past the BMW startup screen, you are already several seconds into the process.

[delmarco]

This is happening to me:
2011 335i xDrive - 77000 miles
I haven't driven my car much in the last year (maybe 20 miles a month) and I went almost a month without unlocking the car
and starting the engine when it began happening so I thought it was a battery dying issue since a weak battery can cause all sorts of electrical issues.

But battery is fine.

• It also calls when the car completely is off when the only thing you do is unlock the door. It calls randomly when driving as well. Like the OP said you have to catch it in the first 10 seconds to cancel the call. After that you can't stop the call and will have to embarrassingly explain to the 911 operator that your 12 year old BMW 3 Series just self called 911.
  
• It also is very much independent of your mobile phone's Bluetooth connection. It is the actual vehicle's internal computer/telephone making the call. I've tried to garnish the number that is calling but the 911 operators are almost pissed off and hang up immediately to free up their lines if there is no emergency. I'm pretty sure BMW must be aware they are wasting money paying phone bills for 10 year old cars making random 911 calls.
  
• The 911 call also sends your precise location (and direction you are driving in) and description of your vehicle. One of the operators read all this information back to me including my license plate information to confirm the call was not an emergency.

It is silly and can cause several issues beyond tying up the 911 help line. Eventually the local cops will think your car is stolen and pull you over. Explaining to them that your car is automatically calling 911 in distress for help is going take some doing...

I was hoping my local BMW Dealership would fix this but it seems the OP said they have no clue. My car is also overdue for BMW oil/brake service by 2 months.

A local mechanic told me he seen this before when a BMW was over due for service and the car SOS telematics system started making random sporadic automatic calls BUT the SOS calls was to a BMW Service Department and not to 911.

[mxchris727]

So my 2012 M3 did this once recently, but never again. I'm laughing at my old comment from 2017!