help! stuck by road with dead i3

SanSerif · Sep 4, 2014

Car just stopped dead. Plenty of battery - but now nothing. Can't get anything to light up - not even hazards. BMW are sending truck.

But, i'm blocking road. Parking brake seems to be on : HOW DO I MANUALLY OVERRIDE so I can push car?

nowtta60 · Sep 4, 2014

SanSerif said:
Car just stopped dead. Plenty of battery - but now nothing. Can't get anything to light up - not even hazards. BMW are sending truck.

But, i'm blocking road. Parking brake seems to be on : HOW DO I MANUALLY OVERRIDE so I can push car?

Dunno. Just done a google for ya - can't find anything. Suggest a follow up call to BMW would be more productive.

noakey · Sep 4, 2014

SanSerif said:
Car just stopped dead. Plenty of battery - but now nothing. Can't get anything to light up - not even hazards. BMW are sending truck.

But, i'm blocking road. Parking brake seems to be on : HOW DO I MANUALLY OVERRIDE so I can push car?

Apparently you hold your key on the steering column near the gear selector and you are able to select neutral. Never tried but a recovery guy told me while trying to move my i3 from my drive (it refused go READY). But in my case I did have power.

uktechie · Sep 4, 2014

Bad news that, how did you get on any explanation yet?

SanSerif · Sep 4, 2014

Right, back on a computer now (rather than phone!).

Fortunately, the car's right at the end of my drive (rather than in the centre lane of the motorway). Unfortunately, it's blocking the road (rather than having driven another 10 feet further when all would be fine!)

It's totally and utterly dead. By repeated pressing of "start", I can occasionally get the screen to flicker into life - sometimes along with random other lights. However, it rapidly disappears and I'm left with black everything again. Pushing doesn't work - it seems to be locked.

I'm wondering if the 12v battery is dead (does it have a 12v?) so cobbled together a lot of extension cables and managed to reach the car with the 240 v 3 pin charger. However, I can't open the flap!!! Eventually found blue tabs which I think are a manual override - but can't get them to release the flap - pulled really hard but nothing's happening and blue plastic is threatening to break.

So, here I am waiting for the flat bed truck.

This is all so annoying. Mrs SS was driving and had just reached the point of having confidence in the newfangled car and was absolutely loving driving it. I'm doubting she'll ever get confidence back - she's distinctly unimpressed.

BrianStanier · Sep 4, 2014

Looks like the 12V battery or the dc-dc converter which supplies the 12V when the car is running. Yes, there is a 12V battery but its difficult to see let alone get at.

The bonnet release, if thats what you're trying to do, is the cable under the little flap on the passenger door jamb. Fish it out and pull the loop.

Stevei3 · Sep 4, 2014

Hi Sanserif,

sorry to hear about your i3 dying on you. 99% it's a badly connected, depleted or dead 12v battery, perhaps caused by the built-in 12v charger malfunctioning. Not having 12v essentially bricks the car to the point where even going to neutral isn't an option. Could well be that it won't even start to charge, but there's no harm in trying.
Have you looked through the manual for info on the manual charge flap release ? It's on page 157 of the Dutch manual, chapter 'Charging'. The release should be in the rear door sill/pillar on the side of the car where the chargeport lives. You'll have to open the rear door to access it. But I guess this -is- the spot where you allready found the blue knob.

Good luck, I'll be interested to hear what went wrong, Steven

SanSerif · Sep 5, 2014

After a *lot* of faff last night, it was taken away on a flatbed. Not BMW's fault - they were fantastic in responsiveness and help; sorting out trucks promptly and offering (unneeded) alternative vehicles etc.

Problem was, the car had packed up in a very narrow lane and the narrow flatbed was too narrow for the car + "skates", the wide flatbed was to wide for the lane, and the side-loader didn't stand a chance. They tried putting all four wheels in skates and pushing it to a wider part of the road - but the surface was to cruddy for that to work. As we're scratching our heads, another of their chaps turned up and said "seen this before - stick 12v on the battery and we'll be able to turn off the handbrake and use the steering". So that's what we did - and it worked. Car towed on to narrow flatbed and I went to bed.

BMW phoned this morning to say it's a software fault. They've updated the software, will soak test it overnight and in the morning and will have the car ready by lunch time.

I hope that's the problem dealt with - it's a fantastic car really (as I explained to everyone who came to ask when the road would be cleared!).

Plug · Sep 5, 2014

Hi SanSerif,

Sorry to hear about your problems.

SanSerif said:
As we're scratching our heads, another of their chaps turned up and said "seen this before - stick 12v on the battery and we'll be able to turn off the handbrake and use the steering". So that's what we did - and it worked.

Any chance you could go into a bit more detail about exactly how that was done ?

jadnashuanh · Sep 5, 2014

The 12vdc battery is buried in the front near the firewall. If you had a trickle charger and it had a 12vdc socket, you might be able to plug it into one of the accessory sockets in the car and get enough 12vdc to engage neutral. One of the s/w fixes in the latest software deals with charging the 12vdc battery which runs all of the normal things like lights and computers in the car. IT is only charged while running, and while charging, and apparently not as well as it should be from the original software!

Some people avoid software updates, but it is at their own peril IMHO.

SanSerif · Sep 5, 2014

He had one of those battery booster things (basically, another battery) and either replaced the existing battery with his "substitute" or simply "jumped" them both in parallel.

No idea whether this was a good thing to do or not - but it certainly solved the problem of the moment.

Quite impressed that tow-truck bloke was familiar with i3s and knew how they worked and where to find the 12v battery (it's very well hidden). He was a big fan of the i3 and had had one to play with for a while. He rated EVs in general - hopefully not *just* because he saw them as a boost for his flatbed business!

canuckjc · Sep 5, 2014

I wonder if it's possible to get enough current into the car through one of the accessory outlets -- enough to put it into neutral in a situation such as this. The outlet would have to be unswitched, and I wouldn't expect more than an amp or two, similar to a trickle charger. I use one like this on another of my cars.
I guess one danger would be if there was a short. You'd probably blow the fuse protecting the outlet…and hopefully nothing more.

I33t · Sep 5, 2014

Certainly it would be a good idea to know how to safely jump the 12v battery!

Plug · Sep 6, 2014

I33t said:
Certainly it would be a good idea to know how to safely jump the 12v battery!

Agreed.

I wasn't sure where it was but found this post explaining it in a bit more detail : http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8695#p8695

uktechie · Sep 6, 2014

SanSerif said:
BMW phoned this morning to say it's a software fault. They've updated the software, will soak test it overnight and in the morning and will have the car ready by lunch time.

I hope that's the problem dealt with - it's a fantastic car really (as I explained to everyone who came to ask when the road would be cleared!).

Can you ask them to explain how a software fault caused such a bad issue and was it really software issue?

SanSerif · Sep 6, 2014

Grrr.

Drove back from dealer - no problems; behaving exactly as I thought it should.

Then plug it in at home and get "mains power too low" message and no charging. Never seen that msg before

I'm using the same 240v 3 pin that I've always used - any clues?

uktechie · Sep 6, 2014

SanSerif said:
Grrr.

Drove back from dealer - no problems; behaving exactly as I thought it should.

Then plug it in at home and get "mains power too low" message and no charging. Never seen that msg before

I'm using the same 240v 3 pin that I've always used - any clues?

There is a setting, cable charging level, have a look if set on high is the issue.

jadnashuanh · Sep 6, 2014

The software update may have changed some of your presets (or lost them entirely), so double-check your menus to see if they are setup the way you want them...new software, almost new to you vehicle defaults.

SanSerif · Sep 9, 2014

Well, I set the charge rate to its lowest setting but it still didn't work - message read "low mains power", dashboard gong-ed and port flashed red.

So, off it went to BMW. Who've obviously been playing with it as I got a text saying "charge low" from the BMW central computer.

Got a call today to say they replicated the problem (at least it wasn't my dodgy electricity supply!) and that they're changing a part. Hmm. I reckon they're guessing as much as I am.

SanSerif · Sep 12, 2014

Got car back yesterday - all appears well.

The garage said that it was a problem with the cable lock-in mechanism. I'm not so sure if that's accurate - but then I was speaking to the service manager rather than the bloke who'd actually done the work.

I pretty much fully expected a few glitches - loads of new technology, new model and delivery very early on of one of the first off the production line. However, it's a shame it happened - Mrs SS isn't so forgiving and it'll take a while for her to trust the car again.

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