Possible major failure.

Jeremy · Apr 2, 2014

After using the i3 every day for its first week and clocking up one trip of around 120 miles, today was its first critical mission - taking my wife to the airport.

Sadly, it let me down. We got only a couple of hundred yards when the information flagged up a fault message :- " Battery Not Charging. Stop Carefully. Have vehicle inspected by BMW iService".

Later, back in the garage, it showed a different display "Increased battery discharge when stationary. Electrical consumers were temporarily switched off."

Later still all fault warnings disappeared.

BMW Emergency Service are recovering it in the morning for diagnosis.

I've spent my life in the microelectronics industry and I've had suspicions from my first day with the car that some of its software is a bit "buggy".

Hopefully the bugs can be ironed out by software updates.

Has anyone seen anything similar?

agj · Apr 2, 2014

Jeremy said:
After using the i3 every day for its first week and clocking up one trip of around 120 miles, today was its first critical mission - taking my wife to the airport.

Sadly, it let me down. We got only a couple of hundred yards when the information flagged up a fault message :- " Battery Not Charging. Stop Carefully. Have vehicle inspected by BMW iService".

Later, back in the garage, it showed a different display "Increased battery discharge when stationary. Electrical consumers were temporarily switched off."

Later still all fault warnings disappeared.

BMW Emergency Service are recovering it in the morning for diagnosis.

I've spent my life in the microelectronics industry and I've had suspicions from my first day with the car that some of its software is a bit "buggy".

Hopefully the bugs can be ironed out by software updates.

Has anyone seen anything similar?

Waouwww ... that's scary!

This sounds like the first major incident reported so far here (though Andy and some other owners surely had their share of moments of fright).

Please keep us posted.

Paul1886 · Apr 2, 2014

Hi Jeremy..... Not really the sort of thing I want to read 2 days before I take delivery! :-(

Can I just ask did you have to get it towed in or was it still driveable?

Jeremy · Apr 2, 2014

Paul

It's still sitting in my garage.

They're sending a recovery vehicle in the morning.

I suspect it's drivable now - I've moved it back & forth in the garage with no more fault displays.

I can't risk taking it any further in case it happens again away from home though.

My gut feeling is it may be just a software glitch - we'll see.

Paul1886 · Apr 3, 2014

Thanks Jeremy,

I see you are SW UK, are you by any chance an Ocean BMW customer?.... if so would like to hear how quickly they turn this around for you.

Paul.

AndyW · Apr 3, 2014

Jeremy said:
We got only a couple of hundred yards when the information flagged up a fault message :- " Battery Not Charging. Stop Carefully. Have vehicle inspected by BMW iService".

Stupid question, but is yours a REx? Was the SOC reducing quicker than you'd expect? How about the range?

Jeremy · Apr 3, 2014

Paul

No - I'm in the Bristol area.

Andy

Yes it's a REx - I started with 99% charge showing 77 miles. After driving maybe half a mile and being parked up for a while, the second fault warning appeared saying "Increased battery discharge when stationary. Electrical consumers temporarily switched off." - I noticed then that the range had reduced to 67 miles.

It would appear that some energy had been drained from the battery - but, if so, there was no sign of overheating or energy dissipation anywhere.

Since the warnings all eventually disappeared, and the car drove normally when we loaded it on the recovery vehicle this morning, I'm hoping the whole episode was just a control system software glitch.

They've been working on it today and I'm expecting a progress report in the morning.

Stevei3 · Apr 3, 2014

Hi Jeremy,

it could well be that it is not the high voltage battery that is acting up, but the small 12v battery and/or its charger (the big battery charges the smaller one). The 12v system powers the onboard electronics and infotainment. Or its just software. Don't forget we're beta-testing it for them, I've had my share of cryptic messages

Steven

Jeremy · Apr 3, 2014

Steve

I thought about that - but would they tell you to immobilise the vehicle just because of a 12v battery low charge?

Also charging the 12v battery is pretty low tech - I'm not sure it would need so much control system supervision.

I'm still hoping it's purely a software bug, but I would be very reluctant to ignore a direct instruction to stop - just in case!

Which messages have you ignored from your car?

Stevei3 · Apr 4, 2014

Hi Jeremy,

all guesswork on my side here, but I would expect that if your 12v system went down, all your telemetrics go down too, possibly even the HV-battery control systems. It could well be that the i3 is essentially bricked without 12v. But, like I said, pure guesswork. It would be interesting to know what BMWs answer would be.

Sensory/computer trivia in my car while driving (translated from Dutch, so could be different in an 'English' car): 'Drivetrain malfunction' (twice), 'Please set clock', 'Fuel filler system malfunction, please unlock manually'.

So, it's good to know that the electronic lock on the filler flap is constantly monitored

. These are all yellow or white error messages, so the car tells you that it is ok to keep on driving but it is a good idea to contact your dealer. I have had the car send an error status report to BMW when the drivetrain warning popped up a second time, expecting that a technician would contact me a day or two later. They have yet to call, alas.

I absolutely would stop and let the car be towed as well when instructed, like in your case. I guess I'm a cautious fellow too.

Hoping it will be software or something archaic as a faulty olde 12v lead acid battery,
Regards, Steven

Jeremy · Apr 4, 2014

Looks like you were right Steve!

I just had the diagnostic report saying they had found a bad electrical connection on the 12v battery circuit which was causing several problems.

It's obviously more than just a loose connection though - apparently it needs a new part and they're hoping to have it finished by monday.

They're also going to upgrade to the latest software - which apparently fixes several other bugs.

Jeremy · Apr 5, 2014

Update

Looks like my car is going to stay with the dealer for a week to have a control module and another part replaced - followed by extensive testing.

Rental car arrived at my door within a couple of hours - so BMWi UK emergency service is pretty efficient.

I asked for a small car - was offered a 5 series and asked to be downgraded to a 3 series because I keep it in a tight spot. Ah well.

I believe the main module being replaced is the "12v control module that controls the high voltage components".

(I'm not sure what it means either)

I'd be interested to know if I'm alone or whether anyone else has had a similar fault.

Jeremy · Apr 8, 2014

I've had a more detailed report from the dealership on the fault.

Apparently the first fault found was simple a loose 12v battery connection.

A diagnostic check on the car's own fault log then revealed a total of 18 logged faults - most of which could have been caused by the loose connection.

A complete software update reduced the fault count down to two - but one of those is major,

The control unit which sits above the motor and controls the high voltage electrics has to be replaced - and that is currently awaited from Germany.

Replacement is apparently quite a major 6 hour job and this is reported to be only the second such failure in the UK. A good part of the service time is apparently spent on safety precautions - since a max DC voltage of around 400v obviously doesn't leave much margin for human error.

I must confess to being both disappointed & nervous about all this - but I do think it's important that people on here share as much detail as possible about their problems so that we can all understand more about the technology and its weaknesses.

noakey · Apr 8, 2014

Jeremy said:
I've had a more detailed report from the dealership on the fault.

Apparently the first fault found was simple a loose 12v battery connection.

A diagnostic check on the car's own fault log then revealed a total of 18 logged faults - most of which could have been caused by the loose connection.

A complete software update reduced the fault count down to two - but one of those is major,

The control unit which sits above the motor and controls the high voltage electrics has to be replaced - and that is currently awaited from Germany.

Replacement is apparently quite a major 6 hour job and this is reported to be only the second such failure in the UK. A good part of the service time is apparently spent on safety precautions - since a max DC voltage of around 400v obviously doesn't leave much margin for human error.

I must confess to being both disappointed & nervous about all this - but I do think it's important that people on here share as much detail as possible about their problems so that we can all understand more about the technology and its weaknesses.

Thank you Jeremy. . This is excellent... keep sharing everyone..

It's funny cos I notice things go quiet during the weekend.. yall must be put playing with your i3..

woof · Apr 8, 2014

Jeremy said:
...

The control unit which sits above the motor and controls the high voltage electrics has to be replaced - and that is currently awaited from Germany.

Replacement is apparently quite a major 6 hour job and this is reported to be only the second such failure in the UK. A good part of the service time is apparently spent on safety precautions - since a max DC voltage of around 400v obviously doesn't leave much margin for human error.

Thanks for the details.

When we Electronauts got to tour the BMW facilities, BMW was very proud of their battery pack being repairable by the dealerships. This was in stark contrast to Tesla (and BMW took great pains to point that out) which doesn't repair packs at the service center. Instead, Tesla just swaps out whole assemblies with new one and ships the bad assembly back to the factory for diagnosis and repair. Recently I ran into the service manager at the BMW dealer where I'll be buying my i3, and he, having just come back from BMW training on the i3, and knowing I'm a Tesla owner, also pointed out how they would service the battery locally and Tesla couldn't.

One can argue the merits of both approaches...but what strikes me is that Tesla's "swap in a new one" approach provides much faster turnaround for the owner. I've had my entire drive assembly replaced and the car back the next day. Several others have had the main traction battery pack replaced in less than a day. In the end, while we owners are curious about what went wrong, we really just want our cars back quickly and in working order.

Stevei3 · Apr 8, 2014

Hi Jeremy,

bummer. But good it popped up at the Serice Centre. Rhetorical question: would this be a fault in the same High Voltage Distributor as vb996 had ? (although he had heater problems: http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=577)

Hope everything works out ok.

Regards, Steven

Jeremy · Apr 16, 2014

Had an update from the dealer today.

Parts have arrived from Germany - but their only high-voltage trained technician is on Easter holiday until Tuesday :x

Looks like late next week for completion.

Apparently they have some UK spares stock - but not this module.

….. and standard delivery time of BMW parts from Germany to UK is five days

…… I think they have a weekly camel train.

MikeS · Apr 16, 2014

Bit frustrating if they only have 1 person who can tell if the electrics are live or not!

Maybe they need to get Amazon or some Far Eastern eBay seller to set their distribution given how quickly these deliver!!

Jeremy · Apr 17, 2014

Yes - when I ran a technology business 20yrs ago, we could get spares to anywhere in W Europe within 48 hours max & anywhere in the world within 3/4 days.

There's no excuse for a 5 day lag from Germ to UK these days.

Jeremy · Apr 17, 2014

PS……… I did offer to lend them a multimeter

Possible major failure.

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