Air conditioning failed

[rgbcyan]

I came here to put my name into the list of people affected by this issue.
2015 BEV with 35,000 kilometers. I've owned the car for a little over 2 years. It was bought used from a BMW dealership just out of its 4 year warranty, CPO not offered. The AC failed in winter 2021, and the car threw a code for the HV cable. After the first 3 weeks were spent working on the HV issue, the dealership quoted me 3k to replace the compressor based on their diagnosis. When they went to perform the replacement they found the metal shavings, and got back to me with a quote around CAD$24,000 to repair. For the moment, I've asked them to reassemble it with the broken compressor.

The service manager offered to resolve my situation by forwarding me to the sales department. At the same time I've just paid $6000 to resolve the HV cable problem. I don't have any written documentation from BMW yet.

I budgeted that owning a BMW EV might have some expensive repairs, but not a repair that exceeds the price I paid for the car, and not for a car with such low mileage that was serviced on schedule.

 

[i3Alan]

I came here to put my name into the ring, in case this ever becomes a class action.
2015 BEV with 35,000 kilometers. I've owned the car for a little over 2 years. It was bought used from a BMW dealership just out of its 4 year warranty, CPO not offered. The AC failed in winter 2021, and the car threw a code for the HV cable. After the first 3 weeks were spent working on the HV issue, the dealership quoted me 3k to replace the compressor based on their diagnosis. When they went to perform the replacement they found the metal shavings, and got back to me with a quote around CAD$24,000 to repair. For the moment, I've asked them to reassemble it with the broken compressor.

The service manager offered to resolve my situation by forwarding me to the sales department. At the same time I've just paid $6000 to resolve the HV cable problem. I don't have any written documentation from BMW yet.

I budgeted that owning a BMW EV might have some expensive repairs, but not a repair that exceeds the price I paid for the car, and not for a car with such low mileage that was serviced on schedule.

Sorry to hear you have been forced in to my club. Please keep us posted if you get any satisfaction on this from the dealer or BMW or elsewhere.

 

[EVNick123]

Joining the club - 2014 (registered in 2015) Rex 26,000 miles. Aircon is working but loud humming from rear when preconditioning, charging and driving. We live in Singapore (hot climate) so it is instantly clear that this is a compressor issue. Took to BMW. They say the compressor is on its way out BUT also that they have to replace the condensor as well. With a few o rings and refrigerant they are quoting: ~USD 3,000 for parts and ~USD 422 for labor. Parts quote seems about USD ~1000 more than can be sourced online.

On one hand this is a huge repair bill, but compared to the 20K other people seem to have had, I somehow feel lucky (one moment) and then angry the next!

I get it that the compressor will fail for these 2014 models, but no one seems to say anything about the compressor needing replacement as well - removing that would knock off 1,000 from the bill.

Dealer seemed to say that there would be a 2 year warranty on the replacement parts, which gives me some comfort around the risk that we are putting new parts into a system that could be full of contaminants.
Here in Singapore we have to renew our “entitlement” to own a car every 10 years. That costs USD45K alone at today’s prices. Cost/benefit analysis for me is another 4 years of motoring until the car gets shipped off to another country in SE Asia.

 

[TiRex]

Hi everyone,

I purchased a CPO 2018 i3 Rex this past Monday.
A completely new driving experience for me.

I have been reading this post "Air conditioning failed".
In reading the BMW new vehicle warranty guide supplied with my i3, if your i3 is considered a TZEV and registered in the states of California, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Washington the electric a/c compressor is covered for 15 years and 150,000 miles.
In fact most everything is covered for that time frame relating the actual propulsion of the vehicle.
It is not clear to me as written in the warranty guide but other states may be included.

I hope this information is useful.

 

[Anonymous]

I have been reading this post "Air conditioning failed".
In reading the BMW new vehicle warranty guide supplied with my i3, if your i3 is considered a TZEV and registered in the states of California, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Washington the electric a/c compressor is covered for 15 years and 150,000 miles.
In fact most everything is covered for that time frame relating the actual propulsion of the vehicle.
It is not clear to me as written in the warranty guide but other states may be included.

According to BMW NA, this ONLY applies if the vehicle fails one of those State's emissions test, and then the component that is causing the failure will be repaired/replaced. so the vehicle passes the emissions test.

 

[Zani88]

Seriously getting worried here...


I got a bmw i3 2015 used with only 30k kilometres (15k miles)

On the first day I noticed that the ac was not cooling it would run chilled air for 5 minutes os só and then just warm air ... even in confort mode with the ac/max on.

I hear some noise from the back when the car is charging although I don’t know how normal it is ...

Well car was purchased and delivered 2 days ago so it is up to them to fix it and I hope I can keep the car if it is not a huge issue.

Let’s see...
I will update here once I hear back from bmw

 

[joeguzman10]

I had the same issue when I first bought my 2014 i3 BEV.
One of the air vents was blowing directly to the temp sensor causing the air compressor to turn off.
I'm not sure where the sensors are located but try re-directing the air vents.

Joe

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure where the sensors are located but try re-directing the air vents.

Cabin sensor is here . Looks like a small button below the left AC knob. The other sensor is inside the center vent.



The goal of the system is to get the cabin temp sensor reading and the center vent temp reading to match per the temp dialed in on the console thermostat knob. If cabin temp from the cabin sensor is reading 90 F and the center vent is pumping out 75F+ air, the AC will keep running until the cabin and vent readings equalize at the temp you have set - say 75F. If the vent sensor was the only one, and you set your control to 75 F, minutes after you turned on the AC, the vent sensor would reach 75F, shut of the AC, and you'd still be sitting in an 85 F+ car.

 

[3pete]

Cabin sensor is here . Looks like a small button below the left AC knob. The other sensor is inside the center vent.

That pic looks a little different than what I'm used to in my i3.

Here's the sensor I'm familiar with (above the right vent):

Pic borrowed from here:
https://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17140

 

[Anonymous]

That pic looks a little different than what I'm used to in my i3.

Must be model year changes to the dash controls.

 

[gt1]

Both of my i3s had the same AC issue (actually the present one still has it and is at the dealer right now). When in auto mode, AC would start normally, but in 5-10 minutes would blow warm air for a couple of minutes, then return to the normal operation. The problem is with the control logic, not the AC itself because if manually set to the lowest temperature it will start blowing cold immediately.

 

[arkadysom]

Add me to the growing list of the dreaded Air Compressor going bad and getting a $23,000 bill. The part that really grinds my gears is my model is a 2017 i3, and they said that I have the original SKU for the part. I called BMW USA to appeal with this, and because my car is past its warrenty, they're just shrugging their shoulders about it.

For anyone interested, here's the pictures they sent me for the air compressor eating itself:

 

[alohart]

Add me to the growing list of the dreaded Air Compressor going bad and getting a $23,000 bill. The part that really grinds my gears is my model is a 2017 i3, and they said that I have the original SKU for the part.

Very sorry to read about the havoc that your compressor has wreaked. So much for the theory that only the earliest i3's had fragile compressors.

I think that if this happened to our 2014 BEV, I'd pay to have only a new compressor installed but nothing more. I'd gamble that I'd be able to use our car for an undetermined period before shrapnel from the compressor might cause some other expensive problem. That undetermined period could be a very long time.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd pay to have only a new compressor installed but nothing more

Add in replacing the AC condenser - parts cost is around $400 (the radiator thing in the front). From my retired AC mechanic neighbor, the flow channels in the condenser are so small, they will have trapped most of the shrapnel from a compressor failure, his shop automatically replaced them if an AC compressor failed, as they could never be flushed out.

 

[OLDBMWGUY]

arkadysom,

Very sorry to hear of you A/C problem, it is uppermost on the minds of many of us I3 owners. I think many of us thought that the later models would not experience this problem. Here in Hawaii, I use the A/C non-stop all the time.

Could I please ask some questions?

Are you the original owner ?
How many miles on the car?
What area of the country?
Has it always been serviced by BMW?
REX or BEV?

Thanks very much

 

[arkadysom]

arkadysom,

Very sorry to hear of you A/C problem, it is uppermost on the minds of many of us I3 owners. I think many of us thought that the later models would not experience this problem. Here in Hawaii, I use the A/C non-stop all the time.

Could I please ask some questions?

Are you the original owner ?
How many miles on the car?
What area of the country?
Has it always been serviced by BMW?
REX or BEV?

Thanks very much

Hello OLDBMWGUY.

I am not the original owner. I bought the car from OffLeaseOnly in September of 2020. I don't know what the service record of the car was before that. The only clue I have as to where the car was previously to me was Colorado, as I found old insurance information in the glovebox that wasn't removed. Since I've had it, it's resided in South FL (Palm Beach County area). Current miles are just over 40,000, and it doesn't have the range extender.

I do have an update though that others might find helpful, and I believe a similar situation presented itself to another owner on this forum.

I found a European auto repair shop that looked at my i3. I gave them all of the information that BMW gave me, and they did their own through investigation. Their findings were that while the air compressor was completely the culprit, the shrapnel only made it as far as the beginning of the condensor. There was no evidence of shrapnel at the exit, only the entry. So they're going to replace the air compressor and condensor both (OEM parts), and flush the rest thoroughly.

Their total cost? Just under $5000. And their repairs come with a 3 year warranty. I can have my car as early as this Friday.

And BMW charged me over $1000 for their lazy diagnostics, and had my car for a month while I appealed to BMW USA to fix their clearly faulty engineering, but shrugged their shoulders and told me its past warranty.

I hope others can find similar repair shops that can assist them with this issue should it arise. I wouldn't want them to go through this ridiculousness.

 

[arkadysom]

I'd pay to have only a new compressor installed but nothing more

Add in replacing the AC condenser - parts cost is around $400 (the radiator thing in the front). From my retired AC mechanic neighbor, the flow channels in the condenser are so small, they will have trapped most of the shrapnel from a compressor failure, his shop automatically replaced them if an AC compressor failed, as they could never be flushed out.

This checks with my experience posted above.

 

[bocabimmer]

arkadysom,

Very sorry to hear of you A/C problem, it is uppermost on the minds of many of us I3 owners. I think many of us thought that the later models would not experience this problem. Here in Hawaii, I use the A/C non-stop all the time.

Could I please ask some questions?

Are you the original owner ?
How many miles on the car?
What area of the country?
Has it always been serviced by BMW?
REX or BEV?

Thanks very much

Hello OLDBMWGUY.

I am not the original owner. I bought the car from OffLeaseOnly in September of 2020. I don't know what the service record of the car was before that. The only clue I have as to where the car was previously to me was Colorado, as I found old insurance information in the glovebox that wasn't removed. Since I've had it, it's resided in South FL (Palm Beach County area). Current miles are just over 40,000, and it doesn't have the range extender.

I do have an update though that others might find helpful, and I believe a similar situation presented itself to another owner on this forum.

I found a European auto repair shop that looked at my i3. I gave them all of the information that BMW gave me, and they did their own through investigation. Their findings were that while the air compressor was completely the culprit, the shrapnel only made it as far as the beginning of the condensor. There was no evidence of shrapnel at the exit, only the entry. So they're going to replace the air compressor and condensor both (OEM parts), and flush the rest thoroughly.

Their total cost? Just under $5000. And their repairs come with a 3 year warranty. I can have my car as early as this Friday.

And BMW charged me over $1000 for their lazy diagnostics, and had my car for a month while I appealed to BMW USA to fix their clearly faulty engineering, but shrugged their shoulders and told me its past warranty.

I hope others can find similar repair shops that can assist them with this issue should it arise. I wouldn't want them to go through this ridiculousness.

Your story sounds very similar to mine. I’m also in Palm Beach County and found a shop off Okeechobee Blvd (right up the street from Braman BMW ironically) that quoted me $3,700 for the repair.

Hope all goes well with your repair.