RobJones
Member
My daily commute is about 40 miles each way, with most of that on the interstate (I-75). I've been doing this commute with my 2015 i3 Rex since it was new and it now has around 126K mostly trouble-free miles. Until now. I have a L2 charger at home, and one at work and charge during the day. Thanks to some battery degradation I can barely make the trip on a full charge, but I rarely have to use the REx.
However yesterday I had to run an errand on my way home that depleted the battery to the point that the Rex kicked on while I was on I-75 at highway speed. I still had about 10 miles to go, so I took the next exit with the plan to use surface streets to make it easier on the Rex. Everything was normal for the first few minutes, then all of a sudden I got the "Drivetrain Malfunction" warning me that it was not possible to continue the trip and to seek assistance from the nearest BMW service center. All motive power ceased and I coasted into a parking lot. I "rebooted" the car and it was able to move a short distance even though the Rex wouldn't restart. But it shut down again after only moving a short distance. Also, some part of the drivetrain would shudder and buck pretty violently just before the car came to a stop.
I should note that the 12V battery is fairly new and it's had the motor mount recall taken care of.
I left the car there and got a ride home with a friend and came back a couple of hours later with my trailer to try to get it the rest of the way home. To my surprise, when I restarted it, everything seemed back to normal. The Rex kicked on and other than the Check Engine light, there were no more warnings. It easily drove unto the trailer under its own power. When I unloaded it at home it again behaved normally. I plugged it into my L2 charger for a little while until it indicated about 10 miles of electric range and took it for a ride around the neighborhood. Everything seemed totally normal.
I connected my diagnostic tool and looked for fault codes, and was alarmed to see 61 fault codes - I work on cars and have seen cars with lots of faults, but this might be a record. I think most of them may be related to the last time the 12V failed because I didn't clear any of the codes when I registered the new battery. I saved the report as a PDF, but don't see a way to include it here. There are a few that stood out, though:
ECM: (Engine Control Module - DME/DDE)
21E96F Driving Readiness Information: Cannot Be Established After Driver's Driving Readiness Request
EME: (Electrical Machine Electronics)
2228B8 Emergency Manager Information, EDME: Unable To Activate Driving Readiness
222626 EME: Internal Fault (Active Short Circuit Requested)
22285F High-Voltage Battery Unit, Multiple Fault: Category 6 Fault, Opening Switch Contactors
222630 Inverter, Phase Current, Signal: Too Great
222869 Information Emergency Operation Manager: Electrical Machine Deactivation
222323 Inverter, Current Sensor Phase W, Signal: Too Great
222322 Inverter, Current Sensor Phase V, Signal: Too Great
222321 Inverter, Current Sensor Phase U, Signal: Too Great
22260C EME: Internal Fault
22271 B High-Voltage Security Monitoring: Overvoltage Detected In The Intermediate Circuit
222862 Information Emergency Operation Manager: Range Extender Electrical Machine Deactivation
222867 Information Emergency Operation Manager: Range Extender Electrical Machine Deactivation
22281C High-Voltage Power Management: High-Voltage System Not Started In Spite Of Request
REME (Range Extender Electrical Machine Electronics)
21 DD61 Inverter , Range Extender Electrical Machine: Voltage Too High
I cleared the codes to get rid of any that aren't relevant and took a couple more short trips and so far none have come back. But I obviously need to sort this out before I can trust it again for my commute. I got lucky this time that it failed in a place that was safe and easy to stop. I hate to think what would have happened if I had not decided to take the exit and stayed on the interstate!
Even though I do regularly work on cars, I have not had to do much to this one beyond basic maintenance. So I'm not sure where to start. Is there a best practice for troubleshooting something like this, or is this something fairly common with a known problem to begin looking for?
However yesterday I had to run an errand on my way home that depleted the battery to the point that the Rex kicked on while I was on I-75 at highway speed. I still had about 10 miles to go, so I took the next exit with the plan to use surface streets to make it easier on the Rex. Everything was normal for the first few minutes, then all of a sudden I got the "Drivetrain Malfunction" warning me that it was not possible to continue the trip and to seek assistance from the nearest BMW service center. All motive power ceased and I coasted into a parking lot. I "rebooted" the car and it was able to move a short distance even though the Rex wouldn't restart. But it shut down again after only moving a short distance. Also, some part of the drivetrain would shudder and buck pretty violently just before the car came to a stop.
I should note that the 12V battery is fairly new and it's had the motor mount recall taken care of.
I left the car there and got a ride home with a friend and came back a couple of hours later with my trailer to try to get it the rest of the way home. To my surprise, when I restarted it, everything seemed back to normal. The Rex kicked on and other than the Check Engine light, there were no more warnings. It easily drove unto the trailer under its own power. When I unloaded it at home it again behaved normally. I plugged it into my L2 charger for a little while until it indicated about 10 miles of electric range and took it for a ride around the neighborhood. Everything seemed totally normal.
I connected my diagnostic tool and looked for fault codes, and was alarmed to see 61 fault codes - I work on cars and have seen cars with lots of faults, but this might be a record. I think most of them may be related to the last time the 12V failed because I didn't clear any of the codes when I registered the new battery. I saved the report as a PDF, but don't see a way to include it here. There are a few that stood out, though:
ECM: (Engine Control Module - DME/DDE)
21E96F Driving Readiness Information: Cannot Be Established After Driver's Driving Readiness Request
EME: (Electrical Machine Electronics)
2228B8 Emergency Manager Information, EDME: Unable To Activate Driving Readiness
222626 EME: Internal Fault (Active Short Circuit Requested)
22285F High-Voltage Battery Unit, Multiple Fault: Category 6 Fault, Opening Switch Contactors
222630 Inverter, Phase Current, Signal: Too Great
222869 Information Emergency Operation Manager: Electrical Machine Deactivation
222323 Inverter, Current Sensor Phase W, Signal: Too Great
222322 Inverter, Current Sensor Phase V, Signal: Too Great
222321 Inverter, Current Sensor Phase U, Signal: Too Great
22260C EME: Internal Fault
22271 B High-Voltage Security Monitoring: Overvoltage Detected In The Intermediate Circuit
222862 Information Emergency Operation Manager: Range Extender Electrical Machine Deactivation
222867 Information Emergency Operation Manager: Range Extender Electrical Machine Deactivation
22281C High-Voltage Power Management: High-Voltage System Not Started In Spite Of Request
REME (Range Extender Electrical Machine Electronics)
21 DD61 Inverter , Range Extender Electrical Machine: Voltage Too High
I cleared the codes to get rid of any that aren't relevant and took a couple more short trips and so far none have come back. But I obviously need to sort this out before I can trust it again for my commute. I got lucky this time that it failed in a place that was safe and easy to stop. I hate to think what would have happened if I had not decided to take the exit and stayed on the interstate!
Even though I do regularly work on cars, I have not had to do much to this one beyond basic maintenance. So I'm not sure where to start. Is there a best practice for troubleshooting something like this, or is this something fairly common with a known problem to begin looking for?
