battery (12V i suppose) is not being charged

[Zwerius]

Hello,

Today I wanted to drive away in my i3 and got a message on the screen that the battery is not being charged and I have to stop carefully and get in touch with the nearest BMW dealer.
Since the message is in the driving mode (with no charger being connected) I suppose it must be the charging of the 12V battery.
This the screen (in Dutch):



Anyone else had this? And if yes, what was the problem?

 

[Jeremy]

This sounds like the fault I had here:-

http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=814

The car was recovered by truck and turned out to have a bad 12v battery connection - but also a serious failure of the high voltage control unit (see thread).

Parts are on the way from Germany.

I hope you are luckier

Please keep us informed of developments - as I will.

 

[Zwerius]

@Jeremy:
I had exactly the same as you had: also later, it showed a different display "Increased battery discharge when stationary. Electrical consumers were temporarily switched off." (in my case in Dutch text)

And the next morning all fault warnings were disappeared.

I was to the dealer and they inspected the software.
It seems that upgraded software is required.
It will be installed next week. Installation seems to take several hours.

I will keep you informed.

 

[Jeremy]

Zwerious

Several hours sounds a little long for a software update.

Since the fault sequence was exactly the same as mine - ask them if they are changing any components.

 

[Plug]

Several hours sounds a little long for a software update.

Ross took his in for a software update on Monday and said the process took 3 hours.

 

[MikeS]

The software updates on my BMW Z4 took about 3 hours and that was as long as it all went OK.

 

[Jeremy]

I was just suspicious because Zwerius's sequence of fault indications were exactly the same as the ones indicating my major control unit failure.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid & he'll be luckier

 

[MikeS]

Jeremy - I don’t think you are paranoid s i think the dealers are out to get us as well :twisted:

 

[Gonville]

My experience of software upgrades goes back to my 2006 5 series. They did it then through an RS232 cable at 19.2Kb. They left the modem in the boot after the service.

When they replaced the radar controller on the F10 they had to reload all the other subsystems to bring them up to the firmware level in the new controller.

I think the problem is that in the car they have a high speed bus probably fibre. I suspect they now have RJ45 Ethernet into that. Last time I asked they assured me that whilst they allowed 3 hours it was because they allowed for time to do it twice if there were any incompatibilities. Having 'checked all the boxes' each subsystem has its own firmware load and burn time. Each subsystem has to be of a compatible revision to all the other systems.

I think that this is probably akin to refreshing the bios (only many times over) in PC terms. I.e. You don't want it interrupted otherwise you have nothing. As they have multiple systems or subsystems to do this to I am not suprised it takes time. It's not like loading a Microsoft patch or a new version of an iPhone app. More like upgrading from ios4 to ios5 or XP to Windows 7. It could all be straight forward but you would allow a morning just in case it went wrong. As for backing it up first ........

 

[vmSeattle]

I ran across this post on Slashdot a few months back and thought it might be relevant here. it talks about the move to Ethernet for in-car communications between components.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/02/28/2242255/your-next-cars-electronics-will-likely-be-connected-by-ethernet

 

[Zwerius]

Well, today the car was back to the dealer and new software has been installed.
The problem should be solved now.
I'll keep you informed if anything new happens....

 

[XXL]

off topic: zeer informatieve website Zwerius ! Waar ik vroeger wat lacherig deed over zonnepanelen, warmtepompen etc. begin ik er nu ernstig er over na te denken om een passief huis te bouwen met voldoende panelen om ook de i3 vol te tanken. Hoewel die knoop (de aanschaf ervan) ook eerst nog moet doorgehakt worden.