Battery Replacement Under Warranty

[eye3guy]

If the local dealer is prepared to replace the AC compressor and the fan, that's a big bonus. Parts and labor puts that job at over $2 grand. And the replacement compressor will be a newer version that hasn't been prone to heat-failure.

Third party reporting agencies provide limited, basic info, only what the insurance agencies provide to them, and any online shared maintenance databases. A lot can and will be left out. Case in point, when we sold my daughter's car for her, I printed out the Carfax to provide prospective buyers. The report indicated that the car had never been in an accident. It actually had been rear-ended by a drunk driver on the freeway, causing over $6,000 in damage. Not a peep on the report. Intrigued, I ran a carfax on our old Jeep Cherokee, which had been T-boned by a red-light runner - $8,000 in repairs. Again, nothing at all on the Carfax. I have the carfax on all the service done on my i3 since 'new'. I also was able to print out the actual BMW Dealer service records on the i3, from the Connected App, before they 'improved' the app and locked that feature out. About a third of the service visits on the BMW service database are missing from the Carfax report.

One other thing can damage an i3 battery pack - leaving it parked for an extended period of time with an almost flat HV battery. So much so, that if you drive and deplete the battery, when you get close to the bottom of the charge, the car throws up a warning to change the HV battery as soon as possible.

But since you have a 30 day warranty - put it through a week of drive/charge cycles, and see what's up with the car. If the mileage in the guessometer stays low, worth a shot at getting BMW to evaluate the HV battery pack - could be a couple of dead cells in the pack that need to be replaced, BMW will charge around $300 to do the test. If the battery fails, they rescind the charge.

Oh wow, I didn't know that so much would be excluded from those reports. You raise several great points. Yea, my local dealer is fixing the a/c issues, so when they are done, and I get the car back, I'll follow your advice and put her through the paces, then see how she does! I'm still a bit more optimistic unless I have physical evidence to the contrary. But if the battery really has degraded to less than half efficacy, then I'll certainly reach out to BMW and keep ya'll posted on whether or not they actually follow through on the warranty!

 

[i3Alan]

MKH, any chance your VIN ends in 4404? I sold my '14 BEV as salvage (as in totaled) when my AC failed in '19 with a $23K repair quote from Chapman BMW. If you have my i3, the fraud has seriously escalated.

 

[eye3guy]

MKH, any chance your VIN ends in 4404? I sold my '14 BEV as salvage (as in totaled) when my AC failed in '19 with a $23K repair quote from Chapman BMW. If you have my i3, the fraud has seriously escalated.

Thank you for chiming in! And thank God no! lol mine ends in 1137

Also, I spoke with my local dealer and they have swapped out the compressor, and are waiting on the OEM fan to come in from BMW. They said I should have the car delivered to me by next Wed. at the latest (7/14). So once I get the car in my possession, I'll test it out to see how the battery fairs. Mine has a clear blue Texas title (no salvage), so that's at least a good sign in that regard.

Would you mind telling me what your experience with range was like in AZ? Especially in the summer? I'd like to think that it was mostly just showing low range due to driving conditions, because it was showing low range on the pics that I found all the way back from 2018 (when it was at Chapman), and it's had the same owner for almost 3 years after it left Chapman, so I sort of doubt that someone was driving it around for like almost 3 years with a grand total of an actual 35mi. range and no a/c. Especially in an area as sprawling and hot as Phoenix.

 

[i3Alan]

Would you mind telling me what your experience with range was like in AZ?

I got 75-90 miles of range year round in Phoenix for the 5 years I owned my i3. It was always in the garage when not in use, and seldom parked outside for more than a few hours.

 

[eye3guy]

Would you mind telling me what your experience with range was like in AZ?

I got 75-90 miles of range year round in Phoenix for the 5 years I owned my i3. It was always in the garage when not in use, and seldom parked outside for more than a few hours.

uh oh lol good to know though, thank you!

 

[vincentimes69]

It appears that the battery coverage is different, depending on the model and the state. So unless i read it wrong in the warranty booklet, here it is:

Default coverage:
New vehicle warranty = 4 years or 50,000 mi.
Battery defect in materials or workmanship = 8 years or 100,000 mi..
Battery "capacity loss" warranty = 8 years or 100,000 mi.
Emission related parts (REx) = 2 years or 24,000 mi.
Emission Control Components (REx) = 8 years or 80,000 mi.
Auxilary Power Unit (REx) = 15 years or 150,000 mi.
Rust protection = 12 years unlimited miles

CA, VT, CT, ME, MD, MA, NJ, NY, RI coverage (rest is same as default):
Battery defect in materials or workmanship = 10 years or 150,000 mi..
Emission Control Components (REx) = 15 years or 150,000 mi.

DE, OR, PA, WA coverage (rest is same as default):
Battery defect in materials or workmanship = 7 years or 70,000 mi..
Emission Control Components (REx) = 7 years or 70,000 mi.

Conclusion: the battery capacity loss is the same for all of us. 8 years or 100,000 mi.

 

[eye3guy]

UPDATE!

So the small local dealer that I bought the car from sent it to a certified BMW dealer service center to have the a/c fixed. and get this....The certified dealer service writer, acknowledged that yes, in fact both the a/c compressor, and the a/c fan were not working. He also noted that the battery was shot. WITHOUT even asking me, or the small local dealer, he just went ahead and replaced all of the cells in the battery pack. He said that it was a $40,000 value, all covered under warranty! (My car had 80kmi on it btw and is a 2014). Granted the smaller local dealer didn't want to pay to totally fix the a/c....So I had to pay for them to put in the compressor. $3,000. BUT they offered me 6 months interest free financing, and even gave me special pricing, as the normal cost for this is well above $3,000. Plus it's basically like I got brand new 60AH i3 BEV for only $3,000 (which I am obviously happy to take)! It took 2 months for the new battery to come in, which felt like an eternity lol this aside from the fact that the local small dealer didn't even want me to know which BMW service center had my car. But all's well that ends well I suppose. Plus the a/c now has it's own 2 year warranty from BMW, which I'm happy about since I live in a hot climate.

Long story short. If your i3 has a degrading battery, it's not impossible to have it fixed, even if your a/c is bad. I understand that this may be a rare case, but still...it IS possible, cause it just happened to me. My KapaMax is @19.7Kwh and my fully charged estimated range is at 93mi when the car is @100% in Ecopro +.

There is in fact, hope!

 

[jtheires]

Thanks, Art (and all),
So given all of this valuable information, is there any way for an owner/user to establish if their battery pack is low enough to warrant a replacement or refurbishment?
Also, is there or is there not a battery warranty on my 2015 i3, and if so, what specifically does it say? My local dealer claims there is no warranty, but several online sources state there is a 100,000 mile 8-year battery capacity warranty offered by BMW.
Thanks,
James

 

[alohart]

So given all of this valuable information, is there any way for an owner/user to establish if their battery pack is low enough to warrant a replacement or refurbishment?

Because there's a battery management system (BMS) that controls the power flowing in and out of the battery pack, it's difficult to determine the actual usable capacity of the battery pack. How much of the usable capacity is determined by actual battery cell capacities and how much by the BMS? Usable capacity varies with temperature and the current flowing into or out of the battery pack. Usable capacity is greater at lower currents and at higher temperatures. I assume that BMW's usable capacity test is conducted under specified conditions. Few i3 owners have the equipment to perform a battery pack capacity test under BMW's specified conditions (I don't know these conditions).

The best we can do is to read the Batt. Kapa. max estimates of usable battery pack capacity or use a smartphone app like mi3 (iOS) or electrified (Android) or BMW's Windows desktop app ISTA to display the BMS' estimate of battery health and the measurement of maximum and minimum cell voltages, capacities, and charge levels to get more information about actual usable capacity. I wouldn't pay a BMW dealer for a battery pack usable capacity test unless I had good evidence that the capacity estimate was less than 65% of the nominal usable capacity of a new battery pack. This is because the system software update and capacity test that a BMW dealer performs almost always increase the usable capacity, at least temporarily.

Also, is there or is there not a battery warranty on my 2015 i3, and if so, what specifically does it say? My local dealer claims there is no warranty, but several online sources state there is a 100,000 mile 8-year battery capacity warranty offered by BMW.

If you don't have your Service and Warranty Information manual, you could download it and show the battery pack warranty to your clueless dealer. The 2014 i3 Service and Warranty Information manual states that the battery pack warranty against defects and excessive capacity loss is 8 years/100k miles.