Car stops charging as soon as the door is locked.

[engineear]

I have a 2015 and have used multiple charging stations. The 1st one I used was a level 2 near me(I had not yet installed my EVSE). I hooked up and waited outside my unlocked car and had no issues. I have since used 3 different DC fast charge stations with the car locked without incident. I have it set for "charge immediately". I've been using the Charge Point card BMW supplied which gives you 30 minutes of free charge time. If your battery was depleted and you were at a fast charge station, 4 hours wouldn't be necessary and you'd be clogging up a space someone else might need.

My only negative encounter with a DC station was after I plugged in, scanned my card, the unit is starting to charge and then at the last second it stops, saying to unplug and try again. After about the 5th time I called the number on the unit. I was asked if the car is completely off. Duh, can it be partially off? So I go and start the car, turn it off, re-plug in...and it starts. As it's charging, I lock the doors and walk away. Since then I always check what it's doing with the phone app...just in case. Electronics....they're better, though not totally trustworthy.

 

[clktex]

I'm noticing a similar issue with my i3 REX I purchased at the end of July. I plug the MFR-supplied charging cord into a 120v outlet at my building. Charger and vehicle both show it's charging (on the charger and with the flashing blue light on the side of the car). Car locks, still charging and still showing on both. I go away for a few hours and come back, and there's no light on the vehicle and the charger doesn't show any faults but isn't charging.

The outlet I'm using worked fine for the first couple of weeks, but now it seems to shut off every day after a couple of hours (not sure how long exactly since I don't go down to check but once or twice a day). The color of the indicator light for the "power" is yellow or orange. The "charging" indicator shows green. When I return to the car if it has stopped charging, the color of the power light is yellow and there's no light on the charging indicator.

Is this a power source issue (not sufficient amperage on the circuit)? Cord problem? Software setting? Something else?

 

[alohart]

I go away for a few hours and come back, and there's no light on the vehicle and the charger doesn't show any faults but isn't charging.

The blue charging light on the car doesn't stay on while charging is occurring; it turns off after only a few minutes. So the behavior of that light that you're describing is normal.

How much has the charge level as displayed by your car increased?

Do you have immediate charging selected in iDrive? If you have low-cost charging selected with a departure time set, charging could start immediately, especially if the battery pack's charge level is low, and then shut off waiting for the start time for low-cost charging to arrive.

 

[clktex]

I have the car set for immediate maximum charging at both voltage options (fixed that after my first weekend watching it take over 36 hours to try to charge). I do not have it set for low cost charging.

The car has always seemed to start and stop charging over time. Though I can't check with my iRemote app during the day (my garage is underground and outside of cell service), when I charged it the first weekend or so at home, it would show as not charging sometimes when it was plugged in.

The car was at about 35 miles when I plugged it in yesterday morning (around 9 am) and by 5 when I left it had only gotten do about 50 miles or so (perhaps even less). This morning when I plugged in it was at just under 50 percent charged. Will check in about an hour and see what's happening.

 

[alohart]

Something definitely seems to be wrong.

It sounds like you might be charging in a shared parking garage. If some joker decided to temporarily unplug your EVSE to interrupt charging, or if a circuit breaker tripped, or if your charging session was interrupted for any reason external to your car, you should receive an email message alerting you of an interrupted charging session, but of course, not if your car has no cell phone signal. BMW's Connected Drive servers have been flakey recently, so email alerts might not be being sent.

If you could successfully charge elsewhere with your charging cord, that would suggest that the electrical circuit that you're using might be to blame.

 

[clktex]

Well, if the joker unplugged me, he or she plugged me back in again, so it should start charging again at that point, right? I'm heading downstairs in about 20 minutes so I'll see how things look at that point.

What I don't get is that I had no problems for a good 2 weeks using the same outlet (have tried both plugs after the first incident. Second plug worked fine once, then same issue happened on Monday or Tuesday of this week, as well as yesterday).

 

[clktex]

OK interesting update. I went back to the garage after my workout just now. Car is still charging (no blue light but the indicator on the charger still shows charging). I decided to open the car and check the start time. It says "8:45 am" which not coincidentally is the departure time I have set every morning for the vehicle.

I'm guessing that the software is turning on and off charging (why is beyond me if I have set for maximum) to try to time full charge to just before departure.

So, I added a second departure time at 6:00 pm and surprise, the charge completion changed to 1:00 am.

This seems like an odd quirk in the software. Any ideas on how to fix this so it will charge without me having to have an arbitrary second departure time set?

 

[alohart]

Our i3 has 2 departure times set and low-cost charging start and stop times. But these settings aren't active if immediate charging is selected. Earlier software versions had buggy implementation of charging logic, so if your car doesn't have a recent software version installed, maybe that's at least part of the problem. But even with very early July 2014 software, our car always charged immediately if immediate charging was selected despite having departure times and a low-cost charging period defined. So the behavior that you're describing doesn't agree with my experience.

 

[clktex]

Well, it is odd, but I double checked my settings when I set up the second departure time. Everything's set for immediate and max charging. It was only after I added a second departure time that it changed the estimated charge completion from 8:45 am to 1:00 am.

I just got the car in July so I assumed I had up to date software. However, I picked up the car late in the day and didn't get the full orientation treatment, so I guess it's possible that they didn't update any firmware or software if there were any available.

 

[user 3172]

Have to say, I think the handbook's explanation of the various charging options is lacking in some areas. I read it several times before getting hold of an actual car and I would never have arrived at the correct understanding of how it works and what the options are. Maybe that's just me though.

Once I sat down and looked at the screen in the vehicle it all made more sense in terms of the method of scheduling departure times for different days / times etc.

Not saying you've set it up wrongly but I wouldn't be surprised if many people get things confused initially.

 

[alohart]

I just got the car in July so I assumed I had up to date software. However, I picked up the car late in the day and didn't get the full orientation treatment, so I guess it's possible that they didn't update any firmware or software if there were any available.

Officially, a free software update occurs only to solve a problem that an owner has complained about or in conjunction with a hardware update (e.g., updated KLE with a software update that increased the maximum charging power, motor mount bolt update with a software update that reduced the forces experienced by the motor mount bolt). So your car could have the software that was installed at the factory when the car was built (the build date is on a plate in the driver's door jam, I believe). You can verify the software version by downloading your user profile to a USB memory stick (an iDrive option), plugging the memory stick into a computer's USB port, opening the contained user profile file in a text editor, and reading the "i-step" value (e.g., <i-step>I001-15-11-502</i-step> indicates the November 2015 software version). Unfortunately, I can't recall which update included the fix for the buggy charging implementation, but someone else will.

 

[alohart]

I just got the car in July so I assumed I had up to date software. However, I picked up the car late in the day and didn't get the full orientation treatment, so I guess it's possible that they didn't update any firmware or software if there were any available.

Officially, a free software update occurs only to solve a problem that an owner has complained about or in conjunction with a hardware update (e.g., updated KLE with a software update that increased the maximum charging power, motor mount bolt update with a software update that reduced the forces experienced by the motor mount bolt). So your car could have the software that was installed at the factory when the car was built (the build date is on a plate in the driver's door jam, I believe).

You can verify the software version by downloading your user profile to a USB memory stick (an iDrive option), plugging the memory stick into a computer's USB port, opening the contained user profile file in a text editor, and reading the "i-step" value (e.g., <i-step>I001-15-11-502</i-step> indicates the November 2015 software version). Unfortunately, I can't recall which update included the fix for the buggy charging implementation, but someone else will.

 

[clktex]

So, if I have the car set to immediate charging (no low cost setting) but I have a departure time set and active, will it nonetheless space out charging so as to bring it up to full charge just before the departure time? Do I need to set a sooner departure time to make sure that it charges more quickly?

That's what I'm doing currently.

Is the only alternative to insure true "immediate" charging to turn off any departure preconditioning whilst charging? That doesn't make sense to me.

If this is not how it is supposed to work, then I think I need to contact the dealership. Thank you for the responses so far. If any can answer my questions in this post it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[user 3172]

My experience was that as long as the low cost charging was not set and immediate charging was selected, the car started to charge immediately once plugged in and completed the charging process as quickly as possible given the configuration of the charging programme I.e. Faster at the start then slower at the end. The departure time set should not affect this at all.

The departure time only determines the commencement of the battery and cabin preconditioning period. It obviously has to estimate how long it will need to achieve this. If the car is plugged into the charging circuit, it will draw power from the mains to achieve the precondioning thus avoiding depleting the battery.

If low cost charging is set, the car will delay the commencement of charging until the start of the low cost period. Again, this is not impacted by the departure time set.

There has been discussion on the forum about the charging programme being configured to commence immediate charging (regardless of the low cost setting) if the battery is in a low SoC in order to optimise battery life.

Sure others will correct me if my experience is not typical.

 

[clktex]

So I'm clear, I think what is happening with my vehicle is not that it is waiting to start charging altogether, but instead may be reducing the voltage it's drawing or cutting on and off intermittently to time the charge to the departure time. Why? I don't know. Maybe to maximize its efficiency and avoid getting hot? Yet, at 120 volts I can't imagine that being an issue.

I wish BMW had someone who could answer these questions instead of leaving it up to the owners community to figure things out.

 

[jadnashuanh]

What is your typical SOC when you start to charge the vehicle? What are you using to determine that charging has stopped? You can't use the light around the charge door, as that does not stay on after you've locked the car for very long.

Using the OEM level 1 EVSE, on a nearly discharged battery pack, it can take nearly 20-hours on the original pack, and would take more than that if you have the newer, larger pack (not as much a problem for places where their nominal input voltage is 240vac verses the USA where it's 120vac). Also note that with the 120vac (level 1) EVSE, setting a departure time may not fully warm the batteries and the cabin since that can peak out at more than the supplied EVSE can produce. As a result, when using a level 1 EVSE, the car MIGHT be smart enough when a departure time is set to delay charging to help have the batteries warm when your departure time is scheduled (otherwise, it couldn't fully complete that task). That MIGHT be a difference people are seeing, since many use a 240vac supply. The car's logic MIGHT be smart enough to then delay charging to best handle the battery pack warming for maximum range (the act of charging the batteries heats them). This is speculation, but your results seem to suggest that's what's happening. The only time I used my level 1 EVSE was right after I bought my car to determine that it actually worked. FWIW, I've seen my i3 drawing over 20A during the preconditioning cycle and that is after the car's battery had been brought to full SOC...most level 2 EVSEs can easily provide that amount of current...a level 1 units cannot.

 

[user 3172]

The charging programme does vary the power draw as it optimises the charging process to protect the longevity of the battery. It doesn't just bang as much charge into it as quickly as possible until full.

But I'm not aware of and didn't experience any attempt by the car to complete charging at the departure time. That was using a Level 2 though. If the Level 1 can't produce enough power to complete the charge and perform the preconditioning I suppose it's possible that the car may be balancing the two to achieve the best overall outcome.