Hello every one! I’m glad to share BMW i3 repair techniques

[LEO_mybmwi3]

I'm glad to meet everyone here. We have been working on the repair of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Tesla, and other vehicles. I’m happy to share relevant technologies and answer your questions. Thank you!

 

[alohart]

I look forward to learning from your experience. Where are you located?

 

[LEO_mybmwi3]

Hello Alohart,I come from China.
In the past few years, we have repaired many HEV,PHEV and BEVs from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. For most high-voltage components (such as BMW's EME, Mercedes-Benz's battery, and Audi's starter-generator etc), we have been disassembling and repairing them to avoid costly repair expenses.
Perhaps China's advantage is that we have a large number of hybrid and electric vehicles, giving us the opportunity to work on many of these cars. However, many of the techniques we use have been developed through a great deal of time and financial investment. Some of them we are happy to share freely, while others we hope to collaborate on. I hope no one has a different opinion of me just because I'm Chinese. I've been to the U.S. and Europe many times, and I really like those places and the people there. I've also been to Hawaii once. In my memory, it's the only place where you can see a rainbow from both directions.

 

[mojo]

Please - feel free to share. It's rare for people in your position to be willing to make information freely available. Most companies want to hide it rather than to share it!

 

[LEO_mybmwi3]

I also understand their approach because, like us, they have gained these skills through some failures, as well as the loss of time and money, so they deserve to make money from it. Actually, we share the same thinking. I'm willing to share some knowledge, like when I shared with a friend from Sweden on YouTube last time. However, for very specific operations, we prefer not to offer them for free. We would rather find repair shop partners in each country to work together in serving customers.

 

[chucki3]

This is my first EV. My last car was a VW Jetta TDI I had for 18 years. Good car on which I did much work.
Now I have many good tools that may never work again.
For an EV I see no drivetrain work. Chassis work, tires/wheels, brakes, bulbs, interior misc.
Now excuse me, I have to go check the windshield washer fluid.

 

[tongsli]

This is my first EV. My last car was a VW Jetta TDI I had for 18 years. Good car on which I did much work.
Now I have many good tools that may never work again.
For an EV I see no drivetrain work. Chassis work, tires/wheels, brakes, bulbs, interior misc.
Now excuse me, I have to go check the windshield washer fluid.

Hey Chucki3 Same for my wife and me. We still have our 2004 VW Jetta TDI wagon. Soon to be sold, I hope. I purchased a 2021 i4 REX to replace it.

 

[chucki3]

Hey Chucki3 Same for my wife and me. We still have our 2004 VW Jetta TDI wagon. Soon to be sold, I hope. I purchased a 2021 i4 REX to replace it.

I had my faithful TDI shredded. In California I was paid to do so. Being 20 years old its resale value was a couple thousand. I was paid $1500 to have it taken out of service.
I think that ups my standing as a 'smug elite' (term of RFK Jr. in regards to those who affect change) liberal out to save the planet!

 

[Stevick]

Hi LEO,
Welcome! I appreciate your willingness to share your expertise! I am thinking you might be the person who can give me some insight on an issue I have on my 2017 i3 REX w/44k miles. I have a permanently stored "222A0C EME: Internal Fault" with no symptoms whatsoever. The car drives and charges as it should and displays no errors of any kind and has no other faults. Code lookup suggests only that the EME has a faulty internal sensor, without any additional information. BMW diagnosed the EME as faulty, requiring replacement at my expense for $16k+ (well more than the car is worth). BMW dealer and corporate "genius team" has been unable to explain what the problem is (i.e., what exactly has failed, what triggers the fault, what parameter is being sensed, what can be expected if I do not replace it, etc.). I contacted 2 firms that advertise i3 EME rebuild services and neither could help me. Replacement of the EME is not feasible, but I sure would like to know if I should be concerned, what my other options are, and whether I can safely continue to drive the car as is. Do you have any insights?

 

[AUTOMAN]

Interesting I have the the same vehicle and have odd error codes which I clear only for them to reappear on investigation I find nothing actually wrong I use a Autophix designated for BMW code reader and purchased a dongle to generally investigate the electrical system. In the past I have had vehicles producing error codes but never ever got to the actual problem and suspected it was a glitch in the system .. I can post the information I got from the dongle for you to compare.

 

[AUTOMAN]

I will get the General information sheet if you think it would help

 

[AUTOMAN]

As you may be aware the electrical system is Can Bus which is complicated in its operation but works well generally.
But the slightest malfunction in what ever can throw up a fault code ,if you can’t see any actual unusual readings the chances are it is a minor issue simply de plugging a component and re plugging may solve a issue, Slight corrosion between terminals can be the issue.

 

[Stevick]

I very much appreciate your help. I am using a Creator scantool that is BMW specific, inexpensive, but pretty much does what I need it to do. It reads all the modules and provides realtime data for many parameters and can even graph some of them. The EME module has the 222A0C code which when I attempt to clear reads "fault erased", but is still there when the module is immediately read again. There are various parameters of the EME I can read in real time, but I have no idea on what I'm lookin at means, but I may be able to compare the readouts to the data you provided to see if anything differs. Perhaps that could give me some insight. As I sure you have guessed, I am very much hoping that the fault is a nothingburger and can be ignored - though it could affect a resale, if it ever came to that.

The only other issue I have noticed is that I get an EME fault code: "AC charging: Network voltage exists in spite of charging unreadiness" after every full L2 charging session at home. That one readily clears and does not return until the next charging session. I don't believe this is contributing, since the code lookup suggests this is due to the charger, and I am using an inexpensive portable aftermarket charger. I can't be sure though. I will see if this returns on a L1 charge from the BMW charger. I only recently tried a L3 DC charge for the first time to ensure that the car would take it, and all went well.

The real pisser here is BMW, which I really expected more from. To their credit, my local dealer agreed to a no cost diagnostic (and gave me a loaner) when I called them with the issue. They quickly verified the EME was faulty, gave me the $16k estimate, and said there was no warranty coverage (curiously, the service adviser took the car in the belief it was potentially warrantable). They did not provide any additional info and could not answer the questions I noted in my post above. Likewise, for the BMW "genius team". In my frustration, I got the service manager involved, who promised to consult with the tech to get me answers in a couple of days, but warned that the best I should expect is an opinion. A week later with no response, and no reply to my message, I emailed the GM for assistance and I finally got a call from the service manager who said he was going to meet with a visiting BMW engineer the next day, would pose the questions to him, and call me the following day. Two more days have since passed and no call. I'll continue to press, but I'm losing faith that anything helpful will be forthcoming from the effort. Quite disappointing. They're perfectly happy to take a fair chunk of my life savings (or have me scrap) a perfectly operating car, without the ability (or willingness) to explain why I should do either. ...and don't get me started on the warranty denial. Sorry for the rant, but I just needed to vent a bit. I have now gotten it all out, so please don't let it dissuade you from chiming in.

 

[alohart]

The only other issue I have noticed is that I get an EME fault code: "AC charging: Network voltage exists in spite of charging unreadiness" after every full L2 charging session at home. That one readily clears and does not return until the next charging session. I don't believe this is contributing, since the code lookup suggests this is due to the charger, and I am using an inexpensive portable aftermarket charger.

I agree. The on-board chargers (there are two) seem to be telling your EVSE, a smart switch, not a charger, that the battery pack is fully-charged, so charging should cease. However, your EVSE continues providing power to the chargers which could be an electrocution hazard if the power pins in the EVSE plug remain hot when unplugged. If you have a voltmeter, measure the voltage across these pins just after unplugging. If full line voltage exists, you might consider trashing your EVSE. I assume that the on-board chargers try to protect themselves from an incorrectly functioning EVSE. However, the risk of damaging an expensive on-board charger might exist, one of which I believe is in the EME in a 2017 i3. It was moved out of the EME to the KLE with the other charger at some point (2018?).

You wrote that there are no apparent operational problems and no warning messages or lights. If true, the stored diagnostic trouble code (DTC) is the only symptom which you would not be aware of had you not scanned your i3's OBD port. If so, there are probably many i3's on the road with stored "harmless" DTC's and no apparent problems. Although it would be great to understand why the DTC is being stored, it's likely that BMW mechanics would not know unless this is a common occurrence that has been explained to them. The stored DTC could be spurious or might signal that something does not quite meet the specifications, but that wouldn't require an EME replacement. I would just continue driving until some obvious problem occurs.

 

[Stevick]

Hah, not 30 mins. after my post above, I got a call from the service manager. Nice guy, very personable, and we spoke for 30 mins or so. The BMW engineer told him he could only offer that it may be related to the AC/DC converter function, but nothing further. He did not feel there was a safety issue in driving the car. I asked what, if anything, BMW could do for me, perhaps even in the way of a courtesy. Per their guidelines (based upon age and mileage of the car, and my BMW purchase history), the most they could do would be a 50% cost reduction - and that was only if the Regional Manager approved. I'm not a high-flying dealership customer, so he believed even that seemed highly unlikely (and still would not otherwise make the repair cost feasible enough).

I expressed my concern about the stored fault code impacting the resale, and asked if perhaps a software update could help. What I learned raised even more concern. He advised that BMW cannot update software on individual modules (including the EME) on newer cars, only a vehicle-wide update to all modules can be performed (integration level update). BUT, that update will not run if any module has a fault present (as my EME does). I asked whether this meant that if I needed a future repair to some other component requiring coding of a new module, the repair could not be performed. He agreed that was the case, but suggested there is third-party software out there that might do it. I'm not sure what to make of all this, but it's clear BMW will not be of help now, nor likely in the future and even though the car operates perfectly, it is impaired.

Alohart, thanks for your input. Indeed, this an issue that by all appearances exists only as a diagnostic code. It also appears neither the mechanic, the service manager, nor the BMW engineer have a full understand of what's wrong (if anything). As for the EVSE issue, I am going to make sure the EVSE-related code is cleared and give a full L1 charge with the BMW charger to see if it returns. I'll also take your advice and check the L2 EVSE as suggested. Do you know if both on-board chargers are AC? Is one for 120v (L1) with the other kicking in for the other 120v leg on a 240v L2 charge? or is one for DC and/or REX generator output? I'm asking because I'm both ignorant and curious, and wondering if my EME code could be triggered by some sort of damage I may have already done to one of the on-board chargers with the (possibly faulty?) EVSE.