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Although BMW upgraded the drive motor bearings in 2018, the root problem remains... they are sealed bearings that are too small, and have no lube recirculation for filtering or cooling... resulting in a rather limited lifetime. I had to replace my 2015 drive motor at 95k miles. The problem began at around 70k... my BMW dealership said "that's normal for the i3". They succeeded in putting me off until my CPO warranty ended.After failure, BMW-NA denied me any Goodwill assistance because "it has too many miles"... which almost sounds like the rest of the car is too near its life expectancy. (note that they DID provide new drive motors for free to others who were having this exact same failure, but theirs were 75k miles and under, but same age)All this to say... do not expect the i3 to last long enough to warrant a new-tech battery pack... unless you have an ample supply of money to keep pouring into it. A motor replacement is over $7500usd, and if the bearing wear gets bad, it also damages the transmission... another $3k+. (no repairing of either is allowed by BMW, only replacement)
Although BMW upgraded the drive motor bearings in 2018, the root problem remains... they are sealed bearings that are too small, and have no lube recirculation for filtering or cooling... resulting in a rather limited lifetime. I had to replace my 2015 drive motor at 95k miles. The problem began at around 70k... my BMW dealership said "that's normal for the i3". They succeeded in putting me off until my CPO warranty ended.
After failure, BMW-NA denied me any Goodwill assistance because "it has too many miles"... which almost sounds like the rest of the car is too near its life expectancy. (note that they DID provide new drive motors for free to others who were having this exact same failure, but theirs were 75k miles and under, but same age)
All this to say... do not expect the i3 to last long enough to warrant a new-tech battery pack... unless you have an ample supply of money to keep pouring into it. A motor replacement is over $7500usd, and if the bearing wear gets bad, it also damages the transmission... another $3k+. (no repairing of either is allowed by BMW, only replacement)
