Not charging properly

[fomb]

All of a sudden my 60Ah REX is misbehaving. There's no warnings or anything showing up in the iDrive, and the car thinks it's 100% charged.

However, it's not. It only has around 5 miles range showing. If I plug it in (tried more than one charger) you hear the switch in the charger engage, and then a few seconds later it'll disengage again and stop charging. Sometimes it'll charge for a few minutes then stop.

In the app, it says 100% charge / 5 miles range, but at the start of the charging session (when it works for a short while) it'll show 11% or whatever.

It feels like this is some sort of software thing, but I'm wondering if anyone else has any ideas?

 

[Neil]

That's a new one on me. Perhaps your i3 has had a sudden HV battery failure? Perhaps you can check the kappa value and see what it says. Another thing you might try since you have a Rex is to drive until the Rex kicks in and see if that helps reset things. Interested in hearing what's the root cause of this since I have a 60Ah Rex as well.

 

[fomb]

That's a new one on me. Perhaps your i3 has had a sudden HV battery failure? Perhaps you can check the kappa value and see what it says. Another thing you might try since you have a Rex is to drive until the Rex kicks in and see if that helps reset things. Interested in hearing what's the root cause of this since I have a 60Ah Rex as well.

Kappa value?

 

[Neil]

Here's a video on how to use the "secret" menu on the i3. There are others as well.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=ELT5b2YWL58&usg=AOvVaw2-RqvtWC9lkZdbJMcbYtmM

I thought of something else. Did you see this same behavior on more than 1 charging unit? If not, try a different one to see if the behavior is the same.

 

[fomb]

Yeah, I’ve tried our PodPoint and also a standard three pin plug. Same behaviour. Will need to get the capacity number

 

[fomb]

Well, this morning after the car has had a sleep everything seems fine - so go figure

 

[Neil]

Well, glad to hear this. Not totally unexpected that the car needed some sleep. I've seen a lot of quirkiness in my vehicle over the last almost 7 years. In fact the nickname for mine is "Quirky". :lol:

 

[spartacus68]

This sounds very much like the same issue I had. If you're in Europe then the charging lock solenoid fails to engage properly sending a message that it can't charge, LED light surround flashes red, etc. In the US the locking mechanism is slightly different. More details here: https://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=17186

There's someone on the EV forum here in the UK with a 2020 REx with sounds like a very similar issue, but it occurs if car left in direct sunlight, I know, go figure!

I've read that with the charge port disassembled, it's worth enlarging the hole slightly that the locking solenoid actuates through, you can even lightly lube with a marine grease, that shouldn't do any harm.

Anyway in my experience it's potential Achilles heel part but it can leave you high and dry if the car fails to charge.

If you check out Hubauer Shop (Germany), have the last 7 digits of your VIN, then you can see correct part. Also watch the video.

 

[rgbcyan]

I also have the issue. I replaced and registered a new battery 3 months ago, so nobody get knee-jerk 12v comments. When using my car in the evening after using it normally in the last 24 hours, the guess-o-meter said I had 11 km of range, and 100% battery charge. I drive 2km to walk my dog at the park, during the trip the capacity is clearly decreasing in percentage at a high rate. After the walk the car can no longer get into drive mode with 7 km range remaining. I have to get the car towed to my house to begin troubleshooting.

After plugging it in the charger engaged, door went to blue with the relay clicking normally. After an hour I went to check the car and it showed 100% charge, it was able to get into drive. I tried restarting the charging process. The charge door would flash red. After several stupid attempts of putting level 1 charging to low, plugging, replugging, driving forward and back, it was able to go blue again. I checked on it after 30 minutes and the fan at the front of the car is running at full blast. Unlocking the car, and locking it again disengaged the fan. Decided to leave it overnight on the charger and hope for the best.

In the morning same story, 100% charge with now 16km range. Secret menu showed 2.0 kWh Kapa batt, and 2.0 battery ladung. I did a Reset of the OD/Batt, and it went to ~16kWh kapa batt and tried to charge again. Charger engaged, so I went back inside. Came out same story 100% battery, no charging. Lugged out ISTA+, reinitialized battery capacity learning. Kapa batt went up to 2.2 kWh, and I left the car to try to charge again. After 30 minutes the car was reporting 100% charge again. I use my secondary car to go to work. I will use this thread as a diary, as I will look into SME diagnosis options after leaving the car for several hours to see if it attempts cell balancing.

 

[gt1]

IIRC, ISTA will show you the individual cell voltages. I'm curious what they are.

 

[djdem1664]

Hello,

I'm posting a message here because I think I have the same problem.
Here's what's happening. Yesterday morning, I start the car and a message appears "Powertrain fault" (in French)
In English, I think it's the message "Drive Train fault" but displayed in orange color (not red).
I can go to work (50km during the day) the car works without problem.
But in the evening when I get home, I want to recharge it( because I have 60km of range, battery at 30%). But when i plug the connector at that moment, the light goes straight to green and the application tells me a car recharged to 100% but still 60km of autonomy.
I 'm trying to charge the car with 2 cable (T2 with an 7.4kw sokck) and standard 10A) it's the same.

The 12V battery is 4 years and 4 months old and has never been changed.
I have an OBD cable and a Bimmercode, I will check the car tonight

Do you think the 12V battery is out? I measure 12.6V on this battery.

Thank you very much for your answers.

 

[Piotr Sienkiewicz]

Sprawdz dwa małe kabelki i wtyk w klemie

 

[Piotr Sienkiewicz]

Podczas wymiany akumulatora 12V urwałeś, nie ma przejscia we wtyczce

 

[Piotr Sienkiewicz]

Kabelek 1 pomarańczowo/żółty i 1 czerwo/żółty. Na klemie + z lewej strony.

 

[mojo]

Do you think the 12V battery is out? I measure 12.6V on this battery.

One of the difficulties with trying to derive battery condition by measuring battery voltage is that it depends on the exact circumstances. So if, for example, the battery had been sitting with no inputs or outputs for 30 minutes and was at 12.6V, you could assume that it is in fairly good condition. If however it had been charging only 30 seconds earlier and was at 12.6V, it might not be in such a good condition. And if it was 12.6V while the car's DC-DC converter was trying to charge it, it's fair to assume that it is in very poor condition.

But... I think that the general rule should be that if the battery is more than 4 years old and the car is showing odd behaviour of any sort, it won't harm to change the 12V battery anyway.

 

[djdem1664]

Thanks for your answer.
I'm checking the car with bimmercode and i have this fault : cell defect detected in module 4, with this error code 21f1c4... is not a good news.
The car is at the BMW garage...

I will send some news.
Bye