Questions about Likely 12 Volt Battery Failure

[Blue82]

Hello Everyone,

Two days ago while my wife was driving our 2021 i3s, an error message was displayed saying, "Unable to Charge" and then "Service Request" and to note the remaining range and to contact the service center if the fault persists. We had just changed the car so the high voltage battery was at roughly 80%. Thanks to this forum, I was aware that we might expect problems with the 12 volt battery around this time and that was likely the issue.

The next day, I went to check the car and it would not run at all. Bimmerlink showed that the 12 volt battery was at 1% but the car shutoff before I could download any codes that were stored. A variety of error messages were displayed during this time including "Drivetrain stop carefully", "Steering", "Ignition off, park will be engaged", and several others along with relevant icons.

Based on your experience, does it sound like I am correct that all of these problems are likely caused by the 12 volt battery going bad and that replacing it should resolve everything?

Is there anything that can be done prior to replacing the 12 volt such as jumping the car or attempting to charge the battery with a charger?

Thanks much for any advice!

 

[EvanstonI3]

You cannot "jump" this car's battery like in an ICE vehicle. If the 12v battery is indeed dead, then it has failed. All those other oddball errors are generated by various modules in the car that are not able to function properly due to a failing/failed 12v battery.

When you do change the 12v battery all the error messages will remain unless you plug in the car and let it sit for around 24hrs. You can also clear most all of them using an OBDII adapter and the BimmerLINK app but that is not always successful.