Stuck in Park position

[i34me]

Anyone know how to get car out of "Park" so it can be pushed out of garage and loaded for transport to dealer?
Car only powers up briefly and displays warning "Drivetrain malfunction", transmission shifted into park, do not move, call roadside assist, then goes off again.

The car was working fine when I parked it yesterday and plugged in for the night. This morning it showed 100% charged but would not operate.

Thanks

 

[i34me]

Problem resolved. Roadside assist respondent connected a 12 volt battery to the onboard 12v and was able to power up long enough to put car in neutral. Then he disconnected xtra battery and car shut down but stayed in neutral, so we pushed it onto driveway and he loaded it on his truck.

Car now at dealer and we have a loaner. (not an i3) They don't know what's wrong and said never had one with this problem, but that they would get it fixed and not to worry.

I’ll post agin when we have more information.

 

[TomMoloughney]

It's actually a common problem. You just had a dead 12v battery. I've heard this issue from many people.

 

[alohart]

It's actually a common problem. You just had a dead 12v battery.

Hopefully, there's a solution that doesn't involve having the car towed. If the voltage of the 12 v. battery is too low to enter Ready state, wouldn't it be possible to disconnect the negative cable of the battery, attach a battery charger (without being connected to the car's electronics, charging just the battery shouldn't harm anything), and charge the battery enough to enter Ready state so one could drive to a BMW dealer for a new battery? Even with a mostly shorted 12 v. battery, I would think that the DC-DC converter that provides 12 v. power from the traction battery pack would allow an i3 to be driven. Am I wrong?

 

[cove3]

How does the battery get charged? Do you have to drive the car to charge? Is there an indicator that shows the percent state of charge? I know with my egolf I was worried about the 12v battery during the winter when the car wasn't used but I discovered a button sequence on the trip button that displayed the 12v battery soc as a percent and saw the 12v was fully charged even without use of the car

Ron

 

[alohart]

How does the battery get charged?

With all EV's and most (all?) hybrids, the 12 v. battery is charged by the traction battery pack through a DC-DC converter that reduces the traction battery pack's high voltage to the ~14.4 v. needed to charge a 12 v. battery.

Do you have to drive the car to charge?

The 12 v. battery is charged when the car is in driving mode (but it needn't be driving). I believe that a Tesla's traction battery charges the 12 v. battery even when parked and "off" because of the Tesla's large 12 v. drains that would discharge the 12 v. battery otherwise. The i3 also charges its 12 v. battery when connected to an EVSE. I don't believe this is true for all EV's, but I'm not sure. It may be that with a discharged 12 v. battery, it's not possible to charge an i3 with an EVSE (and thus charge the 12 v. battery) because a minimum voltage is required to boot the devices necessary to charge (chicken and egg problem).

Is there an indicator that shows the percent state of charge?

An entry in the hidden Service Menu suggests that the 12 v. battery's voltage can be displayed, but the Service Menu isn't intended to be viewed while driving.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The 12vdc battery runs all of the electronics, and that includes managing charging the main battery. But, there is an 'emergency' mode that should activate that runs an auxiliary 12vdc charging circuit when attached to an EVSE that will charge the 12vdc battery enough for it to then run the electronics, then it will switch to the 'normal' charging circuit and then charge the main batteries. In theory, at least, if you'd left the EVSE connected, it would have charged the 12vdc battery.

But, if there is a loose connection (this has been reported in the forum before), the battery cannot charge in any way or at least fully, and you'd eventually run into this situation. It's probably just a bad connection, and over time, deep discharging the 12vdc battery can kill it.

 

[ballard]

My i3 has been in the shop for 3 weeks due to a discharged 12 volt battery. (The symptom was the "Drivetrain Malfunction" message) The replacement battery has been on backorder for over 2 weeks, so hopefully it will arrive soon. I have seen several discussions about the issue with the 12 volt battery, but haven't really seen a definitive root cause assigned as to why the battery ends up discharged in the first place. The dealer's technician checked for loose connections as requested by BMW engineers, but all connections were clean and tight. We are reluctant to call the vehicle fixed with just a battery replacement, since if the root cause is not discovered, then the problem could resurface if the new battery discharges after some period of time. Does anyone have any insight into what is causing so many of the batteries to fail? Does a battery replacement really fix the issue?

 

[jadnashuanh]

There are easy, established ways to check the load on the battery. Most modern cars utilize digital communications. IF any one or more module 'misses' the signal to shut down whey you turn off the vehicle, it will merrily just keep going, and drain the battery. In that case, it could either be the wiring to it (too much noise, or loose connection), or a defective module that either can't or isn't being told to shut off. So, it could be lots of things, but determining the actual standby load on the battery should be the first thing they do after verifying the actual battery terminals are intact. It could also be that the on-board 12vdc charging circuit is not working properly.

 

[alohart]

Two weeks to receive a 12 v. battery is totally unacceptable. BMW's i3 parts distribution system seems really broken. I've got a Honda model which sold less than 20,000 units worldwide between 2000 and 2006 with none sold new in Sweden where it and I am. Yet my local Honda dealer can get replacement parts within 2 days from Honda's European parts distribution center in Belgium. BMW should have a North American parts distribution center that carries all i3 parts that any North American dealership could receive within 2 days. Yet we hear story after story about i3 owners waiting weeks for parts, many of which seem to be sent from Germany. VERY disappointing!

 

[i34me]

Update:
We got the car back today and it seems to be working ok, so far. The work sheet listed cause: low voltage of 12v battery = cell incomplete circuit.
After testing and charging the battery and testing again it was found to have an open cell. Battery was replaced and new one registered.

The battery had to be ordered so it took a couple of days before they could repair the car but we're back on the road now and all seems to be ok.

 

[epirali]

Update:
We got the car back today and it seems to be working ok, so far. The work sheet listed cause: low voltage of 12v battery = cell incomplete circuit.
After testing and charging the battery and testing again it was found to have an open cell. Battery was replaced and new one registered.

The battery had to be ordered so it took a couple of days before they could repair the car but we're back on the road now and all seems to be ok.

I'd take that as good news, a hassle yes but the simplest possible failure!

 

[i34me]

Update: Three days after we got the car back this warning came up, "Battery discharging while stopped: Start engine. If fault persists, consult service center."
We had this warning a few times before the first 12v battery failure, so I'm thinking that if the warning is ignored the new battery will eventually fail too.

Our service consultant said we should bring car in asap, so they have had it for three days now and called this evening to say the car will be ready sometime tomorrow. I'm not sure if they have a fix, but I believe they are updating the car to the latest software, thinking that may resolve the problem.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Modern cars with CANBUS (like the BMW) rely on serial data to tell various bits to go to sleep when you shut things off as sent from the main computer. If any one or more of those boxes doesn't receive the proper message, it might just stay on, draining the battery. The dealer should be able to isolate where the current draw is coming from, and resolve the issue. It could be a bad peripheral box, or an intermittent serial bus, and probably other things as well.

 

[i34me]

We have our i3 back now and it seems to be working ok.

BMW service found several faults, replaced the Head Unit, reprogramed with latest software, ran several test, discharged HV battery then charged fully and re-tested.
"All high and low voltage test find no fault post repair"

I think they installed the March 2015 software update because we now have a "%battery" icon as a display option.

Don't know why but, the Sirius radio now has a different ESN and Sirius wont refresh our car radio with a different ESN. Our service advisor is now working with Sirius to resolve this issue. Update: Sirius now says the new ESN is active, but we still can't refresh the car and the only channel we can get is 184, the preview channel.

Also, I had to restore our music files and profiles because that data was missing.

We're just happy to have the car back.