Unable to charge

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alexbtft

New member
Joined
Feb 6, 2025
Messages
1
Original FB post and update:

A few days ago after a normal long drive, the REX in my 2016 BMW i3 kicked in and made it home and plugged in the i3 into my 110v L1 charger. The next day we realized that it did not charge and an “unable to charge” message appeared. 12V is from July 2022 so figured it could be that so ordered a new Remy. Once the new 12V arrived, I put it on a charger for a while then installed it as I did before.

Plugged in and still unable to charge. Used bimmerlink to clear various random codes and still no charge.

The REX still turns on and will charge the High Voltage Battery and allow me to drive it so I took it to a L2 charger and it actually popped the chargers circuit breaker when I plugged it in! We were able to reset the breaker and it would just error out and not charge.

It seems to take a charge for about 20 seconds, flashing blue, then goes to red and the unable to charge message pops up.

Any ideas? I do not have a local dealership so I am dreading towing 150 miles it to find out it will cost an arm and leg to repair.

Update:

Took it to the stealership and they quoted me $3,900 to replace the LIN and charging port because they said that the charger was failing to communicate with the car. I told the service advisor that from what I have read in these groups it sounds more like the KLE or EME. But I approved the work and sure enough they call me back a few days later that it was indeed the EME and now the part alone is $9k.

Now the repairs are pointless and worth more than the car.

Dealership is not helping me so far and basically wants me to pay the $3,900 to get the car back in the same condition I left it.

Dealer said they had to change the LIM first anyways since that was the only way they could further diagnose the car to find out the eme was faulty. Does that sound right? He said it will take charge with level 3 only.
 
I had something similar happen to me when my battery was low. I have a 2020 BEV. I had the car scheduled to start charging in the morning. I got a message from my app that the car was not charging. I went and unplugged it and same as you: "It seems to take a charge for about 20 seconds, flashing blue, then goes to red and the unable to charge message pops up."

I had a friend with an electric car come by to see if the problem was my home charging unit or my car. My friend car's started to charge just fine. On a lark, I tried to charge my car again after having the car sit for a day or so and it started to charge just fine.

I was using my car's charging software and I also using the scheduling software on my charging unit. My guess is there was some strange timing issue between the car and my charging unit.

I have now have my car set to charge immediately (always). I use the my charging unit (ChargePoint) to decide when my car should be charged. Since, I made the charge I haven't had the charging issue again.

I hope this information helps!!
 
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