Drive Train Malfunction while on Electric Battery

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EVMan

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2017
Messages
340
Location
USA, DC
Today While driving at low speeds on Battery ,in the mild hills , i got the "Drive Train Malfunction" Error

The steering wheel and break became heavy ( non Powered)
The car started to jerk at low speeds and stopped eventually ( like driving on 5th gear at speed 10)
The paring break also malfunctioned , and turned off on its own.

After stopping and waiting 20 mins , the car looks to be ok
The yellow Engine light LED in driver screen is still on.
The 'Vehicle info' displays - all is ok with the car

My wife is scared as hell to drive the car now. It may just stop any where on the free way.....
Is this a hardware or software issue ?
Is it safe to drive this car any more ?
Do i need to rush to the dealer and give my wife the other car ? if there is nay risk at all ?

I do not think this is related to the Rex. mine is 2016 model year Rex
 
I would make a service appointment as soon as possible. The diagnostic trouble code(s) (DTC) stored when the drivetrain error occurred should provide a clue to what happened. I would want the problem fixed rather than assuming that this was a one-time random incident not likely to happen again.

Were all the power bars still being displayed after you lost propulsive power? Did your REx engine start while you were on the roadside?
 
The message was something like driving not possible. Stop engine now
Power was immediately lost
But low speeds at 10 Miles Car started jerking like 5th gear

After that main drive train message. Many many other failure messages were displayed including break fail etc


No rex was not running or used past month

I wonder if the computer rebooted
 
Literally ,my wife does not want to drive this car anymore.
And I am also literally shaken by this experience
The question is, what if next time while passing on a freeway?

I did not have time to see the power bars . I turned on hazard lights manually and stopped the car on the road as there was no shoulder, so as to try a restart
It did restart and limped back home jerking around at lower speeds
 
Should i get the car towed away.? Assuming there is seriously some issue with the drive train and as per the message of stop driving immediately

Bmw will pay and should pay for such issues so they eradicate them
 
How far is the BMW service from you?

Assuming you are under 50K miles - If its close, I would just drop it off now since this is an emergency issue and be given a loaner. If its far away or you don't feel safe driving it to the dealership - call BMW for a tow and loaner...
 
Thank You.
Called BMW , they said they will tow it , so i said OK
The car is not showing any more errors now, but who knows whats going on inside.....

i did coding 3 weeks back , have driven 200 miles after that.
Hopefully this is not a in-stable software issue caused by codeine...

First time in my life, a car being towed....so was anxious ...
 
It might help to know the model year and version of your i3...if you put it in your profile, it will show up for others to see.

There are lots of sensors in the car...a faulty sensor could cause various indications. They're normally pretty reliable, but things can happen. The REx version has more of them than the BEV. Like many things, when they are not used, there could be issues. One reason I felt no need for the REx version, as it would almost never run. The computer will try to run it periodically, but can only do that once the charge level drops, and if you're doing only short trips then recharging it, it may get beyond the point where it would try to turn it on in a maintenance cycle.
 
jadnashuanh said:
It might help to know the model year and version of your i3...if you put it in your profile, it will show up for others to see.

Its 2016 22KWH rex. I have the latest or close to the latest software , updated 3-4 months ago.
I can understand , it may be a software issue , but its a bigger safety issue.
They should replace the computer board , if required....
I am in Fremont CA, which has the maximum density of EV in the USA
But unfortunately , the dealer is not only of questionable character , but unquestionably , does not understand anything about software.
They only know hardware
Standard answers "We will do a software update and that will resolve the issue."
 
EVMan said:
. . .
Its 2016 22KWH rex. I have the latest or close to the latest software , updated 3-4 months ago.
I updated mine last month. So far, no problems.

EVMan said:
I can understand , it may be a software issue , but its a bigger safety issue.
They should replace the computer board , if required....
If anything like my local BMW shop, you're in good hands.

EVMan said:
I am in Fremont CA, which has the maximum density of EV in the USA
But unfortunately , the dealer is not only of questionable character , but unquestionably , does not understand anything about software.
They only know hardware
Standard answers "We will do a software update and that will resolve the issue."
I understand the vehicle software is handled from Germany but I suspect something else has happened. Going back to the incident:
  • Was the car running on the REx at the time?
  • What did you code in the car?
  • What coding tool did you use?
The reason I ask is some of the symptoms sound like the battery level was low. If the REx had come on following typical CARB initiated, low battery threshold levels, it might make sense. Last year, I was driving to Fayetteville and enabled the REx only to have a check engine light come on and the engine stop every time when I braked, accelerated, or even took a turn. It turns out the oil level was low and there is no oil pressure light. But I'd turned the engine on at 75% so turned around and drove to the dealer.

Except for tires, our BMW i3-REx needs a minimum of two days for any shop visit because parts and technical support come from out of state and sometimes Germany. Being a 2014, it has a risk of infantile problems. So when we had a motor mount 'bolt break in our 2014, I solved the backup car by replacing our perfectly fine, backup 2010 Prius with a new 2017 Prius Prime. Now both cars have dynamic cruise control and automatic, emergency braking.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), I can't do anything about it in others. But we can help with sharing our experience and insights.

Bob Wilson
 
No . This is not related to Rex at all. Rex was off
Car was at 50% charge, and it started to jerk , and stopped.

The dealer called just now and mentioned some parts need to be replaced.
I think he said some thing like DFDC or something. He said it was related to traction etc

This is actually good news, as i was more afraid of software problem, as it could have repeated again.
 
EVMan said:
No . This is not related to Rex at all. Rex was off
Car was at 50% charge, and it started to jerk , and stopped.

The dealer called just now and mentioned DSC Control Unit need to be replaced.

This is actually good news, as i was more afraid of software problem, as it could have repeated again.
 
I don't drive a REX, just a straight BEV i3; 2014 w/37,000 miles on it. About a month back it threw the Drive Train Malfunction code on me just trying to back out of a parking spot on a rainy Florida evening. The car wouldn't go anywhere. I called BMW Roadside assistance and they promised a tow to the dealer in 48 hours; so I called my car insurance company for a tow and they said "45 minutes". Fortunately I was walking distance home so I went back for my motorcycle. On the way back I thought I would try to trick it into Neutral and see if it started back up. I managed to, and it started up, so I called off the tow and drove it home.

About 2 weeks later I started off for work, and was just as I was about to turn right on to a busy highway (with no shoulder) when the car threw the code again and shut down. [The worst part is that as it stops it goes into PARK and there's no pushing it out of the way. (I have since talked to the dealer and BMW N. America about this and there is nothing they can do. It seems everyone hates this feature and complained to their dealer about it, so I reported it as a vehicle hazard to the NHSTA).]

Before I called the tow truck this time I waited about 15 minutes and it started back up, so I drove it home and parked it. I called the local BMW shop and they towed it in. The said there was some issues with the HV battery pack so they had to drop the whole pack and replace a half dozen sensors & modules. That took about 10 days. I got it back Saturday morning (yesterday) and drove it to work; no issues. Later that night I was headed back home and just started merging onto the local freeway (where I needed to cross 6 lanes of traffic to take a left-hand exit in about a 1/2 mile) when it threw the DTM code again!

Yikes! I puckered up like a carrier fighter pilot that just lost thrust on a cold cat-shot (I know, I used to be one!)

I had gotten up to about 60 mph and was just 2 lanes away from the turn lane when it threw the code and died. Even though the car wouldn't glide very well (like it would in Neutral) fortunately traffic was light that time of night and I had enough momentum to make the exit and glide to a stop. I called a friend for a rescue but just as he was getting into his car I got the car to start back up again so I drove it back to my work.

I'm going to call the shop again and have them tow it in [where they will probably just replace some other sensor, throw some more pixie dust on it and pray for a miracle].

First question: does anybody have an idea of what's wrong with the car? Obviously the dealer has no idea and BMW Germany is staying quiet. Any particular module or sensor they should be looking at or testing?

Second question: Now that I am officially scared shitless of ever driving this car on the freeway again (and it's my only car so I'll have to get around on my motorcycle from now on) does anybody know of any legal recourse against BMW in case it happens again AFTER they try to repair it again? I'm serious...I'd just as soon never drive this car again knowing what it does when it throws that code (especially for no real reason).
 
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