Air Conditioner in 2015 i3

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DGreyi3Owner

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Joined
Jul 5, 2018
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1
I find the AC to be woefully inadeaquate. Anyone else? Even in comfort mode, it blasts cold, then warm air. It gets better if I take it on the highway, but is this what I am stuck with in city driving in the hotter months? Not sure I can handle this. I am taking it in to be serviced, maybe there's something wrong.

Any chance I have it on a setting that is incorrect?

D
 
Have you adjusted the intensity control (the one with the small and large fans on it)? Going up a little bit moves the air more aggressively, and tends to spread the conditioned air around better.
 
It does have a mind of its own sometimes, my 2015 will also blow warm for no reason once in a while... make sure to keep the recirc in M, helps the system to not constantly suck in hot outside air.

The dealer will just test it and report back that all is working fine, that's the most common result from other owners.
 
I feel your pain. I have the same in my 2017 i3.

I think German cars in general don't do as good of a job with air conditioning as American cars. The Germans, until recently, were never fans of air conditioning (not a pun) and it was rare to find an office building or home in Germany which was air conditioned. The Germans created great window technology, huge ones which opened out and up, and were super energy efficient for the winter. But they never got air conditioning.

My wife's BMW X3 has the same problem too. Her AC is awful. When she brought it in several times for service, the service advisor said that's the way these cars are.

So for both the i3 and x3, there are three things you can do to improve the AC (at least this works for us):

- Max AC always gives a good blast of cold air, so I start out with Max AC. But in my car at least, it's too cold so I can't leave it on too long.
- when the temperature is comfortable, go from Max AC to Auto, but turn the recirc button the 'M'
- in Auto, turn the fan up by a few notches. I have it one notch below max.

This is what I've been doing for the last week in 95+ degree F temps as I've been commuting in traffic. And the comfort has been perfectly fine.
 
The computer does adjust the fan speed, but the basis point on where it starts from is determined by where you set the rocker switch. By default, it will be on the lowest starting point. That may not be enough for some situations...turn it up. I generally, once the car is comfortable, turn the vents so they go up as much as possible and away from me. This tends to mix the air better without the direct draft, useful, unless you're in the car and all sweaty from outside - then, the direct air blast can feel good.

Those that chose the leather interior have it harder...first, the dark color soaks in the heat while it sits there, then, the seats don't breath as well as the wool blend covers.
 
There is button on the dash towards right to set the Air Circulation, Try setting the circulation to Manual. It resets to 'A' everytime i3 start.

Auto pull the outside air but flips to circulation if i3 detects outside Air is poor.

I set mine to M, it helps a lot here in Hot Houston Weather.
 
The recirc button goes from A to M, M to blank, and then blank back to A.

Any idea what recirc is doing when blank?

Does A ever do anything but mix in outside air?
 
Blank is for pulling out side air all the time.

A is suppose to stop pulling outside air and recirculate if it detects bad air quality. I works but its slow. For e.g. i see it recirculating the air but by that time cabin already has the fumes from car in front inside and at that point i dont want it to recirculate.

Maybe someone can suggest BMW to have i3 remember last circulation mode used. Hate that I have to select it every morning.
 
We have not even collected our car yet, however, only last night I was talking with an owner who lives in the next street. I asked him, (among many things), if he had suffered any problems with his 15 reg i3 Rex. Funnily enough he mentioned the air con' which was only rectified after BMW eventually changed the condenser under warranty.
 
i3Houston said:
Maybe someone can suggest BMW to have i3 remember last circulation mode used. Hate that I have to select it every morning.
The i3 coding document in the BMW i3 Facebook group's Files section lists the following change to do exactly as you describe:

HVAC System Remember Air Recirculating (ALWAYS AUTO by default on startup)
3000->MEMORY_UMLUFT set to: aktiv

I plan to see whether this works because I would like to have recirculation on most of the trim in Honolulu's warm climate in which window fogging is not a frequent problem.
 
Thanks! That is great to know. I have not felt a need to code but this will motivate me to do it.

I have a scheduled inspection next month, I will try coding after that.
 
Nyken said:
The recirc button goes from A to M, M to blank, and then blank back to A.

Any idea what recirc is doing when blank?

Does A ever do anything but mix in outside air?

A is "automatic" - it recirculates when it decides the inside air is better to hold temp/humidity than outside air (if it's particularly hot or humid out.)

M is "manual recirculate on" - it means it is always recirculating.

blank is "manual recirculate off" - it means it is using outside air.
 
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