Final service visit of our maintenance plan

Just delivered our 2014 BEV to our dealer for its final service visit included in our maintenance plan. Our purchase date is 5 November 2014. My service advisor told me that our maintenance plan had expired yesterday, 31 October 2018 because the maintenance plan is based on the purchase month, not the purchase day! I called B.S. because our purchase date was less than 4 years ago. My service advisor told me that the dealer would cover the cost because I had booked our service appointment in October while our maintenance plan was still in effect. Sheesh!

I then asked to have the old cabin filter so that I could see how dirty it had gotten after 2 years of driving less than 3k miles. I wanted to determine whether it would be necessary to replace it in 2 years. I was told that the replacement of our cabin filter was not included in our maintenance plan. I pointed out that it was included during our previous service visit 2 years ago. I was told that BMW changed its maintenance policy and no longer changes the cabin filter every 2 years. Sheesh again!

So the only real service our i3 is receiving is changing its brake fluid. I couldn't avoid having the driver airbag software update applied at the same time. I fear that this update might decrease regen power or introduce a bug that causes the unexpected temporary power steering loss that several i3 owners have been reporting during the past year or so. My service advisor claimed to be unaware of this steering problem. With our warranty expiring on 5 November, I would likely have to fight to have any problems caused by this software update fixed at no cost.

Oh, well, it is what it is…

I realize that the maintenance plan period has been reduced from 4 to 3 years since we purchased our i3. It feels like BMW is cutting corners where possible. Have you experienced a reduction in the service included in your maintenance plan?

Yep, the BMW dealers want maintenance $$ for the EV i3.

We've paid relatively expensive each year for maintenance. Brake fluids and not much else. The dealer even stopped updating the computer system even when I asked about it. Cabin filter done last year.

Given that our EV BMW has been 100% reliable, I'm thinking that once it is out of the 4 year services, I will only take it to BMW if there is ever a system fault. Will have the brake fluids replaced by a local mechanic that does work in other BMW's etc.

I think you have a good case for the cabin filters if you want to push it further, as the maintenance rule changes should not be retroactive. But if the dealer is unwilling to do it you'd have to deal with BMW to make them do it, which might be a hassle. My dealer has continued replacing the wiper blades at every visit although these are no longer covered by the new maintenance rules. BTW my warranty & maintenance expires 1 day before yours - let's hope we have a trouble free future in front of us

On the other hand, when my 12V battery started going bad 2 months past warranty, my dealer quoted me almost $300 to replace, but when I went in to pick up the car, they told me BMW picked up the replacement under warranty.

Our first 2015 i3 REx is in the same boat - it is due for annual inspection with 49.2K on the clock....we'll have to get that questionable software update as well....ugh....I am hoping they change the oil as well, it was last changed in October last year, but the on board computer hasn't said anything about it, I thought it was set to every 12 months or sooner (depending on usage).

rtanov said:

I think you have a good case for the cabin filters if you want to push it further, as the maintenance rule changes should not be retroactive.

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I made that exact retroactive argument. My service advisor told me that she would check with her supervisor. It's not a big deal to me because I've driven only ~3k miles since the cabin filter was changed 2 years ago. The cabin filter should still be quite clean, especially considering how clean our air is here.

rtanov said:

My dealer has continued replacing the wiper blades at every visit although these are no longer covered by the new maintenance rules.

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Our dealer did not replace our windshield wipers during our last service visit 2 years ago, so our i3 still has the original windshield wipers. My service advisor noticed that they had never been replaced, so she said that she would replace them.

rtanov said:

BTW my warranty & maintenance expires 1 day before yours - let's hope we have a trouble free future in front of us

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Agreed! An expensive repair out of warranty is my biggest fear although our BEV has not had any repair other than the service campaigns (KLE, motor mount bolt, driver airbag reprogramming).

Picked up our BEV after its final free service visit. My observation of deteriorating service provided by our BMW dealer continued. During my 3 previous annual service visits, a complementary car wash and vacuum was included, but not this time.

On at least one and maybe all of my previous service visits, our i3 was fully charged before I picked it up, but not this time. It wasn't charged at all, but then the fuel tank on ICE BMW's isn't filled as part of their service visit, so I'm not complaining.

Although my service advisor told me that she would ask her supervisor to authorize cabin filter replacement, it wasn't done. Not a big deal because I've driven only ~3k miles since it was last changed.

On the positive side, the required state inspection was performed at no cost (~$19 standard state fee). I was pleasantly surprised by this because I had paid my dealer for this inspection 2 years ago.

All wipers were replaced. However, for this to happen, my service advisor had to write that I had complained that the wipers were streaking which they weren't.

I could pay for a car wash and full charge with what I saved on the inspection fee and wiper cost, so I came out OK.

I had postponed for ~10 months having the driver airbag recall reprogramming performed until my scheduled service visit. I assumed that the system software would have been old enough by now that BimmerCode would have been updated to work with this software version. However, BMW must be continuing to issue new i3 software updates because the version on our i3 is now I001-18-11-520. This November, 2018, version must be a very recent release. I wish we were told what changes these software updates implement.

On my 10-mile drive home yesterday, including urban, highway, and suburban driving, I noticed no change in regenerative braking strength which makes me happy. In fact, I noticed no change in driving at all, but maybe I will notice things after driving more.

I did notice the change in the battery icon on the instrument panel from a segmented cylindrical battery cell to a stack of rectangular prismatic battery cells like used in the BMW Connected smartphone app. This better represents what a real i3 battery pack is like, but I hope BMW didn't spend too much time making this minor change while more serious problems exist.

I forgot to take my USB flash drive containing my driver profile backup, so my merely entering our i3 did not adjust the mirrors, set the preselects, etc. I had to do all of this manually before beginning my drive home (oh, the horror!). I restored my driver profile after arriving home. I also restored a few coding changes that I had made, but restoring most of them won't be possible until BimmerCode is updated to work with system software version I001-18-11-520.

Due to complaints I have read in this and other i3 forums, I was most concerned that this system software update would reduce regenerative braking strength, so I am quite happy that this did not occur.

I had asked my service manager about a summary listing of s/w update particulars, and he said BMW hasn't provided them to the dealerships for at least several years now. FWIW, when you take your car in and it needs a tweak, it gets the latest and there's no going back. Often, the thing that may trigger an update is if you complain about something - they enter that into their computer, and if there's a known fix, the update will be scheduled. Over time, they can sort of figure out what s/w fixes are in there, but it's not guaranteed, as it somewhat depends on the volume of cars they service to see what BMW offers as a s/w update. Only if there's a safety or critical performance update will everyone get an update. Those have happened, but luckily, they've not been very frequent. If you've got a good service advisor, he will coach you to indicate you've observed a problem that would trigger an update. But, again, that depends a lot on how often they service an i3 to have an idea what's available and what it does.

About the complimentary car wash - most dealers have stopped doing it due to customers explicitly asking to not do it - they are afraid that the car wash would leave scratches to their paint (which it does if dirty sponges are used). People would rather use touchless or other methods that do not have the risk of scratching the paint.

alohart said:

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I had postponed for ~10 months having the driver airbag recall reprogramming performed until my scheduled service visit. I assumed that the system software would have been old enough by now that BimmerCode would have been updated to work with this software version. However, BMW must be continuing to issue new i3 software updates because the version on our i3 is now I001-18-11-520. This November, 2018, version must be a very recent release. I wish we were told what changes these software updates implement.

On my 10-mile drive home yesterday, including urban, highway, and suburban driving, I noticed no change in regenerative braking strength which makes me happy. In fact, I noticed no change in driving at all, but maybe I will notice things after driving more.
....
Due to complaints I have read in this and other i3 forums, I was most concerned that this system software update would reduce regenerative braking strength, so I am quite happy that this did not occur.

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This is excellent news!

We just dropped off the i3 that hasn't had a software update since late 2016 ... the one before the silly if you are a 105lb person not wearing your safety belt, you'll get a spinal injury in a crash update...the one that I suspect is tied to the steering wheel getting stuck....

Our other i3 that is also getting dropped off today (that has the stupid update mentioned above), has had it's steering wheel get stuck/hard to move twice in the 20K miles we have put on it this year....hoping we can get this update on this i3 and fix that issue....

rtanov said:

About the complimentary car wash - most dealers have stopped doing it due to customers explicitly asking to not do it - they are afraid that the car wash would leave scratches to their paint (which it does if dirty sponges are used). People would rather use touchless or other methods that do not have the risk of scratching the paint.

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That makes a lot of sense, especially considering the detailed inspection my dealer performed on our i3 as we checked it in for service. I don't recall such a detailed inspection in past service visits. Tiny stone chips and paint swirls that I didn't know existed were noted. Makes me think that this dealer must have had a significant number of complaints of minor damage done to customer cars during service visits.