"increased battery discharge when stationary" message after coding?

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EVBob

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 18, 2017
Messages
154
Greetings All,

We recently added a second 2015 i3 REx to the stable :)

I just coded it last night with the BimmerCode App...much easier than the last time with the cable, laptop and special software...

Everything seemed ok for the first few times the car started and driven around this morning (approx 60 miles of driving) - however it just now started displaying "increased battery discharge when stationary" when turning on while my better half is driving it.


Reading up a post that talked about this issue: http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=814

It looks like this message is related to the 12v system. According to the carfax - the 12v battery was changed on 02-06-2018 as part of the inspection/CPO.

Any idea if this could be related to the coding? Any particular setting that could have tripped this message? I turned on all the standard stuff - REx added to the menu, full fuel tank, handle lights when in reverse, etc....

Luckily I documented every change I made, so I'll put them back to their original settings and hope the message goes away...if that fails, its off the the nearest bmw dealership and hope they can figure it out....
 
Thinking more about what I did last night while coding. I did plug in a usb charger into the 12v socket and left it in - it has a single blue led that is running constantly...but I can't imagine that discharging a 12v battery in this amount of time?...especially since the car was driving around this morning and had a level 2 charging session in the late morning (it was also full last night while I was coding)
 
My guess is that your coding had nothing to do with this message and that your new 12 V battery is bad.

The 12 V accessory port remains powered for only a few minutes after shutting down the car, and during that time, the DC-DC converter is still able to charge the 12 V battery, so the low-power USB charger is almost certainly not to blame. I suspect that the car is detecting that the 12 V battery's voltage is dropping below a certain level indicating that the battery is failing. Before you are left stranded when the 12 V voltage is too low to boot the controllers which is required for driving, take your car back to the dealer that installed the new 12 V battery.
 
alohart said:
My guess is that your coding had nothing to do with this message and that your new 12 V battery is bad.

The 12 V accessory port remains powered for only a few minutes after shutting down the car, and during that time, the DC-DC converter is still able to charge the 12 V battery, so the low-power USB charger is almost certainly not to blame. I suspect that the car is detecting that the 12 V battery's voltage is dropping below a certain level indicating that the battery is failing. Before you are left stranded when the 12 V voltage is too low to boot the controllers which is required for driving, take your car back to the dealer that installed the new 12 V battery.

Wouldn't imagine bad new 12v batteries were that prevalent out there, but that makes more sense...really hoping there isn't an issue with any components between the HV battery and the 12v - all the coding changes were pretty much the same as done to our other i3, and that usb charger was previously plugged into the other i3 for a few months with no issues...

I purchased this i3 from Massachusetts and had it shipped down to Florida -The CPO i3s are much cheaper in markets where they are offering local incentives and 10K mfg incentives on new i3s. so unfortunately I wont be taking it back to that dealer, and will have to take it to the one closest to me....either way it will make things simpler if I revert the car back to the default settings, so not to arouse suspicion they are related...
 
Not to insult anyone, just make sure the OBD interface is removed. Some of them do not 'sleep' well. Worse, I found the ScanGauge II would trigger an alarm if I tried to lock the car.

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
Not to insult anyone, just make sure the OBD interface is removed. Some of them do not 'sleep' well. Worse, I found the ScanGauge II would trigger an alarm if I tried to lock the car.

Bob Wilson


Thanks for chiming in! Yes the obd2 device was not left plugged in.

I removed all the coding last night - props to bimmercode app for keeping backups, it made restoration a bit easier. Also cleared the error logs. Issue still popped up every time the car was started (tried 3-4 times over 10 minutes)...but thought to take pictures and videos...good thing I did...the issue/notification seemed to have disappeared this morning when I took it to the dealership...luckily I had evidence.

Interesting note, the Carfax showed the 12v battery being swapped out during the cpo inspection, however the BMW service details show no record of a 12v battery being billed during that time or ever.... According to the past service details the HV harness was swapped out during that time (it looks like because the plug wasn't holding tight)...so maybe carfax got confused with HV harness and battery?....
 
I know on my other BMW, when you change the battery, part of the procedure is to tell the car's computer that it was changed, and exactly what type and size it is. The car then uses that information to decide how best to recharge it and extend its life. I haven't looked in the Bimmercode app for that functionality on the i3 (but did use it on my GT recently). If that was done, then the car would store that info and it would be available when checked during any maintenance.
 
alohart said:
My guess is that your coding had nothing to do with this message and that your new 12 V battery is bad.....


Ding ding ding - Art is correct again! :)

Turns out it was the battery...they swapped it out and kept it over the weekend to test - everything seems ok now.
 
EVBob said:
Turns out it was the battery...they swapped it out and kept it over the weekend to test - everything seems ok now.
Congratulations! I'm pretty certain that the 12 V battery in our 2014 BEV is weak, but the warning message that you saw hasn't been displayed by our car, and our BMW dealer has stated that our 12 V battery is not bad enough to be replaced under warranty. Our warranty expires in November, so I'm hoping to see your warning message before then, but hopefully not just afterward.

I hope that BimmerCode is capable of registering a new 12 V battery so that I won't have to pay our dealer a ridiculous sum to do something that I've done in every car I've ever owned: replace a bad 12 V battery myself.
 
The Bimmercode app keeps evolving, but when I changed the battery on my GT, I ended up using a combination of the ECSTuning's Schwaben scan tool and the Bimmercode app to get to all of the parameters. I could easily reset the battery age with the Schwaben tool, but it never seemed to take when I tried to change the battery type, but the BImmercode app was able to do that (in Expert mode). I haven't tried scanning the i3 with the Bimmercode app. It may have been just my limited experience with both tools...either one probably could have done it. FWIW, PepBoys said they could do it, and they charged $35 for that service. The dealer wanted $199 + the cost of the battery to install and program it, essentially doubling the cost of the thing.

If you intend to keep the i3 for awhile, the Schwaben tool is a good item to have, or, if you can find it by the OEM, A Foxwell 510 scan tool - same thing, different case color and nameplate. The Schwaben (Foxwell) tool can read the BMW unique info, and is also a standard OBD II device. You can buy additional software packages and it has enough memory to hold up to 5 different brands codes that would allow you to decode the OEM unique information above and beyond the OBD II standard stuff.
 
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