Lock & Unlock with Remote is unique behavior

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EVMan

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2017
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340
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May be there is a setting , I am missing

My car only beeps , when i unlock / unlock for the first time.
Any subsequent repetition of lock / unlock , does not make any sound.

Since i rent different cars, i find , all other cars are consistent with their beeps ( final state) , irrespective of their existing state

The problems comes , sometimes , when i am unsure if i locked the car and i am at a distance
From a distance when i press lock , and the car does not beep , i am unsure if the signal is reaching the car or if the car is already locked. I expect it to beep , even if its already locked.

The only way , i can be sure is to lock /unlock and lock gain
why this extra logic in software ?
 
I consider it a blessing that your i3 doesn't beep with every lock/unlock attempt. There is far too much noise in the world without adding unnecessary locking/unlocking beeps.

iDrive offers the option of flashing the headlights and tail lights when locking/unlocking, a much nicer option that provides silent visual confirmation of the lock/unlock operation.

However, I don't know whether the lights would flash when commanding a locked car to lock or an unlocked car to unlock, so I don't know whether switching to light flashing would solve your problem.
 
I just open the connected app and it tells me if it's locked or unlocked. I can then send out a request to remotely unlock or lock from the app. Same for preconditioning.
 
In some countries, and some city locations, those (annoying, to me at least) sounds are illegal and will get you a fine. I have comfort access, and never take my remote out...it's pretty obvious when you lock the car. Even if you have to use your remote to lock the car, it's still best to do it while close. The extra second to watch the lock button go down, or listen for the solenoid motor activating, or watch the lights is a fairly easy habit to learn. FWIW, Germany is one of those countries where beeping as a confirmation of locking is illegal, at least as far as I'm aware. That may be one reason why it doesn't do it repeatedly.
 
Does anyone know how to silence the locking and unlocking? I bought a used i3 and it was silent. Had the dealer work on it and now it beeps upon lock and unlock. Annoying to me.

Thanks in advance, JY
 
Found an answer on the beeping right here in the forum. For anyone wanting to turn off the beep, look here:

http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2194

Cheers, JY
 
jyoung said:
Does anyone know how to silence the locking and unlocking? I bought a used i3 and it was silent. Had the dealer work on it and now it beeps upon lock and unlock.
Before I deliver our i3 to the dealer for scheduled maintenance, I always back up our driver profiles to a USB flash drive. This can be done using an iDrive command. If the dealer updates the car's system software, some or all of the settings stored in the driver profiles could be reset to their default values. This might have happened in your case. I avoid this by restoring our driver profiles from my USB flash drive after our i3 is returned.

Note that each driver profile is associated with a specific fob, so using a different fob could also cause unexpected behavior.
 
jadnashuanh said:
In some countries, and some city locations, those (annoying, to me at least) sounds are illegal and will get you a fine. I have comfort access, and never take my remote out...it's pretty obvious when you lock the car. Even if you have to use your remote to lock the car, it's still best to do it while close. The extra second to watch the lock button go down, or listen for the solenoid motor activating, or watch the lights is a fairly easy habit to learn. FWIW, Germany is one of those countries where beeping as a confirmation of locking is illegal, at least as far as I'm aware. That may be one reason why it doesn't do it repeatedly.


Well this is specific to i3 only. Other BMW gas cars work just like every other car i tried.
Even the light will not flash again, so , its not just noise. Is just there is no confirmation .
 
Well, maybe it's a model year or model specific, but my 2011 GT does not flash the lights or beep (I have beep turned off) if already locked when I hit the lock button on the remote. The i3 operates exactly the same way. I can hear the solenoids activate if I'm not too far away, but there is no other indication from the car. IOW, at least for my two BMWs, they both operate the same way.
 
I don't understand why people need to make their car make a noise when the vehicle locks. How about think of others who may be asleep when a vehicle horn goes off. America is bad for horns going off when they lock their cars.
 
Kiwi said:
I don't understand why people need to make their car make a noise when the vehicle locks. How about think of others who may be asleep when a vehicle horn goes off. America is bad for horns going off when they lock their cars.
I entirely agree. I think it is selfish. If you have comfort access, I never take the fob out of my pocket, so as a result, just end up touching the handle to lock or unlock. At that point, it becomes obvious if the car locked or unlocked, but it's not all that tough to do it with the fob if you don't. Personally, I live in a townhouse community with about 20 units facing the parking area and it's really annoying with beeping going on all hours of the day. I find it the same league as blowing the horn to announce you're home or leaving, and, FWIW, in my town, that's a fineable offense, but getting it enforced is almost impossible.

Again, though, the i3's operation is exactly the same as my 2011 GT...no lights or beeping if you hit the remote to lock it if it was already locked, just the sound of the solenoids activating, which, doesn't carry all that far.
 
Kiwi said:
I don't understand why people need to make their car make a noise when the vehicle locks. How about think of others who may be asleep when a vehicle horn goes off. America is bad for horns going off when they lock their cars.

I agree.

But For me
No its not noise. Its just visual indication alert ( or audio , if some one desires) , that your action was heard by the car, if you are at a distance.

Like , if my car is parked outside, i like to check in the evening,, if my car is locked.
Currently i have to , first unlock, and then lock, to make sure the car is locked , from a distance.
The other cars , including the very new BMW 330i loaner i got , did not have that issue.
If you lock the car, it always gave a visual confirmation , if it heard the remote.

Different people have different accessibility needs.
My older Neighbor Lady the other day spent a long time , to find her car in the hospital parking, and she called me to find it.
Apparently, she was not able to find a parking first, and after looping some times, she forgot , where she exactly she parked it. There were 600+ cars, and she is getting older.

When i went to look for the car, i found the rather strange logic.
The first time the car honked, we could not figure out , where it was. After that , the car stopped responding via audio to the keys pressed, even with the Alarm key. SO even the alarm would not work. We just had to drive all over , to find the car
For some time, we thought , its stolen.
 
EVMan said:
Like , if my car is parked outside, i like to check in the evening,, if my car is locked.
That's easily done using the BMW Connected app.

EVMan said:
My older Neighbor Lady the other day spent a long time , to find her car in the hospital parking, and she called me to find it.
Apparently, she was not able to find a parking first, and after looping some times, she forgot , where she exactly she parked it.
Had she owned an i3, a smartphone with a data plan, and the BMW Connected app, she could have flashed the lights or honked the horn using the BMW Connected app. The range of the fob is quite limited, so it would not always be able to find a car in a large parking lot.
 
There's some inaccurate information in this thread. The i3 does respond to every press of the remote's lock button:

  • If unlocked, the i3 locks, the exterior lights flash, and (optionally) a tone sounds.
  • If locked but the alarm has not activated (occurs when you press the lock button within moments of locking), the alarm indicator on the bottom of the rearview mirror glows red continuously for several seconds.
  • If locked and the alarm active, the blue interior light comes on along with the courtesy lights in the door handles.

For what it's worth, these behaviors are not unique to the i3. My '09 E90 responds similarly.
 
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