2018 i3 Recall

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I have a friend who purchased a used 2015 i3 and it had a turbo cord charger. I don't know all the details, but the first time he plugged it in it did significant damage to the car. Like $7000-10000 worth of damage. BMW covered it under warranty but it could have been much worse.
 
I have a BMW Torbo cord , i got as a gift from another car owner, who sold the car

Can i still use the recall ? I have a 2017 i3 , which did not come with the turbo cord.
 
Yes, you can still use the recall, the recall also covers Turbocords purchased through the parts department.
 
I have a 2017 i3 that I leased new in Feb 2018, and they gave me a Turbocord with the car in addition to the regular level 1 charger. I received the recall notice for the Turbocord, but both of the local dealers convenient to me insist that they need to have the car itself for 1-hour and that there is no alternative. I emailed BMWUSA to an email address in the recall letter just out of curiosity, and they insist that there is no need to involve the car itself, just the cord. This is probably true, but doesn't help me convince a dealer that they just need the cord and not keep my daily driver for part of a day. Has anyone else been able to get their turbocord inspected/replaced without involving the vehicle itself? At both dealers, I have called the service department, perhaps I should call the parts department instead. My plan of dropping the Turbocord off and picking it up later did not involve waiting an hour or several Uber rides.
 
VAShel - the reason they want your car in the service department for an hour, is so they can charge BMW for an hour's worth of service, as part of processing the recall on the turbocoard. If they just let you exchange the turbocord, all they can have BMW pay for is the new turbocord.
 
The business model for all car dealerships (except probably Tesla) is that they tend to make more money from factory service and maintenance than they do up front in sales. So, since EVs do not require anywhere near as much normal maintenance, they need to pick up money anywhere they can. It's going to get a bit worse as the proportion of EVs to ICE changes, but at maybe 2-3% for BEVs, it's not too bad, yet! Hybrids aren't as much of a hit to them, since there still is the ICE and related items to service.
 
I agree with both of you, and that was my thought also. I decided to call Webasto (the Turbocord Mfg) directly and they verified my Turbocord is ok to use based on the serial number.
 
Webasto owns the division of Aerovironment that makes the Turbocord, and Webasto is handling the recall. The faulty Turbocords were apparently produced in July 2018 timeframe, so it you have one from earlier than that, it is likely fine.

https://info.evsolutions.com/checkyourcharger
 
VAShel said:
I agree with both of you, and that was my thought also. I decided to call Webasto (the Turbocord Mfg) directly and they verified my Turbocord is ok to use based on the serial number.

I am getting confused by this recall. This is getting complex.

1) BMW Dealer said, the way they will resolve this, is to open up the EVSE and physically check the capacitor is ok or not. You need to leave the unit for a day. Based on the info available, it looks like the dealer is incorrect.

2) I called Webasto , and this is what happened

1) Collect Personal data . You cannot decline to collect personal data. System cannot proceed to next step without personal data.
name, address, phone ,

2) Collect product data--- serial no and model no. ( Both r required)
Please wait , the system is is checking. it will take few minutes for the DB query to run (WHAT , r u serious ? )
please go on hold. system is still processing. its slow
System got back in 4 minutes, , says not effected.

Considering , that data entry steps to collect data , had no delays, i am confused , what was going on, . 4 minutest to show results, does not sound realistic to me.

I just did not get the confidence , that if its still safe to use the product ? It can catch fire etc....
Any suggestions are welcome , as i had seen many reviews of the product going bad in amazon etc.
And the company had no interest, to examine the bad units ( before the recall was issued ).
 
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