Check Engine Light

[rj3series]

My '14 i3 Rex has about 2000 miles on the odometer and just had the check engine light appear. The light was on for a couple days, and then has turned off. It never flashed when on - was just a steady beacon of concern. Based on an internet search, it appears this had been a frequent problem, but that it was to have been resolved by the March software update (my i3 is running the newest software, having just been leased a couple months ago and also having been at the dealer a few weeks ago for a different, but also common, issue: a replacement of the wiring harness which somehow caused the airbag light to illuminate).

Now that the check engine light has turned off by itself, I am curious as to the view of the experts here as to whether to even bother to bring the car to the dealer for its diagnosis. In the meantime I did hook the car up to an OBD reader, which indicated that codes P1BF0 (that's a zero, not an O) and P0606 are stored in memory. I can't seem to deduce the meaning of these codes, beyond a general ECM failure.

I don't want to waste the time to take the car in if the prevailing view is that this nothing more than a software glitch which has righted itself. But if others have had a similar experience, only to find that a serious problem was lurking, I would be very interested in hearing about that. Thanks.

 

[NoMoreGas]

This has happened to me exactly as you described. Has only happened twice and seems related to quickly turning car off and back on. Happened just yesterday to me and it went off this am when I got in it. I have 13+K miles on a car purchased December '14. It is due for annual service on 10/19. Will report back what they say. No other issues with vehicle.

 

[SSi3]

I would suggest you not ignore it... here's my first CEL experience
http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3016

And now it has come back, with the REx shutting down while in use (and SOC at only 5%)... i'll be booking it in for service again.

The REx concept is great, but the reliability of this implementation leaves a lot to be desired unfortunately.

 

[notforlawn]

Driving to northern Cal from San Diego next week, and didn't want to start out with the check engine light on. Second time on my year old 2014. Waiting for a new fuel isolation valve. Think it is like Hal in Space Odyssey, the computer has to find something wrong and the part is probably fine. Plus they have reprogrammed, no doubt erasing my CodeMyCar. I am concerned about maintaining this car when the warranty is up. I am an old school mechanic [have stopped twice in my life on the road to completely rebuild Volkswagen air cooled engines] and now being an idiot know nothing consumer is pretty intolerable. Maybe I should have kept the Porsche 914 and converted it to electric like I was dreaming about. I mostly like the i3 and got the base model intuitively with reliability in mind. ANYBODY OUT THERE FIND USE WITH THEIR OWN [INEXPENSIVE] OBD2 READER with this car. The service advisor said they couldn't give me a quick diagnosis because the readers don't work on this car like previous. This is the first new car purchase in my life and I wanted to keep it a long time. I have an electric juicer still running almost daily from the 80's. Oh my.

 

[rj3series]

Just to close the loop on this, the check engine light reappeared, so I did bring it to the dealer for repair. Turned out that the codes indicated the need for a new air conditioning compressor. They also ended up replacing the AC condenser. Good thing the car remains under warranty - the job would have cost $3600.