'Climatising' triggers car alarm - normal?

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nyazgin

New member
Joined
May 15, 2019
Messages
4
Hi,

New driver, new car. I am completely clueless but I have tried searching before I ended up here and so far no luck with my google searches. Hopefully you will be able to help.

So, first of all, when the outside temperature reaches a certain level, AC automatically comes on when the car is parked in my driveway. Is there any way I can turn this off? Or is it necessary to keep the batteries cool?
Secondly, and most importantly, eveytime this happens, and when parked the AC automatically comes on, so does the car alarm.

I also tried using the iDrive app to cool down the car before I got in, and this also triggered the car alarm.

What am I doing wrong? :roll:

THANK YOU.
 
1) Do you have a departure time programmed? That would turn the heat/AC on while you're not in the car.

2) How old is your 12V battery? I have no info on the i3 having this problem, but a malfunctioning alarm system is a tell-tale sign of 12V battery failures with other ICE manufacturers . The expected 12V battery lifetime is 3-4 years from what I've read, so it might be time for a change if you have a 2014-15 model.....
 
Thank you so much. Your response to the first section solved the problem. Preconditioning was on 3 times a day - fixed! It no longer comes on randomly. However, if I am to remotely activate the AC (through the app), the car alarm still comes on :(

No it is a fairly new 2017 model with only 8888 miles on it. Here is an info that i failed to include. My insurance is with RAC and an engineer just installed a blackbox (compulsory for this insurance). Wondering jf he could have done something under the hood to cause this as it had not happened until he installed the blackbox. 😐
 
nyazgin said:
My insurance is with RAC and an engineer just installed a blackbox (compulsory for this insurance). Wondering jf he could have done something under the hood to cause this as it had not happened until he installed the blackbox. 😐
Bingo! An i3 views a device connected to the OBD port under the dashboard as a potential security threat and will sound the alarm to alert the driver about this potential threat under certain circumstances. Via a process called "coding", it is possible to change a parameter that defines this behavior to prevent the alarm from sounding. The BimmerCode smartphone app can do this. However, doing so would make your i3 a bit less secure.

Some insurers use a smartphone app to replicate some of the behavior of the monitoring device that your insurer installed. If that's an option, that would be a better choice.
 
I just realised that I never thanked you.
Thank you so much for your detailed and spot on response! Much appreciated 💚👍
 
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