The "whoop-whoop" is making me crazy!

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WoodlandHills

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
751
Location
SoCal
Due to a civic miracle most of the streets I use have been repaved this spring, which is a Good Thing, but smooth roads are also where the whoop-whoop is most pronounced, which is fast becoming a Very Bad Thing. Perhaps it is a function of mileage, but the noise seems to be getting louder as the weeks pass. Now it has gotten to the point that it is all I can hear while driving around town and all I can think is how quiet this car would be without that maddening noise!
Is there any solution to this problem? I read that the later production 2014s do not have this problem, is this true, if so, what was changed? I am making an appointment on Monday to take the car in to have it looked at by BMW and also the tire OEM if I can get them to listen. If the newer production cars in the same model year do not have this problem with NVH do I have a claim for a defect to be remedied under warranty?
 
20s, it was all that was available at the time I leased. And the pressure is at the factory setting.....

If the problem is in the tires and only a certain production run exhibits this behavior, and other tires with the same part number are quiet does that mean there is a defect in the noisy ones? I am sure that there is no safety issue involved, just an annoying noise, but it is a distraction and it does mean that my car is going to be louder than others for the life of my lease.
 
Try a little mental distraction. Right now Adobe is running a very clever advertisement online, for an imaginary smart-phone app called Woo Woo, in which, amongst other things, one character calls for an "ethnically ambiguous Woo Woo mascot", and closes with a shot of a hipster in an elevator sneering "...nah, my Mom's on Woo Woo." So now when my i3 goes whoop-whoop I just smile.
 
WoodlandHills said:
20s, it was all that was available at the time I leased. And the pressure is at the factory setting.....

If the problem is in the tires and only a certain production run exhibits this behavior, and other tires with the same part number are quiet does that mean there is a defect in the noisy ones? I am sure that there is no safety issue involved, just an annoying noise, but it is a distraction and it does mean that my car is going to be louder than others for the life of my lease.

In Holland, owners of a i3 with 20" wheels received replacement tires from BMW. Bridgestone has improved the tires and the sound has disappeared.
 
This is what I am hoping for, my Service Advisor is trying to contact Bridgestone for an evaluation. The noise is obvious, so I am not too sure what needs to be evaluated, the real question is if there is a secret warranty for this issue. By "secret", I mean that the OEM has decided to warranty the item for all who complain, but does not make this policy publicly known. In other words, the squeaky wheels get greased....... ;)
 
Sometimes it can pay to talk to the OEM tire manufacturer (in this case, Bridgestone) direct. On my other car, the dealer said I needed a new tire and quoted a price...Goodyear replaced it free.
 
There is another customer with a similar problem that has had their car looked at several times to no avail. By luck, this person has another appointment on Thursday morning and they are going to let me bring mine in at the same time. From a pure service point of view it would be very helpful to have two cars with the exact same complaint to test simultaneously. If the complaints are both valid and are the same, being able to compare build dates, VIN numbers and tire build codes could prove useful in diagnosis.
Also having two claims against the tires for the same NVH defect may help us both should that be the case whether the claim is against BMW or Bridgestone. The SA said that the normal procedure is to have BMW warranty the tire and they claim against Bridgestone, but I can see the value in contacting Bridgestone directly. Especially if BMW deny the claim!
Last Sunday morning I was out walking my dog when an i3 pulled up at a corner near me. I asked the driver if his made the whoop-whoop noise too and he just looked at me blankly: "what whoop-whoop?". Turns out he got his in April '15, I got mine in November '14 although I forgot to ask what model year his was.
 
I too hear the maddening 'whoop/whoop' noise when driving at speeds 15mph and up. I could be wrong, but my hunch is the inherent design of the 20" wheel flared openings on my car. I test drove a Mega BEV version, with the 427 style wheels, and a Giga BEV with the turbine 429 style wheels and neither of these two cars exhibited the 'whoop/whoop' wheel/tire noise.
 
It's not the wheels, it's the tires. The existing 19" designs, at least the winter and all-season versions, do not make those sounds. There are reports that the newest rev to the 20" summer performance tires do not make those sounds, which is what the OP was lamenting, and trying to investigate when the design change was made, and if BMW or Bridgestone are willing to resolve it for them without cost. That design change may be the reason some people have had delays in getting a new tire to replace one that was damaged...adding them to the new cars and for people that need replacements already (some drive a lot more than I do, for example) may also account for part of the problem. Similar to the KLE issue, it took awhile to prime the supply chain...there might be something coming, but nobody will announce it until they've stockpiled enough for the demand. Pure speculation on my part.
 
The car is in the shop overnight while they research the tires and their build dates. The other car with the noise was an Electronaut edition that had the problem looked at more than 5 times. I drove the shop foreman and the other owner around and the BMW guy acted surprised at how loud it was.....the other guy said his was louder! By the time the service manager called me back at 2:00 they sounded like they agreed the problem was tires. I hope that as per my suggestion they contact Bridgestone to get their take on the situation too.
The hard part was finding a road suitable for demonstrating the noise in an unfamiliar neighborhood: all of the new pavement was straight residential streets. Ultimately I just swerved the car from side to side at 20mph or so.
 
My dealer called this afternoon and relayed the message from BMW that this is a known problem, but that there is no fix and that the dealer is to replace NO parts. As per BMW they have replaced tires and wheels in the past and the problem has returned therefore until there is a solution the dealer is to do nothing.
There is a BMW engineer coming again today(he was there yesterday too) and they (my dealer) are trying to contact Bridgestone as well. My question to them was if any cars with 19s made this noise too and if not would they please give me a set of 19s and adjust my lease price accordingly. No reply to that until next week!
As you can imagine I am not very pleased with such a response and I am researching Calif. Lemon Law to see what my legal rights might be. I am also going to try to co tact Jalopnik and a few other automotive sites with my tale of woe.
BMW acknowledge that some cars have the problem and others do not, but have no response when asked why. Has anyone ever heard of the whoop-whoop being fixed and then returning or even being fixed at all?
 
Well, it IS an OEM part supplied with a new car..... The law says nothing about ones issue being safety related, just that it be noted and attempted to be fixed at least four times.
If the 19s do not have this problem then I would be happy with a set of them instead of my 20s, just adjust my lease to reflect the lower price.
 
One thing I have not mentioned is that the Service Manager told me that he was unsure if BMW was still trying to fix this problem. He stated that his impression was that BMW had washed their hands of the matter and that he was worried that his customers were being abandoned and that the dealership was going to be left having to deal with us w/o help from BMWUSA.
 
TomMoloughney said:
spectramr2 said:
Hope this helps y'all


Thanks for posting. I've been waiting for this to finally come about. BMW has known all along that there was an issue with the tires causing the noise, I think they just needed to figure out if A) Bridgestone could eliminate the noise without a major tire redesign, and B) If it was annoying enough to warrant issuing a service bulletin like this to offer replacement tires. Now we have the answer.

I know different people have had different answers and explanations from various dealers and even iConcierge reps, but the problem has always been the tires, and BMW NA did indeed know this, I guess it just took this amount of time to correct it. It really doesn't bother me at all, and I wouldn't likely even bother except who doesn't want a new set of tires? Time to move on from the whoop-whoop!


This is good news for me, but I have to wonder why my dealer told me that BMW sent a tech rep to inspect my car who told us that BMW had no idea of the cause. That does not give me much confidence in their communications within the company. I wonder how long I would have to wait for my dealer to contact me about this? After all both they and BMWNA know all about my issues and have for many months. It is not like I have not been calling the service manager on a monthly basis looking for updates on my problem and possible solutions. How long has this fix been available?
It will be nice to have a quiet car. If I can get my dealer to participate!
Is the PUMA number used for all BMWNA whooping claims or just yours?
 
I have a 2014 REx with 20" wheels, however my build date on my tires are past the 'affected' range. Ive read a ton about the 'whoop-whoop' and came across this as someone had posted it online. Do yourself a favor and join the BMW i3 forum on facebook. There is a ton of relevant information there, along with a great group of i3 enthusiasts that are willing to help everyone. Tom is a member and he can tell you how friendly and receptive they are.

I would print this out and take it to your dealer and show them that it is a known problem. If all else fails, contact BMW NA and file a complaint. Since you live in Woodland Hills im guessing, did you buy your I3 from Bob Smith in Calabassas?
 
Well, I also think you're justified to print that post out and put it on the service managers desk and ask for an explanation and resolution.

If no result, escalate to BMW.
 
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