bimmeri32020
New member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2020
- Messages
- 1
I (USA) am the owner of a used 2015 BMW i3 REx Giga World with just under 40k miles. We purchased it from CarMax with MaxCare January 19 2019 out in California. We are just out of the manufacturer warranty which was up in December 2019. Up until now, there have been no issues. We actually drove this car across the country 2500 miles with not a single problem. I got a regular maintenance visit in October of 2019 and everything checked out. I drive this car on battery to and from work (my commute is 2mi each way and in town) and to the gym (give or take 5 mi so about 15-20 mi a day - some highway driving, but mostly in town) so I don’t often use the REx until I have a longer drive. I run it about 1x a month, sometimes more but never less than 1x a month. Again: i've never had an issue with it.
Fast forward to this past Saturday: I have a meeting about 30 minutes away. No issues driving there on battery. Coming back home was not the same story. I depleted the battery and as soon as the REx kicked in, everything went wrong. The check engine light was on and I got a “drivetrain malfunction error” and then lost power in the car. Also the REx sounded extremely loud - i'd estimate 2x-3x louder than the normal engine sound when the REx kicks in. Fellow REx owners probably know what i'm talking about. I must have had some residual battery power left because I was able to limp it to a parking lot and had it towed to our house 5 minutes away. Based on the recommendation from the local BMW service adviser, I was told that as long as I didn't use the REx, I could still drive it. I charged it back up and drove it Sunday and Monday on battery with no issues. It drove like normal.
I take it in to the dealership Monday afternoon (2/24/20) . I get a call from the dealership around 5:30pm that same day and they tell me they have found metal shavings in the oil and the engine needs to be completely rebuilt. He told me I need to authorize $3825 (15 hours of labor) to have the engine torn apart to figure out for sure what’s wrong and probably $12,000 total to have the engine entirely rebuilt (assuming here they'll likely just replace the entire unit). As mentioned above, I have an extended warranty i purchased from CarMax. The warranty administrator will have an adjuster come out and confirm the issue, and then I guess they make their decision whether or not to cover the repair after that.
I am about 85-90% sure this will be covered by the extended warranty. I wont lie that I’m extremely nervous about having authorized this as I don’t have $3825 to spare if for some reason this isn’t covered. I’m on the hook for that diagnostic/rental car if it's not. It is for sure an engine issue and not a battery issue and there are no recalls on this car.
I did everything right with this car as far as I can tell. Never filled it with anything less than premium gas, got the regular maintenance, kept it indoors or in covered garages. I do live in SE Michigan which has a fairly cold climate. We get down to the negative temps in Jan/Feb (though this winter has been fairly mild and hasn't dropped below the single digits for more than a day or so). Of course, this has made my range drop significantly, but beyond that it drives normally even in the dead of winter.
I have many questions though. See below:
I'm not worried much yet because i still think this will be covered. Would like to know if someone has had the same experience and got their issue paid for.
Fast forward to this past Saturday: I have a meeting about 30 minutes away. No issues driving there on battery. Coming back home was not the same story. I depleted the battery and as soon as the REx kicked in, everything went wrong. The check engine light was on and I got a “drivetrain malfunction error” and then lost power in the car. Also the REx sounded extremely loud - i'd estimate 2x-3x louder than the normal engine sound when the REx kicks in. Fellow REx owners probably know what i'm talking about. I must have had some residual battery power left because I was able to limp it to a parking lot and had it towed to our house 5 minutes away. Based on the recommendation from the local BMW service adviser, I was told that as long as I didn't use the REx, I could still drive it. I charged it back up and drove it Sunday and Monday on battery with no issues. It drove like normal.
I take it in to the dealership Monday afternoon (2/24/20) . I get a call from the dealership around 5:30pm that same day and they tell me they have found metal shavings in the oil and the engine needs to be completely rebuilt. He told me I need to authorize $3825 (15 hours of labor) to have the engine torn apart to figure out for sure what’s wrong and probably $12,000 total to have the engine entirely rebuilt (assuming here they'll likely just replace the entire unit). As mentioned above, I have an extended warranty i purchased from CarMax. The warranty administrator will have an adjuster come out and confirm the issue, and then I guess they make their decision whether or not to cover the repair after that.
I am about 85-90% sure this will be covered by the extended warranty. I wont lie that I’m extremely nervous about having authorized this as I don’t have $3825 to spare if for some reason this isn’t covered. I’m on the hook for that diagnostic/rental car if it's not. It is for sure an engine issue and not a battery issue and there are no recalls on this car.
I did everything right with this car as far as I can tell. Never filled it with anything less than premium gas, got the regular maintenance, kept it indoors or in covered garages. I do live in SE Michigan which has a fairly cold climate. We get down to the negative temps in Jan/Feb (though this winter has been fairly mild and hasn't dropped below the single digits for more than a day or so). Of course, this has made my range drop significantly, but beyond that it drives normally even in the dead of winter.
I have many questions though. See below:
- Does this sound like a manufacturer defect to those who are in the know about this issue? Is this a problem that's becoming more prevalent as BMWs age where the engine just simply fails?
- Is there anything I could have somehow done wrong that caused this issue without me knowing?
- Also, does it make sense that it costs almost $4k to even take apart the engine? I'm not a technician so I can't tell. Some folks on other forums have said that it sounds ridiculous and that i should get a second opinion, but others have said it's in line with the average cost of taking out the engine on this particular car because of its placement and the labor associated with taking basically the entire car apart.
- Does it seem reasonable that for another $9k (for a total of $12k) the issue will be fixed? It's hard to tell with dealerships sometimes because you always hear about being upcharged. I chose to go to the dealership because I at least have a history with them and BMW recommends all repairs be done through them.
I'm not worried much yet because i still think this will be covered. Would like to know if someone has had the same experience and got their issue paid for.
