New(er) I3

I traded my base 2018 for a loaded certified 2019. Sunroof, wood dash , tech, driver-assist, etc. I drove 89 miles to San Antonio in rain and construction to the dealer there. The base nav in the 2018 made a mess of my arrival in SA. I was lucky to spot "MINI" on a building and ended up at the right place. I used the range extender and arrived with 65% battery.

Coming home, I stopped a couple of blocks from the dealer and coded the range extender to hold charge. I'm still using a level 1 charger and I didn't want to get home with a low HV battery. I arrived home with about 65% battery. With the 120 battery, it will take a bit longer to charge than the 94.

Coming home, the much better nav in the 2019 did a great job. Voice recognition was good and set up my address on the first try. The split map on the larger screen is great. In the base model, the disappointing voice recognition was about equal to saying "Hey Google."

I loved driving the 2018, but after several Genesis sedans for years, I sorely missed the bells and whistles.

Strange thing. I coded the new I3 to fold the mirrors when locked, along with a bunch of other things like starting up in Eco-Pro every time.

Each time I lock the car by touching the ridges on the door handle, the mirrors fold and a second or two later, the alarm goes off. Every time! If I lock the car with the fob, the mirrors fold and there is no alarm. Every time.

I'm not quite sure what I did wrong or how to tackle this one.

Congrats on the new 19 i3. I loved my 19 and am loving my 2020. That is very strange about the alarm going off. I would say ask the dealer, since you are under warranty, but of course the coding is a big no-no and warranty voider. Fingers crossed you get it figured out.

Drove it this cold drizzly morning and fortunately parked it under the canopy at the yard where I store my Airstream. I left the I3 unlocked and spent some time in the RV. When I came out, it was still unlocked but the sunroof and both windows were wide open.

The fob was loose in my pocket, but I don't see how it could have been pressed up against anything that would have pushed a button.

I'll go back through the programming today to see whether I may have inadvertently done something wrong.

Anyone else have this happen?

Pahaska said:

Each time I lock the car by touching the ridges on the door handle, the mirrors fold and a second or two later, the alarm goes off. Every time! If I lock the car with the fob, the mirrors fold and there is no alarm.

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The alarm can sound if an OBD dongle is left plugged into the OBD port. If an OBD dongle is in the OBD port, it doesn't make sense that the alarm wouldn't sound however the car is locked. Nevertheless, I felt that it was worth pointing out.

I suggest reverting to the default settings. BimmerCode automatically backs up previous settings, so it should be easy to revert to the original default settings. Then reapply only the mirrors folding when locked under Comfort Access. If the alarm sounds, then there's something about this one setting that's causing the problem. You could then revert to the default settings and reapply all changes except the mirrors folding when locked under Comfort Access.

If the alarm doesn't sound after reapplying only the mirrors folding when locked under Comfort Access, then apply half of the remaining changes, etc., and repeat until the alarm sounds. Then revert back to their defaults the settings that resulted in the alarm sounding. Reapply half of the changes that caused the alarm to sound, etc. Eventually, you should be able to identify the change that causes the alarm to sound.

Good luck!

Deutsch100 said:

That is very strange about the alarm going off. I would say ask the dealer, since you are under warranty, but of course the coding is a big no-no and warranty voider.

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Unfortunately, the dealer won't be able to help since you changed the default settings.

I recall reading about only a single case in which a dealer refused to honor the warranty because of a coding change. The owner didn't fight this decision as many i3 owners suggested he do, so we really don't know what the outcome might have been. Coding changes affect behaviors that are enabled in some other markets, so there's nothing that coding changes could do that isn't covered under warranty somewhere. Most i3 owners don't worry about coding changes voiding their warranties because it just hasn't happened, in general. All recent BMW vehicles can be coded, so dealers are very aware of this and don't seem to mind.

there's nothing that coding changes could do that isn't covered under warranty

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Exactly. And all a dealer has to do to a 'coded' car is do a software update, and everything is back to factory.

Previous post hit it on the head. I had forgotten to pull the OBD dongle out. Thanks.

I still don't understand why it didn't alarm when I locked it with the fob, though.

The car thinks it's in diagnostic mode under some conditions, and that can mess some things up if the OBD port is being used. BMWs in general, don't like an OBD device being attached for anything but diagnostics or maintenance.

On a used one, if the old user account was not deactivated, it could be the old owner is messing with the vehicle!

Drove it this cold drizzly morning and fortunately parked it under the canopy at the yard where I store my Airstream. I left the I3 unlocked and spent some time in the RV. When I came out, it was still unlocked but the sunroof and both windows were wide open.

The fob was loose in my pocket, but I don't see how it could have been pressed up against anything that would have pushed a button.

I'll go back through the programming today to see whether I may have inadvertently done something wrong.

Anyone else have this happen?
I don’t know why I couldn’t directly reply so I copies and pasted above.
Anyway, I had the windows roll down while I was waxing the car with the BMW keys in my pocket. I was sitting on a rolling stool for part of the process - so I figured my body pushed the button in. In my old e39 530i I occasionally pushed the unlock button a second too long and cracked the windows open. I wish there was a way to disable the feature.

Swdollar said:

I wish there was a way to disable the feature.

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What the fob buttons do can be changed using BimmerCode. However, I don't know for certain that this function could be disabled or substituted. Worth checking out, though.

Some people experiencing the issue of 'ghost' window and sunroof opening seem to have solved the problem by getting a key-fob case to make it harder to 'pocket-push' the buttons - either a leather key fob case , or a soft silicon one that they put on backwards, so the buttons are covered.

https://www.shopbmwusa.com/search/Key-Cases

https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Leather-Wallet-Holder-Remote/dp/B06Y68CHBD