Audio/nav system re-starts

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Busfolder

Active member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Messages
34
During a 180 mile round trip today my 3 year old 94Ah i3 REX suffered several spontaneous re-starts of its audio/nav system. These started after being parked for about 5 hr. with the main battery at 33% and not charging.

Following rapid charging to 95%, a few more re-starts occurred, but with less frequency as my journey progressed.

Is this problem an indication that the 12V battery is reaching the end of life?

I'll do some voltage measurements to see if this theory seems plausible, but I'd like to know if anyone else has had similar issues. Thanks!

Chris
 
My only problem with your theory is that if you wait to test it, you're going to come out to a bricked car.

I don't know one way or the other but based on all of the dying 12v gremlins I've read about on the i3 forums, your supposition is a good bet. 3 years old? I'd take this as the first indication and change it.
 
I've had this happen before. On a drive in to work one day, the system restarted at least 3 times (20 minute, 10 mile drive). It's done that on one or two drives and I haven't done anything to fix it but the next time I got into the car, the system has been fine. I've had the car for over a year and that's only happened a few times.

The only thing potentially related is that also occasionally, the screen will be blank while the radio and everything work as normal. I'll park it for work or overnight and when I get back it's fine again. Electrical gremlins, I guess?
 
I have had this same issue with my 2017 i3.
I mentioned it to the service dept at my dealer next time I was in and it showed up as a logged error code when they hooked the car up.
I was told that the solution was a software reload which would take anywhere from a couple of hours to overnight as it has to be downloaded over the BMW servers in Germany. I suppose it all depends on how busy the servers are.
Anyway I collected the car next day and everything was working OK. I have not had a re-occurrence of the issue since so the solution worked. Didn't cost me anything.
Hope this info helps.
 
Thanks to everyone, especially malspa!

I'll contact my supplying dealer and see if I can get my car's software updated (though it's currently behaving normally...)

Chris
 
malspa said:
...Iwas told that the solution was a software reload ... I have not had a re-occurrence of the issue since so the solution worked. Didn't cost me anything.
Hope this info helps.


Ooh, ooh! Question! Question!

I know this is off topic and I apologize, but since you got that particular software update installed, how has your clock been? Does it stay accurate with "auto-set" checked, or does it go off by a minute or two and stay there?
 
During a 180 mile round trip today my 3 year old 94Ah i3 REX suffered several spontaneous re-starts of its audio/nav system. These started after being parked for about 5 hr. with the main battery at 33% and not charging.

Following rapid charging to 95%, a few more re-starts occurred, but with less frequency as my journey progressed.

Is this problem an indication that the 12V battery is reaching the end of life?

I'll do some voltage measurements to see if this theory seems plausible, but I'd like to know if anyone else has had similar issues. Thanks!

Chris



Curious...

When you say the nav/audio system restarted, did the iDrive screen go blank except for

"N O S I G N A L"

displayed in red?

A note about measuring the 12V battery... make sure the car is off when you take a reading. If it's not, the HV battery will be recharging the 12V battery and you'll read a nice 14.4V across the terminals.

[edit: formatting]
 
Ooh, ooh! Question! Question!

I know this is off topic and I apologize, but since you got that particular software update installed, how has your clock been? Does it stay accurate with "auto-set" checked, or does it go off by a minute or two and stay there?


Continuing with the off-topic topic, did you code the "auto-set time" option?

I think I had that option when I bought my 2014 BEV new but it disappeared after a dealer software update. I did code it back at one point, but it would only update automatically if you forced a clock sync by opening a ConnectedDrive session.

I gave up on the feature and went back to manually setting the clock.

My i3's clock runs fast, about five minutes by the end of six months.
 
Problem improved- I found a specific software update at BMW.com (after entering my VIN number)

Easily applied using a USB stick.

Shutdowns are still occurring, but much less frequently than before.
So I'll leave it as is, unless it gets worse, mustn't expect perfection from a free fix...

Chris
 
Not sure if this relates to my recent software update, but today the REX started its Maintenance Run with the battery at 78.5%

Previously, it's always waited until the 75% threshold. Possibly started early because I'd set the navigation for a short 25 minute trip...

Chris
 
Back
Top