I had a 3G to 4G TCU upgrade to prove a point.

[airman2482]

And FYI, I have 2 other friends who have 2017 model year cars I helped put RoadTop units in and they did NOT have the new 4G LTE telematics unit installed in mine in their i3 either. Both of them no longer have connected drive.

well, also FYI- on every other forum where someone with a 2017 stated they only had 3G and lost Connected Drive it turned out their subscription had expired. That's been my experience so far. They were going off the icon on the screen. Your experience as a data point is an outlier and does not make sense when BMW was known to have been putting the 4G modules in since mid July 2016.

I am not saying you are wrong and I am not looking for an argument. It just does not make sense to me given everything I have encountered over the past year.

I would be interested in seeing what the label looks like on your new TCU. particularly where it says "MODEL:"

Yes, the screen still states “3G”.. I know what you mean.

FWIW: One of the two 2017 i3 owners I know tried to renew his connected drive and services and the person at BMW exclaimed he was “out of luck”…

It’s kind of crappy outside today, and I have a pile of stuff in the back seat, I’ll post a pic this weekend, I have to clean the car out after the winter, now that it’s highway construction season in Minnesota. (It seems there are only two seasons here in MN, winter and highway construction seasons, with a brief pause for the changeover)

And yes, this is a good idea to start a new thread!

Let me dig up the invoice, I’ll begin by giving the old and new part numbers from it.

Here’s a transcription of the invoice:

(Sorry, I’ve never uploaded an image)

CUSTOMER IS EXPERIENCING ISSUES WITH CONNECTED DRIVE AND SOS. SEE SFTS.

FAULTY TCB
6121528(1) 0000006(4) 6100006(1) tp 18m/485
8410811(6) 6100730(4) 8411021200 ps

1. HOOKED UP CHARGER/PULLED FAULTS,
2. RUN TEST PLAN AND PERFORM A
FUNCTIONAL TEST OF THE TCB. RECEIVED DIAG TO REPLACE THE TCB.
3. REMOVED AND REPLACED THE TCB, PROGRAMED THE VEHICLE, UPDATE ONLINE SERVICES AND CHECK THE ICC-ID NUMBER AND PART NUMBER INSTALLED AND IT IS THE UPDATED 6 836 777 PART NUMBER

QTY - - - FP-NUMBER——--DESCRIPTION-
1. 84-10-6-836-777 TCB
3. 07-14-7-335-808. NEOPRENE NUT

- - - - UNIT PRICE- TOTAL - PARTS
1 TOTALS- WARRANTY
1 TOTAL CHARGES: 0.00

WARRANTY
0.00
——
I hope this helps!

[jaaniwangu8]

I wonder if the BMW Dealer has to do anything 'special' in registering the modem with BMW, other than programming it to the car with ISTA+?? Does ISTA programming pass on/register the new phone/ID number to the BMW Connected Drive server? Or is there some extra registration step that must be done by a BMW Dealer??

hellodear.in

teatv.ltd

[tezarc]

I wonder if the BMW Dealer has to do anything 'special' in registering the modem with BMW, other than programming it to the car with ISTA+?? Does ISTA programming pass on/register the new phone/ID number to the BMW Connected Drive server? Or is there some extra registration step that must be done by a BMW Dealer??

hellodear.in

teatv.ltd

You got it. Doing the ISTA+ programming puts the vehicle's VIN into the new TCU's ROM (which is why you cannot use a scrapped TCU from another vehicle for this) and registers the new TCU to the the VIN in Connected Drive servers. No special steps needed.

[imkazaam]

IMO, it would be better to get an aftermarket module, that could allow your phone to securely connect directly to your i3, bypassing BMW's servers and the cell towers.

Smartphones have Bluetooth (very short range), WiFi (short range), and cellular (long range) radios. Connecting directly to an i3 via Bluetooth or WiFi wouldn't be very useful due to their short ranges and pairing requirements.

The cellular radio's behavior is determined by a SIM card or eSim. Pairing occurs automatically and can't be controlled by the user. If a smartphone paired with a cellular device in an i3, phone call and Internet data connections would be broken until the phone paired with a cell phone tower. So how would connecting directly to an i3 via a cellular signal work assuming one still wanted to use a smartphone for phone calls and Internet access?

Seems like an Internet-connected server would be required, and this server would have to know how to connect to the cellular device in every i3 using this proprietary in-car cellular device. Hmm, sounds exactly like the system that BMW set up but doesn't manage very well.

Sorry for the late reply. First, the i3 has a phone in it. Someone with more knowledge than me can (and likely has) figured out how to put the built in phone 100% in service of the owner instead of the automaker. Second, the challenges you present are just logistical challenges the aftermarket solution would handle. Plenty of people are more interested in convenience first, kudos to them, that's not me. I'm interested in convenience and security, not being data collected by the automaker is part of my security. We pay for a lot of expensive comforts people would consider useless, just driving BMWs, so I won't even engage anyone on the necessity or practicality of opting out of being data collected. I've owned my i3 for nearly 7 years. I've never used the app. Never will.

[alohart]

Sorry for the late reply. First, the i3 has a phone in it. Someone with more knowledge than me can (and likely has) figured out how to put the built in phone 100% in service of the owner instead of the automaker.

I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.

Second, the challenges you present are just logistical challenges the aftermarket solution would handle./quote]Plenty of people are more interested in convenience first, kudos to them, that's not me. I'm interested in convenience and security, not being data collected by the automaker is part of my security. We pay for a lot of expensive comforts people would consider useless, just driving BMWs, so I won't even engage anyone on the necessity or practicality of opting out of being data collected. I've owned my i3 for nearly 7 years. I've never used the app. Never will.

[chado]

I have a 2015 i3 rex in the USA, and have embarked on the journey to upgrade to 4g, as 3g disappears in Feb. So far, results are mixed. I was able to swap in a used TCB, and code it with eSys, and I can use it to call customer service or SOS, but tying the IMEI to the Vin in BMW's Connected Drive system seems to be impossible. The Connected Drive folks refuse to do it. I even tried contacting AT&T to see if they could help, but got nowhere. I will ask the dealership next week, but they are conservative, and I don't expect much.
So my question is whether anyone has succeeded in getting the remote services, such as remote lock, working with a retrofit 4g module?
The one interesting thing I noted is that when I made a roadside assistance call from the car, my mobile app was updated with the time and date. But that's it.

Have you tried coding your headunit to the original VIN of 4g box?

You probably will have to run commands from "my bmw" using the car VIN you got the 4g module

I think this will also kill the map data though, might allow you to send commands from my bmw app

[imkazaam]

Sorry for the late reply. First, the i3 has a phone in it. Someone with more knowledge than me can (and likely has) figured out how to put the built in phone 100% in service of the owner instead of the automaker.

I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.

If that was true, online banking wouldn't be possible. It's the same concept.

[alohart]

I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.

If that was true, online banking wouldn't be possible. It's the same concept.

I don't understand what you mean. Online banking using a bank app on a smartphone connected to the Internet via a cellular data connection (not WiFi) involves a cell phone tower connected to the smartphone. The cell phone tower transfers data from and to the smartphone to and from the Internet. The bank app doesn't connect directly to a bank's servers.