Battery issue

[jlangham]

Okay, time to start this thread. Just looked in my hidden menu at the Battery Capacity and mine shows 12.5 (I'll post a pic later). Emailed the dealership salesman and service manager to see what they are going to do about it. So far, I've heard nothing... crickets...

My hope is they sold me the car knowing that they would need to replace the battery under warranty and couldn't do it with the car on the lot - had to sell it to get the warranty done that way (hey, I'm trying to be positive). With no response today, I'll have to make a trip over there to talk to them. I just don't like getting the runaround, so hoping I won't because I don't have a lot of patience with that!

I love the car and it's been great so far. I hope they verify it needs replacement, order the battery, and schedule the replacement when it comes in.

I hope...
I hope...

[brin]

Could you give us a little more info about car? Mileage, year, your location?

[jlangham]

Could you give us a little more info about car? Mileage, year, your location?

Sorry! It's a 2014 BEV, I'm the 3rd owner, almost 60k miles. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona area.

[MKH]

What average range are you getting on a full charge? Is it well below the normal BEV range?

The reason I ask, is that it has been pointed out here that the hidden menu battery capacity is just a "snap-shot" guesstimate by the on-board computer based on existing conditions at the time, and may or may not be a totally accurate measure of the actual real battery capacity. To get the real battery capacity, the dealership would need to hook the car up to a device which will completely discharge the battery pack, then recharge it, measuring the full-charge capacity.

[jlangham]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I've read that on here but also it's been said that nobody has seen that snapshot that low. Sure I'm in Phoenix, but when I checked it I had a full battery, in my garage, and 59 degrees.

I'm getting good range right now. My Guess-O-Meter this morning said I could go 75 miles. My commute is 40 miles round trip with about 1/3 of that on city streets and the other on highway traveling 70 mph. I have it in Eco Pro + every time I'm in the city going around town (including that 1/3 of my commute) and switch it to Eco Pro when I get on the highway. I never drive with it in Comfort unless I just start out and forget it's the default when you start the car.

I hope you're correct about the dealer setting this straight. My problem is that the dealer hasn't contacted me back about this. They should have told me this, not you - no offence!

I really do drive this car like it's supposed to be driven and don't feel like it's going to leave me stranded, but with everyone looking at that Battery Capacity menu value and mine being that much lower than most everyone elses, it still sounds like there could be an issue.

[MKH]

Well the 2014 "optimum" best BEV range new is 81 miles, so you aren't far off at all. My range on a 2015 with only 10K mile on it and the hidden menu showing 18.4 varies that much off of the best posted Rex range fully charged depending of varying conditions. I wonder if there is a computer reset of some sort that can optimize these "guesstimates" it shows. Be interesting what you dealer says. And if you aren't getting a response, maybe contacting BMW USA.

[jlangham]

Yeah, I'm pretty happy so far with the range I'm getting. I also think you may be right about the reset and hope this is just me getting ryled up for nothing.

Yep, if the dealer doesn't show me love, I'm going to go to BMW themselves. Great minds think alike!

I'll let you know.

[Oleksiy]

The battery re-initialization has been performed by owners multiple times in Germany, with excellent results. The discussion is here https://www.goingelectric.de/forum/bmw- ... 2-680.html (I use Google Translate), and the instructions to DIY are here https://okedv.dyndns.org/wbb/blog/index ... ry-reinit/.

Also, the re-initialization is being discussed in this thread viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5305&start=30, I'm sure you have read it by now.

[MKH]

Interesting article on expected i3 battery life.
https://insideevs.com/lets-look-at-the- ... h-battery/

[jlangham]

Great info posted (in German) thanks for that! Yes, I did receive more good info from the other thread. I also received a message back from the service manager. In short, he said that given the age and mileage of my car, that they believe the battery is fine.

My range is good and have no issues. As others have said on this forum, that Battery Cap number in the hidden menu isn't the true number of the health of the battery. But... why is everyone looking at it, tracking it, etc. if it's not important? Why is it even in the menu if it's not an important factor in determining the health of the battery? Just thinking out loud...

Again, I'm thinking the battery is okay for now. I'll keep watching it.