Is it safe to ignore "Drivetrain - Do not switch off engine"

[Jeremy]

I've had a few of the common "Drivetrain - you may carry on driving" messages over the 18 months I've had the car - usually after around 100 miles RExing. They've always disappeared without any problems.

This weekend I had my first "Drivetrain - Do not switch off engine - you cannot restart … etc". I ignored it & switched off the engine and have carried on happily for around 50 miles and several restarts without problems.

It's not really convenient for me to lose the car in the immediate future so - has anyone else successfully ignored this message without problems?

I've read the earlier longish thread on this issue which seems to have a confusing number of different diagnoses & fixes - but no one reporting success with the "ignore & hope it will go away" approach, which I'm beginning to think might be the best first option with non-persistent i3 fault indications.

Any views?

 

[jadnashuanh]

My take on what I've read is that the message is often the result of moisture getting places the car doesn't like. If moisture can get in, it usually can get out. The issue is, we're dealing with high voltage wiring, and things could spark and arc. The engine itself gets hot, and if say it's raining, moisture hitting it could vaporize, and the resulting steam will penetrate more things than possibly even liquid water. Personally, I'd have to know under the exact conditions it happened, and then make a personal decision on what to do. Odds are, the error will go away when things dry out on their own. But, no guarantees. Error messages are logged by the computer, so you can't just tell the dealer you have no idea what happened and weren't warned. In some instances, I've read that BMW just says you can ignore it if it goes away, but I'm not betting a warranty claim on that unless it's in writing. Not sure if I"ve helped at all...since I dont' have personal experience with a REx, cannot say from experience, only by what I've read.