New i3 person here. Just getting ready to turn in my 2012 Nissan Leaf (extended my 2-year lease) next week, so I was considering the 2016 Leaf with the larger battery, or the i3-REX. No good discounts on the new Leaf yet, so the i3-REX won (half the monthly cost of the new Leaf!). I picked it up last week - Wednesday evening. 2015 i3-REX, GigaWorld, Tech and Park packages, Solar Orange. Love it so far...except....
No noise issues coming home 40 miles that night, nor coming to work (35 miles) Thursday. But as I drove home Thursday, I started hearing an odd buzz occasionally. I initially thought the radio was tuned to static, but just for a brief time. But as I drove further, I started to localize the noise to the area right above my right ear in the driver's seat.
The next morning, driving to work, the noise was MUCH worse. I recorded it several times with a voice recorder app on my phone, holding it near my ear. It starts around 40 mph, and then gets louder and more frequent at highway speeds. I tried pressing on the headliner in many places, but could not quiet the noise at all.
I was very windy on those two trips...so perhaps some sideways wind.
But there was NO noise at all coming home Friday! But I still felt that no one would want a car this noisy, even only if windy, so I called the dealer to have them look at it. I know that intermittent problems are the worst to troubleshoot.
Drove over with the family to the dealer Saturday morning, and the noise was present again, and pretty consistently above 40 mph. Everyone could clearly hear it. It was even doing it as I drove up to the dealer (45 mph street). I met my salesman, but he was unwilling to go for a quick test to hear the noise, which was disappointing. (Service department not open on Saturday). The noise is NOT the REX running - was on battery (easy to tell when the REX is running, but it is quieter than this noise).
So I get a call from the service manager Monday, and OF COURSE they did not hear any noise. I sent him my noise recordings, and said please try again a few times. I do not need the i3 back until next week, when I turn in my Leaf.
Curious if anyone has heard a "buzzing bees" type of noise above their head in an i3 - of have any idea what this might be. Perhaps the area between the different color roof panels may resonate under the right wind conditions? This is not giving me a very good impression of BMW's initial quality.
Anyone had some similar noise in their i3?
I put one of the noise files in my box.com cloud space here: https://app.box.com/s/9fmde8l2mpkmo5y6h2v98eqcw5u1w0iv
It is playable in Windows Media Player or VLC.
Thanks in advance. I have learned a lot from this forum in the last few days!
Matt
No noise issues coming home 40 miles that night, nor coming to work (35 miles) Thursday. But as I drove home Thursday, I started hearing an odd buzz occasionally. I initially thought the radio was tuned to static, but just for a brief time. But as I drove further, I started to localize the noise to the area right above my right ear in the driver's seat.
The next morning, driving to work, the noise was MUCH worse. I recorded it several times with a voice recorder app on my phone, holding it near my ear. It starts around 40 mph, and then gets louder and more frequent at highway speeds. I tried pressing on the headliner in many places, but could not quiet the noise at all.
I was very windy on those two trips...so perhaps some sideways wind.
But there was NO noise at all coming home Friday! But I still felt that no one would want a car this noisy, even only if windy, so I called the dealer to have them look at it. I know that intermittent problems are the worst to troubleshoot.
Drove over with the family to the dealer Saturday morning, and the noise was present again, and pretty consistently above 40 mph. Everyone could clearly hear it. It was even doing it as I drove up to the dealer (45 mph street). I met my salesman, but he was unwilling to go for a quick test to hear the noise, which was disappointing. (Service department not open on Saturday). The noise is NOT the REX running - was on battery (easy to tell when the REX is running, but it is quieter than this noise).
So I get a call from the service manager Monday, and OF COURSE they did not hear any noise. I sent him my noise recordings, and said please try again a few times. I do not need the i3 back until next week, when I turn in my Leaf.
Curious if anyone has heard a "buzzing bees" type of noise above their head in an i3 - of have any idea what this might be. Perhaps the area between the different color roof panels may resonate under the right wind conditions? This is not giving me a very good impression of BMW's initial quality.
Anyone had some similar noise in their i3?
I put one of the noise files in my box.com cloud space here: https://app.box.com/s/9fmde8l2mpkmo5y6h2v98eqcw5u1w0iv
It is playable in Windows Media Player or VLC.
Thanks in advance. I have learned a lot from this forum in the last few days!
Matt
