I'm thinking of installing a thicker anti-rollbar from i3s on my i3, I would like to know if someone has done it and if it's worth it.

I know it's an involved procedure (I don't care, I'm a hobby mechanic), I just want to know if it's worth the time or not.

I've bought a 2021 i3S but it seems to be a little different to my previous 2021 i3.

Specifically, my old car had a display showing a representation of the car. It was good to see which lights, indicators, brake lights, etc were on. There are other differences/omissions that I can't be specific about because I don't remember exactly what was there, but this is different

Was/is that part of a pack that can be added or something that had to be speced?

I have a single-phase BMW i3 that always charges without any problems at around 3.6 kW outside my workplace.

At my workplace, there are two types of chargers:

Chargers where I use my own cable: the car charges normally at around 3.6 kW.

Chargers with a tethered cable: until about a week ago, the car also charged at 3.6 kW, but now it only charges at approximately 1.4 kW or stops charging altogether.

What is strange is that other cars nearby are charging at around 10 kW. I understand they may be three-phase vehicles and can distribute the available power across three phases.

Technical support says that the installation is limiting my charging point and that the BMW i3 may refuse to charge when the available current is too low. However, I don’t fully understand this explanation because:

My car always charges at 3.6 kW without problems outside work.

It also charges at 3.6 kW at work when I use my own cable.

The problem only occurs with the chargers that have a tethered cable in mt work.

Those same chargers were working correctly about a week ago.

The power I am seeing, around 1.4 kW, corresponds to roughly 6 A, whereas 9 A would be approximately 2.1 kW.

Could this be related to dynamic load management, the phase being used, the configuration of the chargers with tethered cables, or a problem with the tethered cable itself?

Has anyone with a BMW i3 experienced something similar

Hi everyone,
I’m driving a 2019 BMW i3 LUX with about 102,821 km (around 63,890 miles) on it.

I’ve been really wanting Driving Assistant features lately, and I even thought about trading in my car.
But the i3 is such a special and unique vehicle, and I really don’t want to let it go.

Because of this, I’m seriously considering a Driving Assistant retrofit.
I checked with a local shop here in South Korea, and the final price including VAT comes out to 3,080,000 KRW.
To give you a better idea, that is roughly 2,240 USD, 1,940 EUR, or 1,650 GBP.

The retrofit is supposed to include both Active Cruise Control (ACC) and Traffic Jam Assist (TJA).
Before spending this amount of money, I would love to get some input from this community.

For those who are already driving an i3 with the Driving Assistant package (ACC and TJA),
how is the actual performance? Is it reliable and useful in real-world driving conditions?

Maybe has anyone here actually done this specific retrofit on their i3?
If so, what was your experience like? Did it work flawlessly like the factory option?

Considering the cost I mentioned above,
would you recommend going for it, or is it just not worth the price?

Any honest feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Lost all the clear coat and went into salvage mode.

I have never painted a car but I was concerned about damage from ignoring the missing clear coat.

I sanded with 400 and cleaned degreased, primed 3 light coats, based 3 coats, cleared 3 coats.

Looks terrible but at least I have clear back.

New to me Bmwi3 2 weeks old 2020 reg, my other half hit a wall while parking, full on slammed the throttle instead of the brake. Right hand side wheel hit kerb and bent the shock strut. I’ve replaced the strut but it has not solved the steering/ traction control warning light. Do I need to get it recalibrated from bmw? I have a obd reader and BimmerLink , it did not give any permeant codes.

Any help would be appreciated.

I already tried the turn to the right 5 seconds, turn to the left 5 seconds and switch the car off. No joy.

Bonjour à tous, ça y est j’ai rejoint le club après 4 mois de recherches et des dizaines d’appels. Je vous présente l’orque magnifique avec la spéc incroyable de 100% de SoH. On est fans de notre nouvelle voiture. J’ai tellement peur de l’utiliser et de l’abîmer. Mais tellement fière de rouler avec.
NB: je fais toujours coucou aux autres i3 ^^
Ravie de faire partie de l’équipe i3.

Bonne journée à tous

Hi I have a 2017 with a rear camera and I am having trouble getting the guidelines and the other parking sensors working. I have found the option for the guidelines to turn them on and have done so but they seem to only work every 1 in 20 times or so. I have toggled them on and off a few times in the iDrive menu but it doesnt seem to help.

Anyone else experience this or have any guidance?

Could there perhaps be another menu that I have to turn them on for them to work?

I charge my 94ah i3S using a 240v 20-amp (16A charging) circuit I repurposed. This has been adequate.

In January I will resume my 55 mile round trip commute so I’m considering upgrading to a 50-amp circuit (40A charging capacity, 8 more than i3’s limit). This also eliminates a splice in my current circuit. There are no charging options at work.

I’m curious how other commuters are charging.

-They didn't charge it before the test drive and lost the charging cable for it

-it's in maintenance mode of course

-Trade in appraisal process in their system shit the bed

This shit better be worth it

UPDATE BELOW (Solved).

Hello, friends,
Wondering if any folks have had a similar experience to the following, and if you may have any tips to get us back to charging again:

We picked up our 2017 nearly 10 years ago in the UK - just 6 months old with around 3K miles on the clock. Since that time she has almost exclusively been trickle charged at home, and has reached 50K earlier this year. This week, we’ve taken the car over to France, but are 0-4 with the chargers here. Our payment is accepted each time, and we follow the instructions to plug in at the time the station display asks, but charging never starts. We get a pulsing amber light, then a white static light, then the notification on the station or app that the charging has failed. We’ve used standard, rapid, and ultra rapid charging from PowerDot, ionity, and e-Totem. We have tried with both the charging cables from the units, as well as with our own cable, which is virtually new.

Today, on Eco Pro+ mode and with hold state of charge turned on, the battery started draining much more on its own. Even without AC on in the car, it went from about 70km remaining to just 30km. My phone, which was wired via USB for the entirety of the day, also stopped charging sometime in between, and gave a notification while drive that it was going into power save mode (below 30%) - however I was under the assumption that internal stuff was running off the 12v, which we just had replaced a year or so ago.

We are halfway through our tour, with a packed car, a family of four, and easily well over 1K km to go in order to get to the last hotel and then back to Cherbourg for the ferry. We don’t recall having ever depleted the battery and going REX-only in the past. Will our speed be limited to 45 mph, cause that would totally suuuck, and throw us to the mercy of the super drivers here.

TLDR: UK car isn’t charging on Eco Pro+ and hold state, and most importantly- not on any public chargers. Any advice would be appreciated! Photo is from the completely empty EV lot at Mont Saint-Michel, where it failed to charge with multiple stations. Many thanks and greetings from Brittany!

UPDATE:

Thanks so much for the advice, everyone! I was pretty skeptical, but holding the plug upwards while going through the final steps at the charging station did the trick! Ended up using a 50kw on a CCS plug, which was good enough vs the alternative.

Now if only we could get the fuel door to consistently open properly! 🙂

Howdy, recently my AC stopped blowing cold. No unusual noises. Fans still blow air. AC systems indicates that it's on, it just does not blow cold air. Everything else functions normally. Car drives well. It can charge, etc.

I stopped driving and charging my car and took it in for an inspection. Shop told me I had a needed a new AC compressor and the bill was north of $4K. I decided to try to find other options, but realized that I had to bite the bullet and fix it.

When I brought it back in, they told me that the problem is actually worse, that an inverter fuse had blown and that I could either have that replaced with a stock BMW part, which would be > $7K on it's own. Alternatively, I could pay to have the fuse replaced, but they quoted me over 10 hours of labor, so roughly $3K just for that.

It looks like I'm going to have to pay >$10K to get this thing up and running. It's a 2017 BEV only, @ 90K miles with top trim. It's actually very nice and about a year ago I was thinking of selling and based on the market I thought I could get ~ $12K at the time.

With a repair of this magnitude, is this car a lost cause and totaled? I'm really not sure what to do at this point. Are there cheaper options for parts & repair? I'd hate to spend >$10K on a car that I might be able to get $9-10K for. Any advice would be appreciated.

Another repair help question! I replaced the back two shocks on my BEV 2015 because the dealer hid how absolutely thrashed they were. It drives like a dream now, but I'm hearing like a gentle rattling (not really clacky, but like... wiggly. I'll come back with a video of it if I find the time) from the back right every once in a while when I'm slowing down/slight bumps. It's pretty quiet, too-- you can't hear it at all if the AC is on high or if there's many others on the road around me. I already double-checked all of my bolts/screws/whatever were appropriately tightened; nothing's loose. I plan to take it apart again for a better look, but I was curious if anyone here with more knowledge than me might have a good guess. Is it possible it's the bump stop/the thing on the outside around the shocks? Only difference between the left and right side I could find was that part was able to be wiggled with my hand on the right side but not the left, but my parent thinks it's too small/insignificant for that to possibly be heard inside the cabin. However, this car is quieter than any car he's worked on before. Maybe it is possible?

Does anyone know of any good products to clean the steering wheel? It’s «impossible» to clean, I’ve tried multiple leather cleaners, all purpose interior cleaners safe for leather, and whatnot. The steering wheel still feels sticky and looks glossy. The car has been neglected cleaning-wise for 8 years, so it may be too late or?
Also, does anyone know if the cruise control speed selector is easy to change myself? The outside layers has peeled off.
Edit: I’m EU based if that matters product-wise

I have a 2017 i3 with a build date of july '16. I still get access to my bmw app services like location, unlocking doors, start cooling car etc because my i3 i guess has a 4g tcb. Well the problem is this still came with NBT id4. not even the evo. and the newer evo i think use the new ATM telematics unit. Meaning i cant use my current TCB which can still communicate with the bmw servers. Do i have a path towards an NBT evo head unit with connectdrive still working or not possible?

A week ago we took delivery of this wonderful little car, and as someone who (used to) look at cars in purely utilitarian terms, ie. its value is what it can do for me, I must say I am smitten with this 2020 i3. I absolutely did not expect to be that happy about a car. But I am. I love it.

It's my first electric, and it is in addition to our old car, a 2012 Škoda Fabia which have done over 410000 km by now, so a huge upgrade. The Škoda will not be driven much now, and it'll probably only last 1-2 years.

Anyway, i3, love it. It's got all the extras it could have at the time, but I forget what that package was called, it probably cost 370k DKK from new, we paid 150k, and I'm still getting used to all the fancy things it can do.

In the Škoda there's room for a spare tire. I like that. What do I do, apart from calling for help, if I have a flat in this one? What kind of kit should I get to fix flats?

(Basically my only worry about this car, so far.)

I thought I was smart picking a lip moisturizer that had a cap on to leave in the car because melting wouldn't be a problem..... Until I realized I'm a dumbass and grabbed the one that had already lost the cap, way too late. I literally did this within week 1 of owning my new i3. Please help :( Is it possible to fix, or am I doomed to always see that spot and be reminded of my stupidity? It feels like a vaseline-like substance... Parents said "it'll just absorb after long enough" but that isn't happening and I don't wanna wait longer.

A week ago we took delivery of this wonderful little car, and as someone who (used to) look at cars in purely utilitarian terms, ie. its value is what it can do for me, I must say I am smitten with this 2020 i3. I absolutely did not expect to be that happy about a car. But I am. I love it.

It's my first electric, and it is in addition to our old car, a 2012 Škoda Fabia which have done over 410000 km by now, so a huge upgrade. The Škoda will not be driven much now, and it'll probably only last 1-2 years.

Anyway, i3, love it. It's got all the extras it could have at the time, but I forget what that package was called, it probably cost 370k DKK from new, we paid 150k, and I'm still getting used to all the fancy things it can do.

In the Škoda there's room for a spare tire. I like that. What do I do, apart from calling for help, if I have a flat in this one? What kind of kit should I get to fix flats?

(Basically my only worry about this car, so far.)

So far every video I have found shows a green light plastic connector that looks different from this orange one. Any help with finding a video on how to disengage this one?

TIA!!!

Hi everyone,

​I'm currently shopping around for a used BMW i3 REx (looking specifically at the 2014, 2015, or 2016 model years) and wanted to tap into the community’s real-world experience before getting this over a nissan leaf 40kwh.

I have a Merc CLS shooting brake which I use for driving around and seeing clients (students). I want to move over to electric and save the huge difference in fuel (can charge on my drive on a evening tariff).

I am spending 5-6k and keeping the car for a year or two whilst I save up for a BMW ix as they are just out of my price range at the moment

​I’ve got a few specific questions regarding ergonomics, daily use, and mechanical reliability for this generation:

​1. Ergonomics for Tall Drivers (6'5")

I'm 6'5" and wanted to get feedback from other tall owners. How is the legroom and headroom for someone my height over longer drives? Do you find the seat adjustability and steering wheel reach sufficient, or do you feel a bit cramped? Also, does having a sunroof significantly impact headroom on these early models?

​2. 70-Mile Daily Commute Comfort & Range

My typical working day involves a 70-mile round trip.

​How comfortable are the stock seats for an hour-plus of driving at a time?

​For owners of the 60Ah REx, how seamless is relying on the REx for that daily distance? My driving is on a roads and town driving in Dorset so won't go above 55mph.

​Does the ride quality on the standard 19" or 20" wheels feel overly harsh over rougher roads on a daily basis?

​3. Reliability & Known Issues for 2014-2016 Models

Since I’m looking at the early 60Ah REx models, what are the key mechanical or electrical trouble spots I should look out for during inspection?

​Are there specific REx engine maintenance items (e.g., fuel relay, 12V battery, motor mounts) that I should ensure were addressed or budget to replace immediately? Pretty handy with tools so happy to do preventive stuff when I get it.

​Any major red flags to avoid when testing a 2014-2016 year model?

​Appreciate any insight, tips, or advice you can throw my way! Thanks in advance.

Today, the mechanic said that the cost to repair my car is more than the value of my car. I’m heartbroken.

The engine mount bracket is broken and the engine has dropped down. Due to the broken engine mount bracket, the axle is rubbing on the HV battery cable, and the axle boot is damaged/leaking.

They said only BMW can work on the HV cable.

I’ve never worked on a car before. Has anyone ever done DIY repairs on some of those stuff? I’m probably in the denial stage of grief, but if anyone has any Hail Mary ideas, I’d like to hear them.

Just got a 22 iX for the wifey and we are loving it. I’d really like to finally get myself a proper i3. In CO the pickings are very slim.

So hello Reddit, what 2019 or newer i3s are for sale near you?

Thanks!

As the title says and what total mileage can I expect from it at the end of its lifetime ?

(Fully equipped, everything works, good condition, battery at 97% integrity.)