All i4 owners please take this poll: Broken charging port? Yes or No?

@cruzer666, reading your post in the other thread and the above, can you find a dealer who would be prepared to force it open for you (so establishing it is a warranty issue) and then you return later when they have the parts and can do the replacement? I had no luck with that approach but it may be worth a try.

There seems to a big thing about 'diagnosis'. It's a f**king broken lock, you've seen 10 i4s with it already, just get the air wedge out!

BMW Assist were very good in the UK (at least on this occasion, my only experience with them). Sounds like they send their rejects to the USA 😉. You will be delighted that at least it gave me a good laugh, "Electrify America " 🤣

Again............this is total BS!!! What is the matter with BMW??? This is what I've been missing all these years not owning a BMW???

J_P said:

@cruzer666, reading your post in the other thread and the above, can you find a dealer who would be prepared to force it open for you (so establishing it is a warranty issue) and then you return later when they have the parts and can do the replacement? I had no luck with that approach but it may be worth a try.

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I found a dealer that knows about the issue, they’ve dealt with it several times, they also have the part in stock. Night and day from the initial dealer I spoke with (BMW Ontario). They would’ve replaced it on the spot with no wait, but it turns out my car also has an open recall that that will take a solid day to resolve so I’ll get a loaner. All this is happening tomorrow, we’ll see.

cruzer666 said:

I called BMW Assist, they initially wanted me to call Electrify America because it’s an electric car, if anyone can believe that. I painted a similar picture and asked if I had an issue with my gas car if they would have me call Shell , they said yes they would.

My second call to BMW sent me to iConcierge that was more knowledgeable about the issue but referred me to a dealer.

For anyone living in SoCal inland empire, don’t even bother with BMW of Ontario, I had a similar experience as @Bimmerscrub, they said my options are to bring the car in as an “emergency” dropoff and possibly wait for over a week for diagnosis(no loaner) or bring it in 3 weeks for a loaner appointment, also for diagnosis, a complete joke of a service department. I’ll be looking at other dealers.

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I was told the same thing when I made my app with Ontario. I asked if he could order the part before I get in, he said he needs the car to diagnose first before they do anything. After drop off however, he said he had the part locally and it was repaired in 2 days after drop off.

mizakd said:

Mine failed last Thursday- BMW faffed around for ages with picking up my car (only had 100 miles charge and had a long driver planned over the weekend). Did not get a courtesy car until late on Friday night, which meant missing most of the Eid celebrations with my family, which was extremely frustrating. Today, I got a call from my local dealership who said no parts in the UK and will have to order from Germany, which means it will take at least a week tor resolve. In that time, I am stuck with a 2 series. Not a great start and I've only had the car 6 weeks.

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they werent able to give you your car back in the mean time? they were able to do that for me after they said it would take a week to get the part

cruzer666 said:

I found a dealer that knows about the issue, they’ve dealt with it several times, they also have the part in stock. Night and day from the initial dealer I spoke with (BMW Ontario). They would’ve replaced it on the spot with no wait, but it turns out my car also has an open recall that that will take a solid day to resolve so I’ll get a loaner. All this is happening tomorrow, we’ll see.

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by chance, do you drive a blue m50 in North Fontana?

Bimmerscrub said:

by chance, do you drive a blue m50 in North Fontana?

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Yep. I remember seeing a San Remo green at Sprouts one day

cruzer666 said:

Yep. I remember seeing a San Remo green at Sprouts one day

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Ahhh well howdy neighbor. I think that was me, as I havent seen any other SRG i4's. I often see your tailights turning at a light or when I'm walking. nice to virtually meet you.

Magicrat said:

Again............this is total BS!!! What is the matter with BMW??? This is what I've been missing all these years not owning a BMW???

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This!

No failures for me, almost 15K miles, can't tell you how many charges. Have it almost a year so well over 125 times opening the door I would guess. I don't charge every night, fyi

Elle BMW said:

No failures for me, almost 15K miles, can't tell you how many charges. Have it almost a year so well over 125 times opening the door I would guess. I don't charge every night, fyi

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It may never fail, but I suspect they will eventually release a recall or a "service item" given how prevalent the issue is.

Electricnick said:

Joined just to add to this conversation (have not fully set up my profile yet). Failed at about 5000 miles. September 22 build date, 23 edrive40. And my dealer claimed this was a difficult to get part so I've been waiting about a month to get this fixed. The part is finally in this week. I've gone through a lot of Velcro.

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That's a tough wait. Where are you located. I am located in Western NY and it took one day to get part in.

ssh said:

Yes, I get this video every time I take my BMWs to the dealer for service.

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Same here: Western NY dealer provides this with each car service. they did not provide a video however for the frozen charge port door repair.

J_P said:

I suspect he doesn't.

There are two parts to the cover. A electromechanical lock and a mechanical popout mechanism (like the popup lid on a kitchen bin). The consensus is that the problem is with the popout mechanism jamming which is bourne out by people having the problem even when they have the lock permanently turned off (a software setting).

The popout mechanism which releases (or doesn't!) the cover when you press on it is purely mechanical. There is no software involvement.

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Has anyone reported this popout mechanism starting to feel like its going to seize before it actually seizes up. Being mechanical as you say perhaps just feeling the mechanism each time we charge and seeing if we can begin to sense it sticking may alert us to the potential for a failure coming on. I checked my new charge door latch tonight and it seems to be completely free moving with no evidence of hanging up. I'm sure we could get 50% of I4 owners to start thinking they are about to have the part seize up and bring their cars into the dealership for the eval. This would get BMW's attention.

I'd be curious. For those of you who have had this problem, can you recall if the Door was still, for lack of a better term, "springy" as it is normally (unbroken), when you pressed on it? Or was it fixed in position or moved very little?

Bluehighways said:

I'd be curious. For those of you who have had this problem, can you recall if the Door was still, for lack of a better term, "springy" as it is normally (unbroken), when you pressed on it? Or was it fixed in position or moved very little?

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I could definitely press on it as I normally did, it had the same movement as before, just when I release it, it wouldn't open.

Not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but I just updated my vote. I was originally "No" but when I arrived at work this morning and went to charge the car the flap refused to open. Currently at 24% SOC and the car had been idle at home since Thursday (today is Monday) at around 32% SOC. Was thinking about trickle charging it over the weekend (free charging at work so I haven't set up Lvl2 at home yet) and now I wish I had tried because I could have possible gotten this taken care of over the weekend, or at least could have already dropped the car off and had a loaner.
Already have a service appointment lined up for this afternoon.
I think I remember seeing that the fix is a new latch release mechanism, is that correct? Anyone aware of lead times on that part?

M3HNGRY said:

Don't have car to even test LOL

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Just keep thinking that BMW is fixing all the known bugs, so that your car will come out perfect!

Beaver Cheese said:

I think I remember seeing that the fix is a new latch release mechanism, is that correct? Anyone aware of lead times on that part?

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It’s the cover pot and two labels, typically same day availability or next day.

Strangely enough this happened to mine today as well when I needed to charge — sitting at 22%. Have an appt with the dealer tomorrow morning. Couldn’t imagine this happening if I was taking it for a road trip/vacation somewhere.