[mouthgmachine]

Adding my experience to this thread. My i4 M50 ‘23 died on the highway with the angry red drivetrain malfunction. (Well first it gave a yellow warning light about power loss to the steering for about five seconds, then ran out of juice and came to a stop). Sat for about 45 mins waiting for police / tow trucks to arrive, which they never did, and so got out onto the median, locked car, got back in and it started up again.

Slowly drove on surface streets about 20 miles to the nearest dealership from there - it died about 5x en route, luckily each time I could get it going again after only a few minutes of getting out / locking it / walking away / getting back in. But the five occurrences weren’t evenly spaced, it got more and more frequent.

At the dealership they took two weeks to have a BMW engineer come and take a look at it, apparently he was from NJ. They dropped the rear motor and said either it was the brushes, or they would have to replace the motor fully. Just got it back after about 2.5 weeks and looks like their solution was just “cleaning” the brushes.

I have driven it now about 20 miles and so far no issues, but I can’t say I am thrilled with confidence that the issue is fully resolved from “cleaning” the brushes. The car only has 3000 miles.

 

[cruzer666]

I have driven it now about 20 miles and so far no issues, but I can’t say I am thrilled with confidence that the issue is fully resolved from “cleaning” the brushes. The car only has 3000 miles.

I’d be questioning the repair too. The brushes shouldn’t need any maintenance for at least 100,000 miles, more like 200,000 miles. Did they say why the brushes needed cleaning in the first place ?

 

[mouthgmachine]

I’d be questioning the repair too. The brushes shouldn’t need any maintenance for at least 100,000 miles, more like 200,000 miles. Did they say why the brushes needed cleaning in the first place ?

I just picked it up earlier and my guy hasn’t been reachable so haven’t gotten the full story yet. I will update after I hear from the dealership but also going to call BMW USA for an explanation.

The workup papers mention a TSARA case - I assume that’s a BMW issue tracking system or something?

 

[cruzer666]

The workup papers mention a TSARA case - I assume that’s a BMW issue tracking system or something?

That’s a case the dealer opened for the issue with BMWNA. Good news if you ever (even post warranty) have an issue with the rear motor, you can reference this case and claim they never resolved it.

 

[bmw_al]

Wow this is crazy, I might not have gone through with the purchase had I read this thread beforehand...the number of people posting about this just on this forum is a lot! How many people is this happening to that aren't running to the internet to post their experience?

 

[Mr. Widget]

Wow this is crazy, I might not have gone through with the purchase had I read this thread beforehand...the number of people posting about this just on this forum is a lot! How many people is this happening to that aren't running to the internet to post their experience?

I had the same thought when I first saw this thread... I ran across this thread a couple of days after I placed my refundable deposit.

Then I decided that the number of positively thrilled owners vastly outnumbers the ones with horror stories and I also decided that since these cars are more like electronic equipment than typical cars they tend to fail early on. To that end I intend to hope for the best, keep my current car as a back up for the first few months, and go ahead with the purchase. With luck my car will be at the dealer in 4-5 weeks.

If my luck holds, I will be one of the lucky ones... that said, I am planning on picking up an air wedge for the charge port door just to cover my...

 

[cruzer666]

I also decided that since these cars are more like electronic equipment than typical cars they tend to fail early on

This is very consistent to issues we’ve seen so far. Issues are few and far between. Most consistent issue we’ve seen on the forum is relatively minor (although impactful), charging flap being stuck. All the other ones have been sporadic and all over the place. There is always going to be someone that pulls the short straw and get a lemon though, but these are very few exceptions.

Best car I’ve had, and I’ve had a number of them

 

[i4m50Norway]

Best car I’ve had, and I’ve had a number of them

I am not sure if the i4M50 or my temporary iX 40 is the best car I have ever had, but both of them has been without trouble - after delivery delays/stop sales.
iX, I drove from 7000 km - 17000 km. i4M50 from 0 - 12000 km.

My i3 is now at 110000 km - no issues except needed to replace rear tires and front brake pads at 105000 km.

Motor maintenance

I found this article. BMW Reveals Revolutionary Tech In Its Fifth Generation Electric Motor (motortrend.com) I was not aware that the BMW engine could wear out. Apparently there are brushes here that grind, which creates dust. BMW cannot say how long the engine will last..... Is anyone...

www.i4talk.com

 

[Bernieb]

2023 m50 owner. Has the car for about 6 months and 7500 miles. Car was parked outside in a parking lot for about 5 hours (75 degrees and sunny) and I returned to a hot car and a Drivetrain Malfunction warning. I turned the car on and off and the warning went away. Called Roadside Assistance and they said it was likely a software issue and car was safe to drive and everything seemed fine. Had the same issue the next afternoon. Roadside Assistance reset the car and the warning went away (but car was still hot and a/c wasn’t cold). Drove it straight to the dealership but haven’t had an update yet. Finger crossed.

 

[jeffc42]

2023 m50 owner. Has the car for about 6 months and 7500 miles. Car was parked outside in a parking lot for about 5 hours (75 degrees and sunny) and I returned to a hot car and a Drivetrain Malfunction warning. I turned the car on and off and the warning went away. Called Roadside Assistance and they said it was likely a software issue and car was safe to drive and everything seemed fine. Had the same issue the next afternoon. Roadside Assistance reset the car and the warning went away (but car was still hot and a/c wasn’t cold). Drove it straight to the dealership but haven’t had an update yet. Finger crossed.

Same thing happened to me, except my car was in my garage and wasn't hot or cold. That was nearly two months ago and it hasn't happened again. I note that the most recent iDrive update addresses a bogus drivetrain failure (though not exactly this one). Do you have 03/2023.53?

 

[Bernieb]

Yes, running 03/2023.53

 

[SGinAZ]

... I returned to a hot car and a Drivetrain Malfunction warning.

Welcome to the club of unfortunates. Lots more reading for you here:
Drivetrain Malfunction Main Thread

 

[Stickware]

I got it but shut off car. 30 min later it was gone

 

[Bernieb]

Dealership said it’s a known software issue and expect an update in august. In the meantime, they said that the car is safe to drive after resetting. They also generously offered to keep my car at the dealership until the update is available—but don’t have a loaner for me either.

 

[Fayt349]

Still don't have my car btw.

They estimate it will be fixed tomorrow. But they said there's a slight chance it might not resolve the issue since "everything is wrong" with the car they said. Even though they originally gave me a quote and a price to fix. I told them since they already quoted me, I'm not paying anything else. And he just said "let's not talk about the what ifs for now"


Dealerships lol. I swear if they every go out of business in the future I will be the first outside the business with shades, sunscreen, and laughing at all of them while they all pack it up. Dealerships. Nothing in my entire life has enraged me than even looking at the word dealership.

 

[bdh1119]

Still don't have my car btw.

They estimate it will be fixed tomorrow. But they said there's a slight chance it might not resolve the issue since "everything is wrong" with the car they said. Even though they originally gave me a quote and a price to fix. I told them since they already quoted me, I'm not paying anything else. And he just said "let's not talk about the what ifs for now"


Dealerships lol. I swear if they every go out of business in the future I will be the first outside the business with shades, sunscreen, and laughing at all of them while they all pack it up. Dealerships. Nothing in my entire life has enraged me than even looking at the word dealership.

Good god! The “everything is wrong” comment… what does that even mean?

 

[Fayt349]

Good god! The “everything is wrong” comment… what does that even mean?

He kept repeating "catastrophic failures" and "the car had codes that everything is broken".

It's all a bunch of nonsense. If BMW just let us resolve our own issues I could fix this thing in 10 seconds. We need the right to repair movement.

(1) Judge denies automakers right to repair injunction - YOUR CAR, YOUR DATA!!! - YouTube

 

[bdh1119]

He kept repeating "catastrophic failures" and "the car had codes that everything is broken".

It's all a bunch of nonsense. If BMW just let us resolve our own issues I could fix this thing in 10 seconds. We need the right to repair movement.

Careless and unprofessional remarks from him in my view. There are specific issues they need to fix, yes. But you paid a lot of money for that car and shouldn’t have to hear hyperbole like that. If they prove incompetent, pulling the car and sending to a different dealership might make sense.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

They dropped the rear motor and said either it was the brushes, or they would have to replace the motor fully.

Seems like the two-motor cars oughta have a pretty capable one-motor-only Limp Mode, I wonder if there are circumstances where that would be available.

Especially since these no-magnet, externally excited motors should be pretty benign (no regen or back-EMF) when powered down and just spinning.

 

[Fayt349]

I finally got my car back in my hands.

$4,300. $3,900 of that is the actual drive train BS. The rest is cause the Tow driver sucks and can't do his job.

Date given to dealer ship: 05/06/2023.
Date received: 07/18/2023.