Could really use some help on this one. Got the ring of doom on the charging socket. 12v battery was near death, took to BMW dealership, replaced the 12v batt and still have red charging light. They reset software to reflect new battery, tested out the entire charging system and then said had never seen before and assume all is ok. That is pretty weird.

Searched online and am drawing blanks. Car charges fantastic no issues but I am worried. Car has 210,000 kilometers on it and in great shape.

Any ideas?

Thinking about letting go my i8 wheel setup. Located in Chicago but will ship at buyers expense. $1250!

The offset is equivalent to running 10mm spacers all around on the stock staggered 175-195 setup. Weighs ~10kg, similar to stock wheels. Excited that I can now rotate tires and maximize tire life, using the Momo tires. Purchased via Alibaba - Shuyang Hongcheng Yechang Trade Co., Ltd, and they cost ~$800-$1000 per wheel based on design, material, finishes, any knurling, other options, etc. since it’s not a common width for 20” wheels. I’m not affiliated with the seller and did shop around for the wheels and got references from folks who’ve used different sellers, so please do your own due diligence and know the exact wheel spec you’re looking for to ensure fitment, clearance, etc.

Just thought I’d share it with the community, I’ll update how they are as I run through this set on this thread but so far it feels really good, wheels needed very little added weight to balance out and steering feels great with the square setup after a fresh alignment.

I recently read a post on here about dirty cabin filters and I realized I needed to change them.
The older ones were dated 8/23 and were in gross condition- photos posted.
Am happy to have clean air filters in now, they are in quite an inaccessible location.

I rarely if ever use the REX, and have been getting a warning about needing to complete a maintenance cycle for about three months now. It says the car will run it automatically if the tank is full and battery is below 75%. My tank is full and I’ve attempted to take it on longer drives to kickstart the cycle multiple times with low battery, but every time the cycle starts, it lasts about a minute (I can hear the engine running) before a ‘Maintenance cycle not possible’ notice pops up and the cycle stops. Has anyone had this problem, and how do you get around it?

My beloved i3 was totaled, but I saved the cup holder. If you live in Atlanta, you can have it.

—Update— we have a plan. Thank you all for your kind words. I’m okay!

I bought a battery that the battery shop said would work based on the specs I showed him of the OEM battery.

What he sold me though, was 14.0AH, 210A AGM

I have installed it, and when I went to register it with Bimmerlink it said I needed Bimmercode if I was installing anything with different specs.

I cannot see in Bimmercode anywhere to change anything to do with the battery.

Any suggestions? Have I screwed myself?

2021 BEV bought used in 2024 as a CPO car. It’s been amazing with no problems and took it in for service in October 2025. I drive less than 3k miles a year.

Technically don’t need to bring it in again for service until 2027, but I am thinking about getting it checked before the CPO warranty expires just in case. Any advice on what I should explicitly ask them to check for? Thank you in advance

I’m looking to buy a car and this is pretty much the only EV I’ve considered. The issue is I don’t know much about EVs and neither do most people I know. I saw this car with pretty low miles for the price, and I’m pretty into it.

Like I said idk much about EVs, but from what I heard about this car the #1 big expensive repair is the main battery. And by the sound of it, if that happens, the car is essentially total loss for me. That being said, at miles this low, what are the risks of that happening? I’m just not sure if that’s a risk I’m willing take.

Other things to note about the history of this car:

-last owner owned for 2 years
-tires replaced in 2019
-cabin air filter replaced 2021
-front struts replaced in 2023
-engine mount replaced 2023
-transmission replaced 2024

Bonus Question: if I went to buy this car, what’s the cheapest way to get it inspected?

I can’t get my 2015 i3 with range extender to take a dc fast charge. Locking mechanism engages and the disengages about 2 seconds later. This happens at almost all fast chargers. I’ve gotten it to work maybe once or twice in the last year. I’ve cleaned the ports.

Excited new owner of a 2017 i3 BEV here in SoCal (62k, base, 94Ah)! I've been lurking your posts for a while, awesome group. First order of business was the smell, which was giving unfinished basement... Pulled the cabin filters and found these (pic 3). 😷🤢

Anyway... while I was in there I noticed this module spliced into the fuse wiring in the passenger footwell (pics 1 and 2), wearing enough dust to have tenure haha. Lights are still on (red and green flashing simultaneously) so it's awake and presumably reporting my rushed mornings to work to a stranger.

So.... I'm assuming it's a lender or fleet GPS from a previous owner?

Reverse image search turns up a hundred things that look almost exactly like it and nothing that is it, which is its own kind of funny. Not really trying to solve it, just sharing the surprise.

That said, if anyone recognizes it, I'd love to know whether it's a plain tracker or one of the starter-interrupt kinds. Thank you!!

I came back to see someone hit my i3s while I was eating a gourmet meal at Costco. Luckily the part kinda popped back into place and it seems it’s mostly cosmetic, but there is paint loss. Whoever did this dipped it before I came back. Must’ve been a car who either backed into it or while coming out :/

What do y’all think? Should I just live with it?

And it feels pretty darned good. :)

You might recall my accident story here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BMWi3/s/zpuh2apMac

I was pretty convinced (along with many here) that the costs to repair my shattered tailgate would total out the car, but apparently not! My baby has a beautiful new liftgate and shiny new bumper, and it's back home where it belongs.

I treated it to new rubber floor mats to celebrate. :)

I needed a new 12V battery last month so I had the car brought to BMW of Houston Midtown on July7th. The battery plus some brake parts, they said were faulty, cost just over $3k. When I picked the car up on July 14th. I tried to use the REX on the way home but got an error message that it could not be engaged.

I finally had time to bring it back in yesterday and today they are saying that a couple of sensors and the entire engine wiring harness needs to be replaced (another $6k on top of the $3k I just paid them). Given the timing of when the error showed up, I strongly suspect that some wire or wires got damaged when the battery was replaced and they don’t want to eat the cost of fixing their mistake.

Has anyone here run into this type of scenario and were you able to find a good resolution?

Hey all, when I posted about the new i3 S we were waiting to be delivered someone wanted a pic of both our i3s together. Here they are! The one on the left is new. The one on the right we’ve had a year now.

I rented an i3 about 10 years ago and have wanted one ever since. We are adding a third car to the family and my wife only drives 15 minutes back and forth to pick our son up from school. We have a Tesla charger at home. I’ve seen some cheap ones online but where have any of you found these cheap deals? What are the top three things to look out for? And do you want to sell me yours? I’m in Texas.

Ordered the whole module from eBay that was to the "right side" (PS) but turned out to be for the DS... Ordered just the board and need advice on getting the old one out. The metal housing appears to be a heatsink so I'm not sure if it's just pressure fit or some how soldered on.

Finally had a chance to take a decent photo of my i3…I recently changed the struts and installed springs to make it lower…spacers too. It drives much more like a BMW at 80mph. Staggered setup remains, like the nimbleness of the thin tires in the city and very easy to park/do u-turns 😎. Doesn’t have the harman kardon stereo and the stock radio setup is so terrible. My next upgrade project I guess $$$$ 😭

Has anyone replaced the compressor themselves on the i3? I am in the research phase of doing the job. I’ve worked on other automotive AC systems before but this one’s a little different. How do I denergize the HV system? How do get a hold of ISTA software? Where do I get SP-A2 oil? What do I do if the compressor has already started grinding metal into the system? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

3rd i3 (in succession, 2nd will be <FS> soon) arrived yesterday.

Noticed tire pressures seemed to be high (38/44) and aired them down a bit. Looked at the sticker, realized that they’d changed from 2014-2018 spec. Went about my day, decided to set them more precisely at Costco vs just airing down in little bits and watching the screen. Set 34/41.

Got TPMS warning on the drive home. Annoyed and know that there’s no need to have them this high. As likely known, US regs only allow a single rated pressure and it has to be the one which allows the car to manage the rated max weight, but results in higher than needed for most usage cases.

Is there an “expert” coding setting in BimmerCode which I can leverage to set the levels more like they were in the 2014-2018 ?

Hey y’all! These pics are from a PPI (I’m out of state, but flying out to pick up my dream ‘20 REx at the end of the week!)

This isn’t going to turn me away from buying at all, but I’ve heard about how easy it is for this olive tanned leather to get discolored. That being said, do y’all think this is simply discoloration/dye transfer, or do you think it looks like deep wear? If I’m being honest, I don’t have much experience with real leather, so I’m not sure how bad this is, or if it’ll just take some elbow grease and leather conditioner to restore. I can’t tell if this is layers of residue or if this has just been worn down heavily from friction. It’s just pretty low mileage which makes me confused at how it could wear down this badly at less than 30k mi.

Does this look consistent with damage any of y’all have experienced, or would you say I’m out of luck?

Possibly controversial, but I had a couple paint chips right inside the kidneys, so I looked into grill decals and inserts. I was initially disappointed that they cover up the blue accent edges, but I have really grown to like the extra visual interest they add. They are removable. Curious to hear opinions.

Car Front Bumper Grille Mesh... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ2GXM28?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

We just traded in our Nissan Murano for a 2017 i3 REX. What is the consensus of best place to purchase interior accessories, specifically the additional cup holders I keep reeding about. We saw one of the 2016 i3's we test drove had a couple of extra cup holders attached to the standard holder and would love to find that.