[shawnhayes]

Today, 3 deg F here in Virginia.

Car is garaged. Took it to work, and due to cold, hooked up to power source to "precondition" when I would be coming out in about an hour.

Upon startup, gasoline drivetrain powered right up like a "maintenance cycle" I have seen before. (Car's ECU will fire up the gas motor about every 20 starts if it has been running on pure electric). But, new light - "Drivetrain fault - driving is possible, drive moderately as full power is not available". After 2-3 miles of "moderate driving", electrical power and driving was possible, and although "drivetrain fault" continued to be lit, the car operated normally.

Once warmed up, when I stopped and "rebooted" , a "check status" revealed what appeared to be normal operation. Car charging normally.

I have not driven it yet since operation has returned to normal. Charging now, and I will try to "precondition" before I mount up for home.

Anybody else seen this?

Shawn

[NGR]

I've had this happen once but the temp was more like 50-60f. Never happened again.

Suspect a sensor reading spooked the computer and after a while it decided all was well. Possibly got a fault logged that BMW could pull but may have already cleared. If it re-occurs definitely get it down to the dealer for checking....

[Aye-eight]

"Drivetrain fault" is not very descriptive. I've never had it in association with cold weather. When I got that message, the sensor that reads the position of the gearbox had failed and the car wouldn't shift out of Park. Car had to be towed.

I wonder if such a cold weather instance is just a precursor for a bigger problem. May be worth to have it checked out.

[NGR]

I had it when driving, stopped shortly afterwards at a gas/petrol station and it was fine after a re-start. I was worried it would leave me in limp mode or worse stuck in park like you Aye-eight. The drivetrain fault description seems to cover many possible problems by the looks of it!

[Ghetto2315]

Hmmm 12 degrees today in NJ and no drivetrain malfunctions or CEL but I had 0 miles on the charge and I preconditioned the car and when I got inside, the car was ice cold and blowing cold air instead of warm. Then I immediately drove out it in sport mode to charge it while driving to work for 10 miles and I couldn't get it to charge. Stayed at 0 or -- miles.

[NGR]

Something's not right! Precondition when plugged-in means you should still have a good charge when ready to roll 'cos it will draw mains outlet power. And obviously Sport should charge the car as well.

If there's no error message, the car doesn't seem to know it's not charging - that sounds potentially software at fault or a control unit of some kind?

On mine, if I run in electric only, the range eventually goes below 0 to a "-" symbol and the gas engine fires to start charging the battery - it feels like a range-extender mode.
Have you looked in the menu that shows battery percentage (the one that has the 'hold charge' option)?

[F5506m]

Originally Posted by Ghetto2315

Hmmm 12 degrees today in NJ and no drivetrain malfunctions or CEL but I had 0 miles on the charge and I preconditioned the car and when I got inside, the car was ice cold and blowing cold air instead of warm. Then I immediately drove out it in sport mode to charge it while driving to work for 10 miles and I couldn't get it to charge. Stayed at 0 or -- miles.

Drove mine yesterday back from work the car was charged and did Pre-Condition (which was good.) But it turned on the gas engine and said E-Drive was not available when I started to move even though battery was still 75% charged. After driving for 5 min it allowed me to go to E-Drive. No Errors though.

[NGR]

Originally Posted by F5506m

Drove mine yesterday back from work the car was charged and did Pre-Condition (which was good.) But it turned on the gas engine and said E-Drive was not available when I started to move even though battery was still 75% charged. After driving for 5 min it allowed me to go to E-Drive. No Errors though.

Interesting, was it particularly cold at the time?

I'm thinking there are loads of scenarios that the software has been designed to cope with and if it is very cold and you start off in e-drive, maybe the computer wants to fire up the gas engine to warm it up a bit and circulate the oil/coolant so it's in better shape if you slam it in sport mode.

With this in mind (and even though temperature here is quite temperate) I tend to activate charge hold when I set off to force the gas engine into life - meaning it will be a least semi-warmed-up when I hit the sport mode. Maybe the computer does that for you when it's particularly cold?

One thing I have noticed is driving hard in Sport mode, followed by trying to go into pure electric isn't always possible despite plenty of charge. I think the computer just wants to keep the gas engine running so it can keep the oil and coolant flowing until the gas engine is at a safe temp.
Or....possibly the battery pack has got too hot during enthusiastic Sport driving and it needs a cool-down so needs the gas engine to provide the propulsion while it cools down.

It's a complicated beast!

[Nivarox]

It seems BMW i8 has a jargon of its own

[F5506m]

Originally Posted by NGR

Interesting, was it particularly cold at the time?

I'm thinking there are loads of scenarios that the software has been designed to cope with and if it is very cold and you start off in e-drive, maybe the computer wants to fire up the gas engine to warm it up a bit and circulate the oil/coolant so it's in better shape if you slam it in sport mode.

With this in mind (and even though temperature here is quite temperate) I tend to activate charge hold when I set off to force the gas engine into life - meaning it will be a least semi-warmed-up when I hit the sport mode. Maybe the computer does that for you when it's particularly cold?

One thing I have noticed is driving hard in Sport mode, followed by trying to go into pure electric isn't always possible despite plenty of charge. I think the computer just wants to keep the gas engine running so it can keep the oil and coolant flowing until the gas engine is at a safe temp.
Or....possibly the battery pack has got too hot during enthusiastic Sport driving and it needs a cool-down so needs the gas engine to provide the propulsion while it cools down.

It's a complicated beast!

You might be correct it was 11F outside and the car was probably getting the gasoline engine warmed up in case it is needed later.

[shawnhayes]

Originally Posted by F5506m

You might be correct it was 11F outside and the car was probably getting the gasoline engine warmed up in case it is needed later.

This was very similar to my drivetrain error. Bitter cold, and the gasoline engine fired immediately. As soon as warm, electric drive was ready to go.

A very clever car, but this was certainly an intimidating moment.

Shawn

[SlipperyGary]

I had the same experience of E-Drive not available when it was 9°F outside. After driving awhile, E-Drive was then available and worked as usual.

[Mightymousemighty]

So I had this 2 weeks ago about 7pm leaving work, about 2DEGC.

Had to be recovered and it was locked up with drivetrain warning.

After 3 days in the workshop BMW said it was due to drained battery caused by my dash cam and I would be liable for costs.

Some issues with their assessment. Dash cam has its own battery and only draws off the main 12V when ignition is on, and little did they know I have battery telemetry from my tracker. The voltage was 12.8V 2 min before start. BMW conceded but fault remains unidentified.

[ngl1145]

I just had the drivetrain malfunction indicator come on. About a month ago, it was parked outside in the cold (freezing temps) and the drivetrain malfunction indicator appeared. I took it to the dealer but they didn’t think anything of it. They had taken my key and read the code that they said.

Last night I parked outside again (freezing temps) and the light came on. So odd.

[Leto1701]

I think there is a need to keep various things apart. The i8 will sometimes fire the engine up to circulate oil, etc. If that happens, for a given period of time the EV mode can't be engaged. The engine only shuts of immediately when the car is turned off (not recommended for engine health). That works as designed. Also no errors, only a message that a system requirement doesn't allow EV mode at that time.

Another thing are the fault situations described above with error messages.