[razor488]

I got in my IX yesterday and received the error "Drive Carefully. Drivetrain fault."

I backed out of my driveway so I could reverse it into my garage, and when I changed from Drive to Reverse, the car stayed in P and auto turned off. It had to be put on a flat bed and taken to the dealership. They are telling me there is a short circuit in the high voltage system and they're trying to isolate the source.

This doesn't give me a lot of confidence to own this car out of warranty which is normally what I do. The car has 13.5k miles on it. Love the car but still not sure I made the right call with this purchase.

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by razor488

I got in my IX yesterday and received the error "Drive Carefully. Drivetrain fault."

I backed out of my driveway so I could reverse it into my garage, and when I changed from Drive to Reverse, the car stayed in P and auto turned off. It had to be put on a flat bed and taken to the dealership. They are telling me there is a short circuit in the high voltage system and they're trying to isolate the source.

This doesn't give me a lot of confidence to own this car out of warranty which is normally what I do. The car has 13.5k miles on it. Love the car but still not sure I made the right call with this purchase.

Have you had a bunch more issues or just this?

[razor488]

Originally Posted by ggalanis

Have you had a bunch more issues or just this?

I believe I have had four seperate indicator warnings saying to take the car in for service but nothing that required towing. 2-3 times had to do with the driver restraint system.

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by razor488

I believe I have had four seperate indicator warnings saying to take the car in for service but nothing that required towing. 2-3 times had to do with the driver restraint system.

Having to get a new car towed to the dealer is a big deal and not something anyone wants to have to deal with. I wouldn't hold the somewhat typical for a BMW random warnings that go away after a drive against the vehicle, but if you have more issues that make the car undriveable then I'd surely swap out of it before the warranty expires.

Good luck man!

[Paladin1]

So what did the dealership find when you took the car in for service the previous 4 times? Fault codes?

[razor488]

Originally Posted by Paladin1

So what did the dealership find when you took the car in for service the previous 4 times? Fault codes?

I didn't quiz them on it. They just told me they were fault codes that had to be cleared so I dropped it.

[razor488]

Bmw said the cause of the short were connectors for the high voltage cables.

My dealership had a zoom call with BMW about my car. They said "After meeting with BMW, it looks like the cause of the issue could have been a metal chip behind the brush module, and/or some sort of contamination of the eDrive unit from the manufacturing process. We're getting it all taken care of and we did have to get a couple of parts ordered."

[RichardM60]

My IX50 had the same problem apparently some of the early drive units had metal filings from the manufacture process, they pulled the motor apart and cleaned it out. Whilst it took 2 months to fix a large part of the delay was they needed a special tool to open the motor housing which had to come from Germany.

I traded up to an M60 as the dealer was not sure how long it would take and I got a really good deal.

[razor488]

Originally Posted by RichardM60

My IX50 had the same problem apparently some of the early drive units had metal filings from the manufacture process, they pulled the motor apart and cleaned it out. Whilst it took 2 months to fix a large part of the delay was they needed a special tool to open the motor housing which had to come from Germany.

I traded up to an M60 as the dealer was not sure how long it would take and I got a really good deal.

Thanks for sharing. They’ve had my car for a week so I wonder if they are going to clean mine like they did yours (take motor apart)? It sounds like my car will be ready early next week which means they would have had it for about two weeks

[RichardM60]

That sounds about right as once they had the tool it’s was fixed pretty quick, the tool is used to pressure seal the motor after it’s put back together according to the mechanic, he said it was pretty cool but cost the dealer $9k though.

[razor488]

Originally Posted by RichardM60

That sounds about right as once they had the tool it’s was fixed pretty quick, the tool is used to pressure seal the motor after it’s put back together according to the mechanic, he said it was pretty cool but cost the dealer $9k though.

So if the car wasn't under warranty the repair would be ~9k?

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by razor488

So if the car wasn't under warranty the repair would be ~9k?

The 9k sounds like the cost of the tool.

[freshxdough]

Originally Posted by razor488

Thanks for sharing. They’ve had my car for a week so I wonder if they are going to clean mine like they did yours (take motor apart)? It sounds like my car will be ready early next week which means they would have had it for about two weeks

Remove drive unit and brush module and clean. Not caused by factory “filings”. It has to do with the brushes and a chip that came off a brush causing an insulation issue.

Surprised they had to order any tools considering all the tools needed for this repair are all Auto Ship. Your dealer should’ve done at least a few of these by now.. I’ve done several.

[RichardM60]

Just repeating what they told me regarding the work done and the cause of the fault, this was definitely the first one they had done and they claimed to have had to buy a special tool to do it. I have bought at least 10 cars off them and they have always been honest so I believe what they have told me.

I am in Australia so not surprised that we don’t have as many as you guys.