[AndyRUK]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Hi

I have owned an i8 for about 16 months. In that time it has developed a repeating warning fault which indicates the mixture is too rich.(yellow engine light)

The problem started about 8 months ago and the car had a know issues with the rocker cover breather which was replaced and the actuator reset, but the problem came back within a week.

No sensor faults and all diagnostics checked out, so the car was reset again. Fault appeared again in just over 2 weeks following a fast drive.

Turns out the oil should have been changed with the rocker breather. The Theory is that the oil had become contaminated with fuel. So when the car got hot, this fuel was being released back out of the oil and confusing the sensors into thing the car was running rich.

Change of oil has resolved this for the last 3 months but it came back last week. Again car checks out, no sensor faults.

Dealer is now suggesting 'customer miss use' because the commute to work is not enough to run the engine to a nominal temperature. Surely i8's have been designed to handle the daily commute, whether this is battery or engine or a hybrid of both!

Anybody ever heard of this with other cars?

[Coastali8]

It’s my understanding that the mixture too rich fault warning sometimes occurs when you are operating the car in very cold ambient conditions.
If that is the case. Then it’s a normal glitch in the engine software and nothing to worry about.. If you are not operating in cold conditions, then the dealer may be correct.

[Maxxsirrah]

How can it possibly be misuse if you are using it like a normal person would use a normal car? Ask them to put it in writing, then get a lawyer on to it.

[NGR]

How far is your commute?
Have you tried using the nav to plot your route each time? My thinking is that the computer will use this info when deciding when to use the ICE vs battery and may help get up to operating temps (at a cost to fuel economy no doubt).

[JasH]

Just do the occasional trip using ICE. Use the "charge hold" option.

No matter what, it's good to run the ICE hot occasionally to lubricate everything.

[AndyRUK]

Work is about 6-7 miles away and is quite undulating so the car is on and off electric.

Personally, I think the car cuts back to electric too quickly when it is cold so I might try the suggestion of holding charge for the occasional trip, see if this keeps the issue at bay.

If this were a common issue then surely it would be more widespread as the i8 technology now appears in the 3 series.

The dealer has raised a technical query with BMW and they can see the data so I will await any suggestion they have other than buy an i3

[ChiTownM]

I agree, engine needs to run more often. I had the same damn issue since my commute is 10 miles. Stupid since you need to run it in sport every now and then which is counterproductive to it being a hybrid.

[JasH]

Don't you guys like to occasionally drive (thrash) it in Sports mode anyway? Just for fun?

That would resolve the problem in a fun way

[NGR]

Originally Posted by AndyRUK

Work is about 6-7 miles away and is quite undulating so the car is on and off electric.

Drive there on full electric and give it an Italian tune-up on the way home (i.e. leave it in Sport and thrash the bast..d)