Just wanted to send my heartfelt thanks for your video, have just change the battery in my i3 and after watching your video it took me about 20 min start to finish. I have seen other videos on youtube where people had real trouble with disconnecting the high voltage battery (the little orange thing), you made the job so simple. Thanks again.
Thanks for the excellent guide. Bought a battery at BMW for about 200$. Replaced a working battery in advance on my 2014, 7years, 100000km. Registered the new battery with bimmerlink and WiFi dongle. I could ad two steps in your guide if someone wants to be picky. One is to put some connection crease on the battery poles and the second one is to add loctite on the pole screws (was added originally) Many thanks!
Great video. All anyone needs to replace their i3 battery. Following this I had the battery out on my workbench in less than 20 minutes. You will need a Torx bit (don't know the size, sorry), Allen wrenches, 10 mm socket and an extension to reach rear battery bracket bolt. Location of vent hose was a bit confusing, it's a small rubber hose attached right behind the positive terminal. Just pull gently to the right and it should slide off easily.
Thank you for making this video, I just did the swap on my 2015 BEV i3 and your walkthrough saved me so much time! For anyone else coming here after their 12v battery completely died you get a "battery could not charge" error or something like that, here is what I did: swapped the battery, closed the frunk, and "start" the car as normal and the message cleared after about 10 seconds.
Oh man, I did that too !!! I followed the video step by step and I made it!!! Without registration or anything!!! , I have a BMW i3 2014 extended range, after installation and everything is looking good made a huge mistake!!! I forgot to turn on the safety plug that I turn it off at the beginning!! So it doesn't work at all, but after I turn it on its work perfectly, !!!! Thank you again no need to register!!!
I can't thank you enough for posting this. Just got a 2017 i3 BEV and after reading several comments in an i3 forum about dead car/dead 12v/towing issues/major headache/major $$$ I came here and found your vid so now I feel more prepared for if this happens.
Thanks for the nice quick and accurate vid. Was thinking of getting an i3 and when I saw where the battery was, had second thoughts. So I found this vid (and other 17+ min ones I didn't watch) on how to replace it. It doesn't look too bad, just remove the frunk screws and pull it out, and you are basically there.
Thanks for the video! think the price of these batteries has gone up significantly in the past year - I've been all over the internet, and my best option is $220 plus $30 shipping just to get the battery to my garage. I'm waiting on a quote from the local BMW shop, but I'm sure it will be in the $650 range reported here or higher. Plus the cost of getting it down there (it's backed into my garage right now). I've read that once this problem starts, it can go south quickly, and boy does it ever. I waited a day too long. Yesterday I drove a 15 mile roundtrip, with a 5-minute stop between legs, and it worked fine. I thought that kind of trip would recharge the 12V. I put the charger on when I got home, and when I got up this morning to check, everything was dead. So now I guess I'll buy the tools - torx and 10mm sockets w/ extensions I'll need, and wait for the battery to arrive. This is my first encounter with BWM service fees since I bought my 2016 i3 about 15 months ago. Welcome to over-engineered German technology :-( I'm sure the self-isolation these days had something to do with it. It probably sat 4 months without being used- now I know to get the car out and drive it around the block once a week. Anyway, it was only one week and 2 trips from my first "battery is discharging when turned off" message to complete failure. If you see that message, act quickly.
I am not a car guy, and I was nervous following these steps, but it was super easy! Thanks so much for making this video. The comments here also helped a lot. My car was just totally dead for two weeks sitting in my garage, but now it's up and running again. Note that I bought my battery from the BMW dealership, not Remy. Remy was sold out and I didn't have a Deka distributor nearby. The BMW part number is 61 21 2 286 201 and it works fine. You can find this BMW-branded battery online for about $156.
thank you for suggesting for people to register the battery it shocks me how many people tell others to skip that step and suggest of no harmful effects
Folks have discussed that not registering the battery could potentially shorten its lifespan due to the car improperly assuming its age and charging it more than necessary.
The EV Nerd that makes sense, thanks. Although you’d think that if the software was good at detecting battery age, it would be able to tell me that the battery was about to die!
Thanks for posting this video and I wish I had seen it prior to today. BMW told me the battery was "inaccessible" and that the only option I had was to pay them $550. ARRGH..... I guess at least I now know how to do this the next time it needs replacing.....
Awww bummer Michael. Sorry to hear that. But the lesson learned by many people is don’t always take the service rep at their word. There are many maintenance items you can do yourself.
Excellent video. I have a 2015 I3 which just started to run into the battery issue. Does anyone know if it is safe to use a better tender to maintain the 12V battery in the I3?
Thank you for the Video it was very helpful! I changed mine out and got it onto the car’s charger that came at purchase. The screen says it’s charged at 100% but it only has 1 mile available. What’s the next steps? Any help would be great, thanks again
I just paid a BMW dealer $473.32 for a battery, $260+ for labor. He said they needed to reset the computer so the alternator would coordinate with the new battery. I'm skeptical (generator, no alternator). AAA replaced 12v in my Fiat 500e electric on the road, prob under $200.
A 12V lead-acid battery, is like OEM vacuum cleaner bags: They are put there as a steady source of income for the manufacturer. If an EV is outfitted with a big Li-ion traction pack, and you add a few more Wh with a lead-acid battery, that also needs changing every other year, you are decreasing the overall weight/kWh of the vehicle. More suitable would be a 4S Li-ion pack, maybe even big enough to run all systems during a drive cycle, so your DC/DC converter only would need to be a backup during driving when a lot of AUX loads were turned on? That would directly translate to longer driving range, especially at low speed, where an extra 500W draw from the DC/DC, is a significant percentage of the 2kW you'd need to move at 30mph.
I unplugged the battery because of reseting the cameras and I noticed that the hood still pops open from the buttom, does the vehicle have a back up battery for the accessories and such? I wonder if I have to unplug.that one as well to reser the cameras
There is no backup battery but recall that unlike an ICE car, the i3 uses a DC to DC converter to recharge the battery that runs when the car is on. It’s possible you had the car on and the DC converter was still providing 12V. I would expect that the system would noticed the battery is not present and would not allow the DC converter to function.
If I wanted to connect a DC to AC inverter, to draw power in case of an outage, could I connect the inverter directly to the 12V battery or there is any impidement with those battery post? Thanks for your help.
Carlos Padilla The battery post terminals would make that connection very difficult. There’s really not much room on them to tap into. There are larger 12v terminals in the rear on top of the motor controller, however. And while that’s all technically possible, remember that the draw from an AC inverter on the 12v system may overload its charging system. I suspect the DC/DC converter that charges the 12v battery is not designed to carry much load.
I came home from 5-day vacation to find our i3 with "Unable to Charge" and "Drivetrain: Stop Carefully" messages. Could not put car into gear, could not charge using charge port or anything. Read around that it might be the 12V battery so I tested it and it read 7V so I knew that was probably the problem. After awhile all power died. Ordered a new battery from remybattery and installed it following this video. Car came back to life but problems remained. I had it towed to dealership and they informed me that the problem was that the battery needed to be registered. I knew the battery had to be registered but thought you could drive the car even if it wasn't. So maybe I was just the exception but be warned that you might have the same problem as I did.
The Mighty Cass, hope all was resolved. But not registering the battery hasn’t posed any issue for me and many other. Sounds like your dealer might have just told you the obvious, but not necessarily the whole story.
@@TheEVNerd car is running fine now. All I know is I followed all the instructions to install the new battery and I still couldn't get the car to go into gear. Wouldn't be surprised if the dealership jerked me around but I had run out of options.
Charged battery 12V has 14.5V on my i3. New, that I just bought, has 12.9V. It may need some time connected to the EV charger get also 14.5V. Did you tried that?
Technically you can supply external power to the 12v system to basically “jump start” it. You can access the 12v leads on top of the motor controller in the rear of the car. But, if your 12v battery is dead or dying, a “jump start” isn’t a good solution since you’ll have to keep doing it every time the car turns off. Good luck.
The BMW i3 manual states: "Do not jump or directly charge the vehicle battery using conventional jump starting; otherwise, because of the high voltage of the drive system, there is a danger of fatal injury from electrocution."
ryandesign apparently you can also activate climatize function when the main battery is plugged in to a charger. I did this with my i3 when the battery was dying and was able to drive and restart it the next day. I figured that was a sign of improved battery life...
Not all i3 will play nice with this approach. Until there is a sound way to register the battery, some i3 will fail. Mine did. On the bright side, if you don't have warranty, you can purchase a new battery and have the dealer register it.
I just replaced the battery, but one of the many alerts caused by the dead battery didn't go away (drivetrain alert). Now, the car won't start. If you have any suggestions, please comment.
@Seth Rollins the drivetrain alert didn't go away. I had to have it towed to bmw. They told me it needs a new battery and "initialization" just to get it started ($880). Once it's started they'll let me know if anything else is broken.
So you had that drivetrain alert and other before you replaced the 12V battery? I haven’t heard of a dead battery causing a problem so severe as that. It’s not as expensive as the dealer quoted you. Keep us posted.
R. T. I agree, but because of its small size and lack of maintenance needed, I think I understand why BMW chose to package it in a not very accessible location.
What????☹️😮 This is very shocking and disappointing Why would the i3 have to use a lead battery ? Other EVs don’t need a lead battery. It’s pretty much common sense
@@TheEVNerd you didn't catch my point. EVs don't need to have those heavy 12 volt batteries. They already have a battery pack so that should be able to operate everything. The ignition etc........etc..........etc.
I see. Actually EV’s need an independent power source separate from the high voltage battery to power their subsystems. This is because the high voltage system must be able to be electrically isolated from the rest of the car for safety. Therefore, automakers still rely on the traditional 12v battery to power most subsystems. Hope that helps.
@@TheEVNerd I guess the race now is to phase out the traditional 12 volt lead acid batteries as they are miserably heavy and still leak over time. Lithium batteries have been out for quite some time as they are far lighter and can last several times longer than their lead acid counterparts. All they have to do is use 12 volt lithium batteries with the same amperage. I don't know why it's taking so long for the conversion
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Just wanted to send my heartfelt thanks for your video, have just change the battery in my i3 and after watching your video it took me about 20 min start to finish. I have seen other videos on youtube where people had real trouble with disconnecting the high voltage battery (the little orange thing), you made the job so simple. Thanks again.
Really glad you found it informative and helpful.
Thanks for the excellent guide. Bought a battery at BMW for about 200$. Replaced a working battery in advance on my 2014, 7years, 100000km. Registered the new battery with bimmerlink and WiFi dongle.
I could ad two steps in your guide if someone wants to be picky. One is to put some connection crease on the battery poles and the second one is to add loctite on the pole screws (was added originally) Many thanks!
Great video. All anyone needs to replace their i3 battery. Following this I had the battery out on my workbench in less than 20 minutes. You will need a Torx bit (don't know the size, sorry), Allen wrenches, 10 mm socket and an extension to reach rear battery bracket bolt. Location of vent hose was a bit confusing, it's a small rubber hose attached right behind the positive terminal. Just pull gently to the right and it should slide off easily.
Julie, Thank you, much appreciated.
Once you physically replace the battery, will the i3 drive without registering it? Why does it need to be register?
@@carlospadilla7296 same question
@@carlospadilla7296 I'm curious as well, hope someone can reply. Would vehicles allow us to operate without registration?? Help 🙏
To those who asked about registering the battery, I never registered mine and that was about a year ago without any issues.
Thank you for making this video, I just did the swap on my 2015 BEV i3 and your walkthrough saved me so much time!
For anyone else coming here after their 12v battery completely died you get a "battery could not charge" error or something like that, here is what I did: swapped the battery, closed the frunk, and "start" the car as normal and the message cleared after about 10 seconds.
You’re welcome! Love hearing about another successful battery replacement.
Thanks for this how-to guide. Just changed our '14 i3 battery today using your video after getting random drive train errors for the past few months..
Rob Spreitzer Nice! Glad you found it useful.
Oh man, I did that too !!! I followed the video step by step and I made it!!! Without registration or anything!!! , I have a BMW i3 2014 extended range, after installation and everything is looking good made a huge mistake!!! I forgot to turn on the safety plug that I turn it off at the beginning!! So it doesn't work at all, but after I turn it on its work perfectly, !!!! Thank you again no need to register!!!
Glad this video helped you save you time and money.
I can't thank you enough for posting this. Just got a 2017 i3 BEV and after reading several comments in an i3 forum about dead car/dead 12v/towing issues/major headache/major $$$ I came here and found your vid so now I feel more prepared for if this happens.
YES! I’m so happy to hear that. BMW sure doesn’t make the swap out easy, but its also not hard once you see how’s its done.
Thanks for the nice quick and accurate vid. Was thinking of getting an i3 and when I saw where the battery was, had second thoughts. So I found this vid (and other 17+ min ones I didn't watch) on how to replace it. It doesn't look too bad, just remove the frunk screws and pull it out, and you are basically there.
Yeah, it’s really not a difficult process if you take your time. Not too unlike replacing any other car battery.
Thanks for the video! think the price of these batteries has gone up significantly in the past year - I've been all over the internet, and my best option is $220 plus $30 shipping just to get the battery to my garage. I'm waiting on a quote from the local BMW shop, but I'm sure it will be in the $650 range reported here or higher. Plus the cost of getting it down there (it's backed into my garage right now). I've read that once this problem starts, it can go south quickly, and boy does it ever. I waited a day too long. Yesterday I drove a 15 mile roundtrip, with a 5-minute stop between legs, and it worked fine. I thought that kind of trip would recharge the 12V. I put the charger on when I got home, and when I got up this morning to check, everything was dead. So now I guess I'll buy the tools - torx and 10mm sockets w/ extensions I'll need, and wait for the battery to arrive. This is my first encounter with BWM service fees since I bought my 2016 i3 about 15 months ago. Welcome to over-engineered German technology :-( I'm sure the self-isolation these days had something to do with it. It probably sat 4 months without being used- now I know to get the car out and drive it around the block once a week. Anyway, it was only one week and 2 trips from my first "battery is discharging when turned off" message to complete failure. If you see that message, act quickly.
I am not a car guy, and I was nervous following these steps, but it was super easy! Thanks so much for making this video. The comments here also helped a lot. My car was just totally dead for two weeks sitting in my garage, but now it's up and running again. Note that I bought my battery from the BMW dealership, not Remy. Remy was sold out and I didn't have a Deka distributor nearby. The BMW part number is 61 21 2 286 201 and it works fine. You can find this BMW-branded battery online for about $156.
Love hearing success stories like yours Ray. Congrats on reviving your i3 and saving the $100’s of dollars by doing it yourself.
Nice to finally see a non-generic video on this.
thank you for suggesting for people to register the battery
it shocks me how many people tell others to skip that step and suggest of no harmful effects
What are the potential harmful effects of not registering the battery?
Folks have discussed that not registering the battery could potentially shorten its lifespan due to the car improperly assuming its age and charging it more than necessary.
The EV Nerd that makes sense, thanks. Although you’d think that if the software was good at detecting battery age, it would be able to tell me that the battery was about to die!
Hahaha good point.
Very nice and well made video.
Once you physically replace the battery, will the i3 drive without registering it? Why does it need to be register?
Thanks for posting this video and I wish I had seen it prior to today. BMW told me the battery was "inaccessible" and that the only option I had was to pay them $550. ARRGH..... I guess at least I now know how to do this the next time it needs replacing.....
Awww bummer Michael. Sorry to hear that. But the lesson learned by many people is don’t always take the service rep at their word. There are many maintenance items you can do yourself.
I watch your videos for the cool background music. 🎶
Great video, appreciate the effort
Thanks!
Excellent video. I have a 2015 I3 which just started to run into the battery issue. Does anyone know if it is safe to use a better tender to maintain the 12V battery in the I3?
Very glad you liked the video. So long as the tender is designed for an AGM battery it shouldn’t be an issue.
Great helpful video thanks so much
Thank you for the Video it was very helpful! I changed mine out and got it onto the car’s charger that came at purchase. The screen says it’s charged at 100% but it only has 1 mile available. What’s the next steps? Any help would be great, thanks again
Short and sweet.
What was the size of the Torx needed to remove the posts?
I just paid a BMW dealer $473.32 for a battery, $260+ for labor. He said they needed to reset the computer so the alternator would coordinate with the new battery. I'm skeptical (generator, no alternator). AAA replaced 12v in my Fiat 500e electric on the road, prob under $200.
Battery registration with the MCU is legit, German over engineering.
A 12V lead-acid battery, is like OEM vacuum cleaner bags: They are put there as a steady source of income for the manufacturer. If an EV is outfitted with a big Li-ion traction pack, and you add a few more Wh with a lead-acid battery, that also needs changing every other year, you are decreasing the overall weight/kWh of the vehicle. More suitable would be a 4S Li-ion pack, maybe even big enough to run all systems during a drive cycle, so your DC/DC converter only would need to be a backup during driving when a lot of AUX loads were turned on? That would directly translate to longer driving range, especially at low speed, where an extra 500W draw from the DC/DC, is a significant percentage of the 2kW you'd need to move at 30mph.
my OEM 12v battery lasted 7 years. I just changed it out now before having an issue.
I unplugged the battery because of reseting the cameras and I noticed that the hood still pops open from the buttom, does the vehicle have a back up battery for the accessories and such? I wonder if I have to unplug.that one as well to reser the cameras
There is no backup battery but recall that unlike an ICE car, the i3 uses a DC to DC converter to recharge the battery that runs when the car is on. It’s possible you had the car on and the DC converter was still providing 12V. I would expect that the system would noticed the battery is not present and would not allow the DC converter to function.
If I wanted to connect a DC to AC inverter, to draw power in case of an outage, could I connect the inverter directly to the 12V battery or there is any impidement with those battery post? Thanks for your help.
Carlos Padilla The battery post terminals would make that connection very difficult. There’s really not much room on them to tap into. There are larger 12v terminals in the rear on top of the motor controller, however. And while that’s all technically possible, remember that the draw from an AC inverter on the 12v system may overload its charging system. I suspect the DC/DC converter that charges the 12v battery is not designed to carry much load.
Did you apply any battery terminal grease
D J: No, the factory connectors didn’t seem to use any.
@@TheEVNerd Thanks mate. So far so good.
I came home from 5-day vacation to find our i3 with "Unable to Charge" and "Drivetrain: Stop Carefully" messages. Could not put car into gear, could not charge using charge port or anything. Read around that it might be the 12V battery so I tested it and it read 7V so I knew that was probably the problem. After awhile all power died. Ordered a new battery from remybattery and installed it following this video. Car came back to life but problems remained. I had it towed to dealership and they informed me that the problem was that the battery needed to be registered. I knew the battery had to be registered but thought you could drive the car even if it wasn't. So maybe I was just the exception but be warned that you might have the same problem as I did.
The Mighty Cass, hope all was resolved. But not registering the battery hasn’t posed any issue for me and many other. Sounds like your dealer might have just told you the obvious, but not necessarily the whole story.
@@TheEVNerd car is running fine now. All I know is I followed all the instructions to install the new battery and I still couldn't get the car to go into gear. Wouldn't be surprised if the dealership jerked me around but I had run out of options.
Charged battery 12V has 14.5V on my i3. New, that I just bought, has 12.9V. It may need some time connected to the EV charger get also 14.5V. Did you tried that?
@@zale76 14.5v sounds too high.
Hey The EV Nerd, can I jump start the 12V on my BMW i3? Thanks!
After long trip, I found the batter 0. Can’t start it. The I3 runs on gas too (extended)
Technically you can supply external power to the 12v system to basically “jump start” it. You can access the 12v leads on top of the motor controller in the rear of the car.
But, if your 12v battery is dead or dying, a “jump start” isn’t a good solution since you’ll have to keep doing it every time the car turns off. Good luck.
The BMW i3 manual states: "Do not jump or directly charge the vehicle battery using conventional jump starting; otherwise, because of the high voltage of the drive system, there is a danger of fatal injury from electrocution."
ryandesign apparently you can also activate climatize function when the main battery is plugged in to a charger. I did this with my i3 when the battery was dying and was able to drive and restart it the next day. I figured that was a sign of improved battery life...
That's the BMW i3s out of the equation.
Not all i3 will play nice with this approach. Until there is a sound way to register the battery, some i3 will fail. Mine did. On the bright side, if you don't have warranty, you can purchase a new battery and have the dealer register it.
I just replaced the battery, but one of the many alerts caused by the dead battery didn't go away (drivetrain alert). Now, the car won't start. If you have any suggestions, please comment.
Hmmm how ago did you replace the battery. Often, the errors clear on there own within a day.
@@TheEVNerd I replaced it about 2 hours ago. Hopefully, it clears all the alerts by tomorrow morning.
@Seth Rollins the drivetrain alert didn't go away. I had to have it towed to bmw. They told me it needs a new battery and "initialization" just to get it started ($880). Once it's started they'll let me know if anything else is broken.
So you had that drivetrain alert and other before you replaced the 12V battery? I haven’t heard of a dead battery causing a problem so severe as that. It’s not as expensive as the dealer quoted you. Keep us posted.
I didnt need to register my battery, it worked perfectly after replacing it. I just had to reset the date/time. Nothing else.
so nothing else I need to know? No other dangers of high voltage or amperage
here?
Adam Silversmith If you’ve ever replaced an ICE battery, it’s basically the same.
In the video he pulled apart an orange connector this disconnects the High Voltage battery. Disconnecting the HV provides a safer work environment.
Wow bmw had to put a battery in a really awkward place
R. T. I agree, but because of its small size and lack of maintenance needed, I think I understand why BMW chose to package it in a not very accessible location.
What????☹️😮
This is very shocking and disappointing
Why would the i3 have to use a lead battery ? Other EVs don’t need a lead battery. It’s pretty much common sense
Not sure I understand your point. This video only discusses replacement of the 12V battery in the i3, not the high voltage Li-Ion battery pack.
@@TheEVNerd you didn't catch my point. EVs don't need to have those heavy 12 volt batteries. They already have a battery pack so that should be able to operate everything.
The ignition etc........etc..........etc.
I see. Actually EV’s need an independent power source separate from the high voltage battery to power their subsystems. This is because the high voltage system must be able to be electrically isolated from the rest of the car for safety. Therefore, automakers still rely on the traditional 12v battery to power most subsystems. Hope that helps.
@@TheEVNerd I guess the race now is to phase out the traditional 12 volt lead acid batteries as they are miserably heavy and still leak over time.
Lithium batteries have been out for quite some time as they are far lighter and can last several times longer than their lead acid counterparts.
All they have to do is use 12 volt lithium batteries with the same amperage.
I don't know why it's taking so long for the conversion