Charging issue after Software update

Bidgood

Bidgood

New Member
After my software update to prevent my Mini SE from bursting into flames I have to say that it has not in fact exploded. However when I charge at the end of the day (Both level 1 and level 2) I get the red led indicator at the charge point and on the dash showing a fault and the charge stops. I then unplug the charger and reinsert it and then the car charges fine.

Having taken it to the dealer to no avail as they could not figure it out. The car charges just fine but I have to go through the insert, remove, and reinsert cycle every day.

Any thoughts?

Tom
 
First step is to determine if same thing happens at other EVSEs, to determine if it's the car or your EVSE. It's potentially an issue with out-of-spec EVSE behavior or something, and maybe the SE is less forgiving after the update.
 
Bidgood said:
After my software update to prevent my Mini SE from bursting into flames I have to say that it has not in fact exploded. However when I charge at the end of the day (Both level 1 and level 2) I get the red led indicator at the charge point and on the dash showing a fault and the charge stops. I then unplug the charger and reinsert it and then the car charges fine.

Having taken it to the dealer to no avail as they could not figure it out. The car charges just fine but I have to go through the insert, remove, and reinsert cycle every day.

Any thoughts?

Tom
Click to expand...


Yes, I thought about it being the cable or the Mini OEM charger, but the issue occurs on my charger, the dealers charger, and my back up Level 2 charger. It is more of a nuisance, but there has to be something that changed with the software update. I am guessing that the new software is more sensitive to voltages (so our cars do not have a "thermal event") and when the cable is plugged in for the first time it get a bit of a surge which causes a fault. Has any one else seen anything like this?
 
Bidgood said:
After my software update to prevent my Mini SE from bursting into flames I have to say that it has not in fact exploded. However when I charge at the end of the day (Both level 1 and level 2) I get the red led indicator at the charge point and on the dash showing a fault and the charge stops. I then unplug the charger and reinsert it and then the car charges fine.

Having taken it to the dealer to no avail as they could not figure it out. The car charges just fine but I have to go through the insert, remove, and reinsert cycle every day.

Any thoughts?

Tom
Click to expand...
I have that issue like you since car was new but is a hope as after holidays I’m going to see a dealer again as a member @Outagas post last Friday solution and I want to see if dealer knows about it?IMG_1796.webp
 
Rexsio, Thank you for the response. When I took it to the Mini dealer, the service manager did not have a clue and called his "tech" guy over to look at the issue. The "tech" guy looked like he was 17 yrs old. Needless to say, the dealer in SW Florida has not sold enough of these to really have a handle on the unique issues the SE has. Having said that, I would not replace the car for any other small vehicle. It is a lot of fun, as I drive it in the "Sport" mode all the time. Although I have been through a set of front tires at 18k miles.
 
I might have the same issue. I have the problem once in my early days of owning the car, and did not have any issue even after the recall. 90+% I charged with the OEM L1 charger at home. But on the weekend before Xmas, I took a long (900KM+) 3 days round trip out of town and encountered many repeated issues. According to the Mini app, I did 31 charging sessions using L2 and L3 charging stations. But after studying the report, there are 16 failed attempts all related to L3 chargers. I remember that in most cases, the charger was connected and my credit/membership card was accepted and car connected without issue and once charging started, the charger immediately stopped charging. The error message was "charging interrupted" or "charging completed". Then I was instructed to unplug in order to start another charge.

At first I thought it could be the chargers did not like the Mini, or the Mini did not like the chargers. I called one customer service and she even restart the charger remotely but to no avail. One driver told me that once in a while he had to plug and unplug several times before charging would start. At one charging station, I had to do that 9 times with no success. Luckily one driver told me to go try a L2 charger that was some distance away. It worked, but I have to spent more than 2 hours before I can get enough juice to go to my next stop. After the L2 charger, the Mini was able to charge with a L3 charger for a couple of times. Then it happened again, and at one L3 charger I had no choice but had to plug and unplug. Luckily after 3 tries I was able to charge with the L3 charger and again for a couple of times before the end of my trip.

But once at home when I plugged in my OEM L1 charger, there was no respond from the car that a charger was plugged in, and on the L1 charger panel, the red LED was flushing. After I unplugged the charger and plug in again the charging works fine. Then a couple of days later, the same thing happened again, and today it happened again.

Hopefully I can make an appointment with the dealer after the New Year holidays. Will share the outcome.
 
Last edited:
Bidgood said:
Rexsio, Thank you for the response. When I took it to the Mini dealer, the service manager did not have a clue and called his "tech" guy over to look at the issue. The "tech" guy looked like he was 17 yrs old. Needless to say, the dealer in SW Florida has not sold enough of these to really have a handle on the unique issues the SE has. Having said that, I would not replace the car for any other small vehicle. It is a lot of fun, as I drive it in the "Sport" mode all the time. Although I have been through a set of front tires at 18k miles.
Click to expand...
As a tires you have to install Summer performance tires as in Florida I will use them all a time as my car come with Hankooks exelent tires and they wearing fast on Sport mode as I drive only on that setting in NY I switch to Nokian WRG- Remedy bc different climate all weather tires and when is getting warmer I switch back to Nokians as they excellent tires Try a dealer read what a @Outagas have to say about a problem as I do in new year visiting a dealer again if they have newer diagnostic tool before 1 year warranty expires as I will try different dealers with smarter diagnostic technicians.My issue with reduce charging is since car was new .I drive a SE for 3 years 18000 miles not being stock anywhere but. I need to fix what is wrong with my beloved Rexio as they can search for errors in battery management system software if they know what they doing ?IMG_1772.webp
 

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YellowDog said:
I might have the same issue. I have the problem once in my early days of owning the car, and did not have any issue even after the recall. 90+% I charged with the OEM L1 charger at home. But on the weekend before Xmas, I took a long (900KM+) 3 days round trip out of town and encountered many repeated issues. According to the Mini app, I did 31 charging sessions using L2 and L3 charging stations. But after studying the report, there are 16 failed attempts all related to L3 chargers. I remember that in most cases, the charger was connected and my credit/membership card was accepted and car connected without issue and once charging started, the charger immediately stopped charging. The error message was "charging interrupted" or "charging completed". Then I was instructed to unplug in order to start another charge.

At first I thought it could be the chargers did not like the Mini, or the Mini did not like the chargers. I called one customer service and she even restart the charger remotely but to no avail. One driver told me that once in a while he had to plug and unplug several times before charging would start. At one charging station, I had to do that 9 times with no success. Luckily one driver told me to go try a L2 charger that was some distance away. It worked, but I have to spent more than 2 hours before I can get enough juice to go to my next stop. After the L2 charger, the Mini was able to charge with a L3 charger for a couple of times. Then it happened again, and at one L3 charger I had no choice but had to plug and unplug. Luckily after 3 tries I was able to charge with the L3 charger and again for a couple of times before the end of my trip.

But once at home when I plugged in my OEM L1 charger, there was no respond from the car that a charger was plugged in, and on the L1 charger panel, the red LED was flushing. After I unplugged the charger and plug in again the charging works fine. Then a couple of days later, the same thing happened again, and today it happened again.

Hopefully I can make an appointment with the dealer after the New Year holidays. Will share the outcome.
Click to expand...
As I drive SE for 3 years I have a problem as car kick always to reduced charging on L2 in garage but as I plug and unplug a chagring cord I have a maximum charge once a while on public stations never an issue as public stations run on 208 Volts and supply 6.6 kW AC and my garage charger is 240Volts supply 7.4 kW AC and dealer can’t fix it as they don’t know how to replicate a problem or being stupid undereducated technician I don’t understand that big BMW corporation is not reading those post from owners of Mini Coopers SE as can have very valuable informations how to. Fix an issue as lately is more post about that LEMON charging problems. As I said before I love IMG_1464.webp SE but this problem is frustrating,!!!!!!!!
 
Could it be a sign of a worn/faulty cell? The way battery packs charge is by monitoring and changing the supply voltage. This in turn changes the current (current = voltage difference / internal resistance). If one cell is lagging, the voltage could spike on the other cells, simulating a full battery, or more likely generate a fault. By charging at a slower rate, the spike is reduced, and you end up floating the pack - this means getting all (13?) cells to the same voltage. The next fast charge won't generate a voltage spike, and will most likely work as normal.

One thing to note - unlike most EVs out there, you can replace individual cells in the mini. When I say cells, I am talking about each of the packs made up from individual batteries that look a bit like really large AA batteries.From memory, there are 13 cells (packs) which make up the battery.

Sorry if this was a bit nerdy, I am an electrical engineer.
 
vader said:
Could it be a sign of a worn/faulty cell? The way battery packs charge is by monitoring and changing the supply voltage. This in turn changes the current (current = voltage difference / internal resistance). If one cell is lagging, the voltage could spike on the other cells, simulating a full battery, or more likely generate a fault. By charging at a slower rate, the spike is reduced, and you end up floating the pack - this means getting all (13?) cells to the same voltage. The next fast charge won't generate a voltage spike, and will most likely work as normal.

One thing to note - unlike most EVs out there, you can replace individual cells in the mini. When I say cells, I am talking about each of the packs made up from individual batteries that look a bit like really large AA batteries.From memory, there are 13 cells (packs) which make up the battery.

Sorry if this was a bit nerdy, I am an electrical engineer.
Click to expand...
Come for the car and stay for the nerdy. That's what I do.
 
vader said:
Could it be a sign of a worn/faulty cell? The way battery packs charge is by monitoring and changing the supply voltage. This in turn changes the current (current = voltage difference / internal resistance). If one cell is lagging, the voltage could spike on the other cells, simulating a full battery, or more likely generate a fault. By charging at a slower rate, the spike is reduced, and you end up floating the pack - this means getting all (13?) cells to the same voltage. The next fast charge won't generate a voltage spike, and will most likely work as normal.

One thing to note - unlike most EVs out there, you can replace individual cells in the mini. When I say cells, I am talking about each of the packs made up from individual batteries that look a bit like really large AA batteries.From memory, there are 13 cells (packs) which make up the battery.

Sorry if this was a bit nerdy, I am an electrical engineer.
Click to expand...
There are 96 prismatic cells (~3.65V) arranged in series across 7 modules. 2 modules in the transmission tunnel are single stacked (8 cells per module) and 5 are double stacked across the rear passenger seat and gear selector. The real advantage of the prismatic over cylindrical cell is for ICE retrofits to achieve a quasi structural battery pack(s). I suppose you could say custom LEGO blocks to fill in the empty spaces?

celllayoutSE.webp

bmw-ix3-battery-pack-02-1296426838.webp

BMW will be switching to 46mm x 95mm and 46mm x120mm cylindrical batteries for the Gen6 Neue Klasse but it's going to take some time to switch to SiC MOSFET for the 800V architecture. As far as I know, the i3 was using IGBT drivers (400V).
 
Thanks for all the explanation. But even if the dealers suspect it is the case, I think they would like to duplicate the symptom while the car is in their shop to justify spending time to check individual cell and change the damaged one(s). Is there a chance that over time all the cells will be floated to the same voltage and become "cured"?

Yesterday I ran my battery to about 50% and then charged it up to 91% at a DCFC and then my L1 charger at home to 100%. All without any issue. Just keeping my fingers crossed.
 
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