Anyone ever get a “Drivetrain” error message?

Hi, responding to this thread even though my issue was a bit different (i.e. worse). Driving my 1 month old SE on Saturday the car suddenly vibrated and then power cut off completely and it stated a 'drive train error'. I had to coast to the side of the road in 'neutral' and then the car put itself in Park and would not shift back into drive. The car is about a month old, with about 1000miles on it, no other issues encountered. The temperature at the time was ~55F, was on a short trip of ~5miles at moderate speeds (<50mph) but with some spirited acceleration. Actual issue happened while cruising along straight and level at 45mph.

I called the BMW roadside assistance via the car and after quite a bit of back and forth they told me to switch off the ignition for 2 minutes, then back on again, which seemed to completely fix the issue (error message gone, car operational again), so I carefully drove the car home without issue. The following day I drove the car around for about 10 miles doing everything I could to it (hard accelerations etc) and no issues or codes encountered, seems to be 100% back to normal...

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Its pretty scary that the car full on just cut out dead on me. I assume it got some erroneous sensor data it didn't like but who is to say that won't happen again or whether there is something on the way out.

I haven't taken it into BMW yet for a checkup but do plan to.

 

Thanks @wessy I have been driving the car daily since and still behaving as if nothing happened so lets hope it was just a glitch as you say.

Today I read the stored fault codes using BimmerLink (first time using this app but worked really well with the Veepeak bluetooth OBD dongle I had) and the car had a ton of stored errors (none active though), actually quite scary...

Of most interest were 7 stored errors in the 'Electrical machine electronics' category, see below. All were pegged at 1502km which I think is right on for when this incident happened.

Anyone else use the BimmerLink app to look at stored errors?

 

Car was driving fine but I have a message up to 400 miles all the time and I was not able charge a car with maximum setting charge was going to reduced . I went for service and dealer concluded my car is perfectly good but that was continue for a while.I complain to headquarters of BMW in here NJ and mail to UK and Germany . Miraculously after a while everything start working correctly and I don’t have issues since and who knows what they did to a car to fix my problems .I drove I 3 for 6 years no problems .I’m happy someone fix a crab gaining axes to a car! That is only mine answer.

 

Chiming in. 24 miles and I have the same error.

 

Thanks for showing the error message. I hope your dealer can tell you what MINI says about the cause.

 

The error message was not on my car when I went to drive it to the dealer this AM. I’ve still taken it to the dealer and I’m here right now waiting for them to open up. I did notice sort of an unpredictable shimmy that’s very subtle at highway speeds starting ar about 45 miles an hour. Very intermittent and hard to predict because it’s not like a wheel or something that is continuous coming from the powertrain. Seems to happen in all modes And whether I’m using regenerative braking or not. It also seems to happen probably every couple minutes but not at any regular interval that I can tell and not associated with anything in the road.

 

OK so I’m a total newbie And my dealer made a small mistake and didn’t charge to the right amount before delivering the vehicle. The rumble is the lane assist and he didn’t charge it to about 90% during the PDI which can cause errors. Everything is good.

 

Don’t worry, your not the first person who was tripped up by the lane assist rumble. There have been a few posts here with that same concern. If it bothers you too much, you can turn it off.

I was at MINI of Alexandria today and they had at least half a dozen SE’s on the lot. I had to stop by to finally pickup my plates. Also had to pay a little extra for registration as they didn’t charge for the more expensive EV registration in VA.

 

I wish someone with an OBD2 code reader could pull any codes that might be present when the drivetrain error appears.


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After seeing a dealer service they where saying is nothing wrong with a car at400 miles but bc I drove I 3 for 6 years I must have more knowledge than a dealer that’s why I complain about a problems .The error with engine was there.Car drive and act correctly anyway but you don’t need a crab showing an errors.I was piss of I send an Emails to Germany New Jersey Headquarters and to UK and miraculously week later my car act correctly no issues since . I have only 1600 miles but car is perfect with charging L2 and no errors at all.

 

Any garbage is showing on an dashboard I snap a picture for a proof what is wrong but since I pas 400 miles I have no issues with my ERG I love a car .My friend and companion my doggy Rex .RIP .

 

Charging or no charging is not doing any errors you see later when you drive with 5 miles remaining range