PSA: Recall for HV Battery

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Taking my SE in tomorrow for this recall software update. I’m still quite skeptical of the discharge to 30% strategy. Even if there was a disconnect so the motor could be ran w/o the car moving, at 60 ‘mph’ it would still take over an hour to discharge the battery. I can’t see any possible way to discharge the battery quickly enough to actually be considered an emergency intervention.

I’ll see what info I can pry out of the service center tomorrow.


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Jim In Tucson said:
Taking my SE in tomorrow for this recall software update. I’m still quite skeptical of the discharge to 30% strategy. Even if there was a disconnect so the motor could be ran w/o the car moving, at 60 ‘mph’ it would still take over an hour to discharge the battery. I can’t see any possible way to discharge the battery quickly enough to actually be considered an emergency intervention.

I’ll see what info I can pry out of the service center tomorrow.



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You can discharge current to earth as we supposed learn in basics at high school if we pay attention that 30 % is bs I agree with your statement 100% as I did my reprogramming by dealer in 1 1/2 HR on Tuesday and charging everyday to 100% driving the same patern roads 2 days nothing changed to a car bc I was worry as they can cut range or charging limit everything is the same as I charge on L 2 in garage but question rise why Canadians keep SE on street not in garage as dealers advice them there as we drive the same SE ? In USA / NY
 
Jim In Tucson said:
Taking my SE in tomorrow for this recall software update. I’m still quite skeptical of the discharge to 30% strategy. Even if there was a disconnect so the motor could be ran w/o the car moving, at 60 ‘mph’ it would still take over an hour to discharge the battery. I can’t see any possible way to discharge the battery quickly enough to actually be considered an emergency intervention.
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I don't think the intent is to interrupt an impending fire, but rather to put the battery in a safer state once faults are detected. In rare instances, these faults may eventually contribute to a fire, but it’s not quite the race against the clock you’re imagining. An hour (or 10) to discharge could be perfectly acceptable.
 
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fishbert said:
I don't think the intent is to interrupt an impending fire, but rather to put the battery in a safer state once faults are detected. In rare instances, these faults may eventually contribute to a fire, but it’s not quite the race against the clock you’re imagining. An hour (or 10) to discharge could be perfectly acceptable.
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That makes a whole lot of sense. I think I watched too many Tesla and Bolt on-fire videos back in the early BEV days.



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Well there is a grounding and fuse box that sits under the rear seats (61279455518). That wouldn't directly detect a thermal event, but it could prevent a widespread runaway. Apparently one German SE driver had some issues and the HV fuse blew twice presumably DC fast charging after heavy rain 2 days prior. A US SE driver also experienced some HV issues while doing 75mph on the highway.

safetybox.webp

For the Bolt, I recall the issue being the misaligned and folded/torn separator on the anode tab side. That shouldn't be an issue with the more rigid prismatic or cylindrical cells. Fortunately battery manufacturers serialize the cells to a batch production date in case of quality control concerns. If the CATL cells in the SE changed throughout the production years, BMW would probably have identified the issue immediately. Since it's potentially a global recall for every vehicle, then it doesn't seem like the problem is coming from the CATL prismatic cells. What I mean to say is that the SE has 96 HV cells in series and the cell voltages are added to get to the 350V-398.4V range (~4.15V x 8 for single pack [x2] and ~4.15 x 8 x 2 for the double pack [x5]).

lgpouchcell.webp
 
Jim In Tucson said:
That makes a whole lot of sense. I think I watched too many Tesla and Bolt on-fire videos back in the early BEV days.
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You don't need to go so far back for scary fire videos. A Mercedes-Benz EV fire in a parking garage in Korea recently damaged 900 other vehicles.

My car insurance is good, but it isn't that good. :(
 
Qisl said:
You don't need to go so far back for scary fire videos. A Mercedes-Benz EV fire in a parking garage in Korea recently damaged 900 other vehicles.

My car insurance is good, but it isn't that good. :(
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That's why BMW now includes a fire extinguisher for Korean models.

BMW-fire-extinguisher-1-830x553.webp

As for the MB EQE parking garage fire in Korea, I believe it was 140 vehicles. The Freemantle cargo ship (included MB EQEs onboard) fire back in 2023 was closer to 500 EVs.
 
teslarati97 said:
Well there is a grounding and fuse box that sits under the rear seats (61279455518). That wouldn't directly detect a thermal event, but it could prevent a widespread runaway. Apparently one German SE driver had some issues and the HV fuse blew twice presumably DC fast charging after heavy rain 2 days prior. A US SE driver also experienced some HV issues while doing 75mph on the highway.

View attachment 23235

For the Bolt, I recall the issue being the misaligned and folded/torn separator on the anode tab side. That shouldn't be an issue with the more rigid prismatic or cylindrical cells. Fortunately battery manufacturers serialize the cells to a batch production date in case of quality control concerns. If the CATL cells in the SE changed throughout the production years, BMW would probably have identified the issue immediately. Since it's potentially a global recall for every vehicle, then it doesn't seem like the problem is coming from the CATL prismatic cells. What I mean to say is that the SE has 96 HV cells in series and the cell voltages are added to get to the 350V-398.4V range (~4.15V x 8 for single pack [x2] and ~4.15 x 8 x 2 for the double pack [x5]).

View attachment 23234
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So add in the fellow from India who replied on Reddit, it would appear to be at least three vehicles affected. But, notably, not a single thermal event.

One interpretation of the above is that even the current hardware and software are doing their job well enough/as intended
 
CuriousGeorge said:
So add in the fellow from India who replied on Reddit, it would appear to be at least three vehicles affected. But, notably, not a single thermal event.
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From the recall report:
“October 2023, BMW became aware of a field incident in the U.S. involving a MINI Hardtop 2 Door (Cooper SE) in which the vehicle experienced a thermal event.”

The German driver and US driver teslarati mentioned are not the same people the recall report talks about.

But yes, the existing software will display warning messages if a fault is detected (the recall report also says this). The new software appears to just add a battery discharge operation in response.
 
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fishbert said:
From the recall report:
“October 2023, BMW became aware of a field incident in the U.S. involving a MINI Hardtop 2 Door (Cooper SE) in which the vehicle experienced a thermal event.”

The German driver and US driver teslarati mentioned are not the same people the recall report talks about.
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I stand corrected.

So that's four or five, with one thermal event, one (repeatedly) blown fuse, and the others a warning from the current software, but no other symptoms?
 
teslarati97 said:
In other recall news, BMW has also recalled 720,796 vehicles on August 13, 2024 for insufficient water pump sealing which could "increase the risk of a thermal event and, in rare cases, a fire."
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...then there's my daughter's 2015 Kia, recalled due to the risk of an engine fire due to oil leakage (and since recalled three more times, to install anti-theft software, anti-knock engine detection software, and inspection of the brake lines for imminent failure due to corrosion).
 
CuriousGeorge said:
...then there's my daughter's 2015 Kia, recalled due to the risk of an engine fire due to oil leakage (and since recalled three more times, to install anti-theft software, anti-knock engine detection software, and inspection of the brake lines for imminent failure due to corrosion).
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It's a matter of perspective, that's for sure. Everyone needs to do their own risk assessment and due diligence!

Take for example flatulence. While generally a thermal event, and in a very rare case there could be ignition of methane/hydrogen gas during laser surgery.
 
I had this completed yesterday along with Wattson's 4 year checkup visit. I'm very glad I exported my driver profile to a USB stick before this, as it wiped all my settings as others have mentioned. Note: It may have only wiped the active driver profile, as my wife's profile is still in the list. (I set it up for her when I first took delivery, but she's never actually driven it yet...)

The software version shown on my infotainment screen was updated from MT-002.146.002 to MT-002.176.001 (a 2021 model built July/August 2020).
 
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