[Kay.Say]

Just wondering if anyone has run into issues with using the remote start feature via My BMW or the key fob in extreme cold conditions? Until recently we have been using remote start regularly without issue (except for glitches with the app which seem to be the norm). For reference we are in Canada and temperatures are currently in the high -30/low -40 range with wind chill.

For the last two days however, remote start has not worked at all and the message indicates requirements haven’t been met. From what we can gather the following are requirements for remote start:

1. Vehicle is in idle state or standby state and not in a drive-ready state.
2. Battery is sufficiently charged.
3. The fuel tank capacity is sufficient.
4. Hood is closed.
5. Air Vents are open.

As far as we can tell all conditions are met. Unless the battery is considered insufficient due to the cold temperatures?

We are stuck in this cold snap for a few more days, and will continue to monitor the issue. We are hoping that when it goes back to “normal” winter conditions, remote start will once again be available.

Just thought we’d throw it out on the forums for others’ experiences/thoughts.

[XC3LLR8]

Did you look under climate control menu to see if remote start got un-checked? This happened to me when I did an update.

Have you tried using Alexa?

"Alexa, ask BMW to start my car."

[danallxt]

Did ya happen to check the battery voltage (handy terminals under hood allow this)
MY guess is this.
First of all this gen (and other recent gen) BMW does not generally keep the battery fully charged. The specifics are too much to get into here, it has been discussed in forums here...but search on BMW Intelligent Charging System (IGR is the acronym they use).

Anyway my guess is the battery was too low for the remote to function, but not too low to start the car. Let me explain, not all cars have remote start, so that is a separate sensor that is active at rest, that takes energy (battery energy)....at rest you car is monitoring the SOC (State of Charge) of the battery...in BMW's own words below:

When a vehicle has been parked for a long time
and the battery slowly discharges, both from
parasitic draws and self-discharge, the idle state
management feature kicks in. It can progressively
turn off components that normally remain
powered up even while the vehicle is at rest to
try and maximize the time remaining before a
no-start situation occurs

So it is likely that component was shut down to keep the battery from getting even lower and a potential no start situation. Also note, these new cars have a lot of parasitic draw (at rest, not running). That's why this car (and most newer cars) has a really huge battery.

For example i checked my BMW battery voltage this morning after reading this post, it was at 12.2 volts. A fully charged is considered between 12.8 and 13.0 for the AGM battery we have. 12.2 is considered less than 50 percent charged. (40 percent). I cannot get into the reasons for BMW not maintaining a fully charged battery and the charging methodology here, ya gotta research the hints a gave above if interested.

[PNTDG42]

Originally Posted by XC3LLR8

Did you look under climate control menu to see if remote start got un-checked? This happened to me when I did an update.

Have you tried using Alexa?

"Alexa, ask BMW to start my car."

I bet you nailed it. I turned it off myself once when going through the settings and not realizing that "preconditioning" was remote starting. Not exactly intuitive verbiage.

[BrawnyCh]

Originally Posted by Kay.Say

Just wondering if anyone has run into issues with using the remote start feature via My BMW or the key fob in extreme cold conditions? Until recently we have been using remote start regularly without issue (except for glitches with the app which seem to be the norm). For reference we are in Canada and temperatures are currently in the high -30/low -40 range with wind chill.

For the last two days however, remote start has not worked at all and the message indicates requirements haven’t been met. From what we can gather the following are requirements for remote start:

My remote start was disabled in the recent software update. Went into the climate menu (I think it was the climate menu) and enabled it again. Sounds like you may have the same issue.

[XC3LLR8]

Originally Posted by PNTDG42

I bet you nailed it. I turned it off myself once when going through the settings and not realizing that "preconditioning" was remote starting. Not exactly intuitive verbiage.

My guess is BMW uses this language because remote start is not legal in all regions, but if it's labeled as "preconditioning" then it may be a loophole.

[Invisiblename]

Originally Posted by XC3LLR8

My guess is BMW uses this language because remote start is not legal in all regions, but if it's labeled as "preconditioning" then it may be a loophole.

Nope, not available in the UK

[izjamest]

Having the same issue. I drive an X3 LCI. This only started when the temperatures got really low this past week in North Dakota. I'm talking like -20C, -4F.

I got a CTEK charger and charged the battery back up. And it worked once, but now stopped again. This was when the temperature picked up a bit. Even left the trickle charger connected and it won't remote start.

My nearest BMW dealership is about 4-5 hours away so I am not going to take it in, but I suspect it's related to the extreme cold and this will resolve soon enough with the weather. The BMW is too "SMART" for its own good and is just shutting everything down based on the extreme weather/temperature, and even though I have the battery charger plugged in and fully charged.

Would be interested to know what they found for you!!! Hope some of what I said was useful...

[M240SLC]

Originally Posted by danallxt

Did ya happen to check the battery voltage (handy terminals under hood allow this)
MY guess is this.
First of all this gen (and other recent gen) BMW does not generally keep the battery fully charged. The specifics are too much to get into here, it has been discussed in forums here...but search on BMW Intelligent Charging System (IGR is the acronym they use).

Anyway my guess is the battery was too low for the remote to function, but not too low to start the car. Let me explain, not all cars have remote start, so that is a separate sensor that is active at rest, that takes energy (battery energy)....at rest you car is monitoring the SOC (State of Charge) of the battery...in BMW's own words below:



So it is likely that component was shut down to keep the battery from getting even lower and a potential no start situation. Also note, these new cars have a lot of parasitic draw (at rest, not running). That's why this car (and most newer cars) has a really huge battery.

For example i checked my BMW battery voltage this morning after reading this post, it was at 12.2 volts. A fully charged is considered between 12.8 and 13.0 for the AGM battery we have. 12.2 is considered less than 50 percent charged. (40 percent). I cannot get into the reasons for BMW not maintaining a fully charged battery and the charging methodology here, ya gotta research the hints a gave above if interested.

Huge parasitic draw is right. I learned the hard way, that if you keep the car in neutral with the park brake on...it'll destroy the battery in 3 days time.

[Fahfoofnik]

Originally Posted by danallxt

Did ya happen to check the battery voltage (handy terminals under hood allow this)
MY guess is this.
First of all this gen (and other recent gen) BMW does not generally keep the battery fully charged. The specifics are too much to get into here, it has been discussed in forums here...but search on BMW Intelligent Charging System (IGR is the acronym they use).

Anyway my guess is the battery was too low for the remote to function, but not too low to start the car. Let me explain, not all cars have remote start, so that is a separate sensor that is active at rest, that takes energy (battery energy)....at rest you car is monitoring the SOC (State of Charge) of the battery...in BMW's own words below:



So it is likely that component was shut down to keep the battery from getting even lower and a potential no start situation. Also note, these new cars have a lot of parasitic draw (at rest, not running). That's why this car (and most newer cars) has a really huge battery.

For example i checked my BMW battery voltage this morning after reading this post, it was at 12.2 volts. A fully charged is considered between 12.8 and 13.0 for the AGM battery we have. 12.2 is considered less than 50 percent charged. (40 percent). I cannot get into the reasons for BMW not maintaining a fully charged battery and the charging methodology here, ya gotta research the hints a gave above if interested.

Thank you for this -- I am starting to feel a little bit better about my 6-month-old 230i. Was very concerned about needing to service the battery when it wasn't safe nor advisable to drive in current weather conditions, I don't have a battery charger/could not go somewhere to plug one in (I'd have to buy one first), and the My BMW app was honestly scaring me a little with the error messages about low battery and remote start not working.

I guess suffice it to say: when it's arctic cold, you're probably SOL unless you're able to own a battery charger/be able to plug one in, or able to drive the car sufficiently to charge the battery back up due to this method -- so remote start will work.

I am sure there are good reasons for how BMW handles battery power, but I will say I'm disappointed in it if it renders remote start/preconditioning impossible -- in a climate when it's most desired.

I am a new BMW owner & have been concerned that my 6-month-old battery needed service all of a sudden.

[izjamest]

Originally Posted by Fahfoofnik

Thank you for this -- I am starting to feel a little bit better about my 6-month-old 230i. Was very concerned about needing to service the battery when it wasn't safe nor advisable to drive in current weather conditions, I don't have a battery charger/could not go somewhere to plug one in (I'd have to buy one first), and the My BMW app was honestly scaring me a little with the error messages about low battery and remote start not working.

I guess suffice it to say: when it's arctic cold, you're probably SOL unless you're able to own a battery charger/be able to plug one in, or able to drive the car sufficiently to charge the battery back up due to this method -- so remote start will work.

I am sure there are good reasons for how BMW handles battery power, but I will say I'm disappointed in it if it renders remote start/preconditioning impossible -- in a climate when it's most desired.

I am a new BMW owner & have been concerned that my 6-month-old battery needed service all of a sudden.

My X3 LCI is also 6 months old so I had the same concerns. However, now my battery is fully charged with the CTEK, and the remote start is still touch and go...but the weather has not improved still arctic cold so I'm going to blame it on that and let it warm up a bit. This is very annoying, but I am SOL especially after work (no covered parking).

Let me know what you find out on your side.

[Fahfoofnik]

Originally Posted by izjamest

My X3 LCI is also 6 months old so I had the same concerns. However, now my battery is fully charged with the CTEK, and the remote start is still touch and go...but the weather has not improved still arctic cold so I'm going to blame it on that and let it warm up a bit. This is very annoying, but I am SOL especially after work (no covered parking).

Let me know what you find out on your side.

Will do -- I started a different thread & was told I'm doing things all wrong. Which is possibly true -- I did not know about this process with the battery & how it's powered until I came here and read about it.

I don't have access to a battery charger, outlet or anything like that were I live -- and with the weather as it's been, driving much past getting the engine warm/to operating temp has been out of the question. I was still wrong to do that too, it seems. I tried to explain that it's been dangerous and not a good idea not only with road conditions but arctic wind chills.

After doing ~50-55 miles yesterday, I did try a remote start at home after the car was off for 30 minutes--and it worked. Then, this morning, tried again about 14 hours later, and was shown another error message about the battery not having enough charge.

Since I can't just not drive my car when it's an arctic blast, I guess Remote Start is out of the question…it's my 1st car with the remote start option, but when it's arctic I suppose it's back to getting in the car and starting it from the driver's seat when it's arctic.

Starting it every day seemed to make sense to me, and the car has no problem starting as long as I'm inside it. It's just the remote start that doesn't work -- which, in an arctic blast, is a disappointment and a slight inconvenience.

[redcars]

Originally Posted by Fahfoofnik

It's just the remote start that doesn't work -- which, in an arctic blast, is a disappointment and a slight inconvenience.

Guess we're in the same boat, but most of us have not tried remote start under the same conditions as yours. Pre-heating the car in winter is the primary reason for getting remote start. I've never pre-cooled the car in summer.

You might want to get a jump pack to keep from getting stranded if you're doing short hops all the time.

[PP3121]

Originally Posted by M240SLC

Huge parasitic draw is right. I learned the hard way, that if you keep the car in neutral with the park brake on...it'll destroy the battery in 3 days time.

May I inquire why you would have the car in neutral and not in park for three days? Sorry, I do not understand.

[Fahfoofnik]

Originally Posted by redcars

Guess we're in the same boat, but most of us have not tried remote start under the same conditions as yours. Pre-heating the car in winter is the primary reason for getting remote start. I've never pre-cooled the car in summer.

You might want to get a jump pack to keep from getting stranded if you're doing short hops all the time.

For sure. Learned A LOT in this thread & another one on this subject. As a result -- I don't have the cash for a jump pack at the moment but learned that family has a spare battery charger I could use. Just need to find a way to plug it in (townhome, no outlets super-close).

[Saturns]

Originally Posted by Kay.Say

Just wondering if anyone has run into issues with using the remote start feature via My BMW or the key fob in extreme cold conditions? Until recently we have been using remote start regularly without issue (except for glitches with the app which seem to be the norm). For reference we are in Canada and temperatures are currently in the high -30/low -40 range with wind chill.

For the last two days however, remote start has not worked at all and the message indicates requirements haven’t been met. From what we can gather the following are requirements for remote start:

1. Vehicle is in idle state or standby state and not in a drive-ready state.
2. Battery is sufficiently charged.
3. The fuel tank capacity is sufficient.
4. Hood is closed.
5. Air Vents are open.

As far as we can tell all conditions are met. Unless the battery is considered insufficient due to the cold temperatures?

We are stuck in this cold snap for a few more days, and will continue to monitor the issue. We are hoping that when it goes back to “normal” winter conditions, remote start will once again be available.

Just thought we’d throw it out on the forums for others’ experiences/thoughts.

My car is only a few weeks old. It wasnt fully charged. I put it on a trickle charger. Now everything starts up as designed.