An owner of 2015 BMW i3 Rex tweeted about an issue with the steering wheel recently.
In March, the steering wheel turned left slightly by itself after the car was started. This position of the wheel was enough to make the car turn left gradually. It took some force by hand to steer and keep the wheel back to the regular neutral position. When the wheel was kept at the regular neutral position, the car was able to go straight. However, the steering wheel turned to the left again after hands were removed from the wheel.
After the car was turned off and back on again, the steering wheel behaved normally again, meaning it stayed in the regular neutral position when hands free, and the car went straight.
The same issue occurred twice within the same week. The next week the owner sent the car to the dealer to take a look. The dealer kept the car for almost two weeks, did a lot of research including steering/suspension and also extensive testing, but was not able to duplicate the issue.
In less than a month after the owner took the car back, the issue occurred again. And this time, videos were taken.
The car is currently at the dealer and still the dealer could not duplicate the issue. The dealer did suspension adjustment again.
The interesting thing is: the owner got a 2018 i3 94Ah Rex loaner car and the similar steering wheel issue showed up with the loaner car as well!
2015 BMW i3 Rex had 3 recalls:
- Oct 2015: Passenger side frontal air bag
- Feb 2017: Fuel tank vent line and fuel vapor leak
- Nov 2017: Frontal air bags