BMW i3: 10 Tips & Tricks All Owners Need To Know

hello it's martin from wiselow geomotive and in this video we will go through some tips and tricks regarding the bmw i3 because let's be honest most of us do not read user manuals in great detail but there are some little known features which can make your life with the i3 a little bit easier so let's start right ahead with the key we've already shown you that you can change the function assigned to the favorite diamond button at least here in europe so i will leave that video alongside other idrive infotainment system tips and tricks linked up in the top right hand corner but there is more to the lock and unlock buttons than what meets the eye if you press and hold the unlock button not only does the car unlock but the windows roll down as well and likewise if your car is equipped with the sunroof that will slide open as well so this is one great way of venting the car on a hot day without using any electricity to run the air conditioning similarly if i press and hold the lock button the car will first lock and then the mirrors fold up and all the windows and the sunroof close to note is that if i folded the mirrors using the keyfob and not the button on the inside of the car they will automatically unfold once i unlock the car even if i short press the unlock button just like normal the second question we often get asked is how to disable the interior motion sensor in case you for example want to leave your dog in the car for a short period of time the answer is that within 10 seconds of locking the car so simple single click to lock the car you need to press the lock button again at that moment the indicator light on the rear view mirror should stay on for about a second and should go back to flashing after a while that means that the alarm is completely disabled and that doesn't just mean the interior motion sensing but also the till detection just so you know the last tip related to the key is comfort entry not to be confused with comfort access which is optional on the i3 meaning you can have your key in the pocket you touch the door handle and the car unlocks but comfort enter is quite a common feature on newer bmws which feature frameless windows the idea being the three-door vehicles which have a very long front door it can be sometimes difficult to get in especially in a narrow parking space so you can help yourself by lowering the window to do that comfort entry has to be selected in the doors and key section of the vehicle settings in the idrive infotainment system and once that's done you can at any time double press the unlock button on the key and as you can see if you then open one of the front doors the window rolls down halfway automatically and likewise if you close the door the window rolls up without having to press any buttons on the key or in the inside of the car i have relocked the car and if i open it again only using the unlock button once then it behaves just like normal meaning if i open the door the window stays up when you need to charge and you want to make sure that the rubber covers for the chargeboard do not scratch the paint especially important if they are a bit dirty and you have a dark colored car like this black example which was very well cared for though because as you can see the condition is fantastic yet it has done over 60 000 miles there is a little hook you can use on the inside of the chargeboard flap to keep the covers out of the way next up is automatic mirror dipping when you are in reverse this is very much a personal preference thing some people love the feature because it allows you to park very close to the curb and not scuff your alloy wheels some people find it disconcerting that the mirror moves on its own and there's no obvious switch or a tick box in the menus to disable the feature but in fact it's very easy because it's part of the mirror adjustment controls it's the toggle switch which changes between the left and right side so you can think of it if the position switch is on the right hand position it means that the left mirror is free to do its thing when you are in reverse it's going to automatically dip however if you don't want that to happen you can just flick it to the left side and even if you're in reverse the mirror will automatically move back up to the position you set and as long as the switch stays in the left position the mirror will not move down on its own well we are talking about the controls from the inside parking lights is another important feature as you probably know from any other car you can use the light switch on the dashboard to switch to side lights and that will keep the u-shaped lights in the front on and also the lights in the back so the vehicle can be easily spotted at night even though those are leds at the end of the day they do drain some power from the 12-volt battery so if you want to stay parked for an extended period of time and make sure that the vehicle is still visible you can forget about the whole corner lights thing and switch the lights back to the automatic and you can turn on parking lights on only one side of the vehicle by pushing the indicator stock up or down as needed for this to happen the vehicle needs to be in the fully off state and ironically you need to have your door open to get any notification on the instrument cluster that anything is actually happening but you press and hold the indicator stalk on the left hand side for about a second for the front and rear lights on the left side to illuminate and likewise push up and hold in that position for about a second for the lights on the right side to illuminate so depending on how you are parked you want to make sure that it's the lights on the offside which are turned on to make sure that the width of the vehicle is clearly communicated to other road users whilst using less power than the full side lights to turn them off you simply press the indicator stock the other way and the light should come off very quickly is the position of the 12 volt sockets within the vehicle the most obvious one is underneath the central armrest in the front right next to the usb and the aux port but there is also one more in the boot in case you need to carry something like a portable fridge or you want to hoover the car using a 12 volt vacuum cleaner but the most useful and hidden one at the same time is the one underneath the hvac panel in the central console which is a great place to plug in your dashcam for example do keep in mind though that they turn off after about 10 or 15 minutes of the vehicle being inactive as you may have noticed with most modern cars and the i3 is no exception the windscreen vipers sit quite tucked in underneath the bonnet cars are intentionally designed that way for better aerodynamics reducing wind whistle at high speeds and for better pedestrian safety meaning if you unfortunately had to collide with someone their head would not land on a sharp metal edge but as a result the bonnet is preventing you from lifting the arms to do that you need to put the vipers into a dedicated service mode restart the vehicle very quickly so turn the car on even the 12 volt access remote should do then quickly turn off making sure that the satellite navigation display turns off as well and you push and hold the viper stalk in the fully up position for a couple of seconds if you've done everything correctly the viper should be now up almost perpendicular on the windscreen which enables the arms to swivel out in case you want to change the blades yourself or you can leave them like that if you live in a cold climate and you want to make sure that the wipers don't freeze to the windscreen when the weather gets really cold it's very important though that before you restart the car and start working the wipers they need to be fully back on the windscreen otherwise as they try to move into the default position they would collide with the bonnet and cause damage a little bonus tip is that we put them into service mode when we wash the cars just to get the base of the windshield nice and clean as well and as i mentioned to restart them the easiest thing is to just turn on the car and lightly tap the viper stock down as if you were doing a single wipe and they will return to their normal stored position if your vehicle includes the driving assistant plus package and you use the cruise control a lot you may have noticed that it's not the most reliable of adaptive cruise controls it can easily get confused if the camera is pointing directly into a sunset or there's lots of rain for example if that happens the car will throw up a message and you will not be able to engage the cruise control again however if you want to continue a journey using regular non-adaptive cruise control it is possible to switch the modes to do that you just press and hold the following distance button for a couple of seconds and an appropriate message comes up on the instrument display from then onwards the cruise control behaves just like on base level cars without the driving assistant plus package but keep in mind this only applies to the cruise control the settings are completely independent of the collision avoidance settings which you can set in idrive so if you absolutely cannot stand adaptive crews but you still want some of the safety features which come with the driving assistant plus you can try to pick a car which includes the package and you just have to remember that at the beginning of every drive when you want to use cruise control to press and hold the following distance button to revert to quote unquote dumb cruise control last but not least is the electronic parking brake it operates independently of the park button on the drive selector so if i push spark up on the steering column that only inserts a locking pin into the transmission locking the rear wheels up but if you want to apply the parking brake as well to take some strain of the transmission for example which you should do if you are parked on a steep hill you need to apply the parking brake separately by pulling up on the electronic parking brake switch in the middle console however if you just want to get going quickly you can start the car put in your seat belt flick it into drive and as long as your door is closed and the seat belt is on the moment you touch the accelerator pedal the parking brake will disengage on its own one aspect of the design which could actually save lives is the fact that the parking brake being electronic it can work as an emergency brake in case you are a passenger and the driver falls ill or anything like that so if a vehicle is traveling at speed you can pull up on the parking brake you need to keep it in the fully up position and after about a split second the car should apply full braking power and this is where the magic comes compared to manual hand brakes because the system fully utilizes abs to make sure that you don't lose control and the rear brake lights illuminate as well to let others know what's happening please just don't randomly prank the driver by activating the handbrake they will not be happy i think let's leave it at that we don't want to make the video way too long but there's still a lot more to go into so we will probably make a few more of these videos going forward so make sure to subscribe to not miss those otherwise as always thanks very much for watching and see you in the next one you

Channel: Wisely Automotive

Views: 74,219

Keywords: BMW i3, BMW, tips and tricks, features, guide, tutorial, overview, showcase, how to, key, adaptive cruise control

Id: GJMEJn8_pXo

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022