Hello,
I was driving to Walmart parking lot, parked my car and noticed several alerts on the monitor screen saying something like "Power is limited" and "Speed is reduced to 60MPH, okay to drive" and it suggested to make an appointment with SC. I went home and plugged in the charger and set the charger limit to 70%. The charging current was 32A. Within 5 minutes, the charging stopped before reaching the charger limit and received more alerts saying something like related to PCS overheating and also said to check cooling system. Tried charging at 16A, charging quit after 10 minutes before reaching charger limit. Finally reduced charging to 10A, charging quit after about 75 minutes before reaching charger limit.
I was worried the PCS was dying and about to fail.
Took it to SC to diagnose the issues and a few days later I got a message saying my car is fixed and ready to pick up. This was their report:
"Performed multiple coolant vacuum fill and coolant air purges. Technician ran a thermal system test and verified test passed. Technician suspects air was in the coolant line causing PCS to overheat. Advise customer to monitor concern for future occurrences. Verified proper operation."
I recharged the batteries and finally it reached to the charger limit without issues. This time I set the charger limit to 80%.
I wonder how air got into the coolant line in the first place? Bad purging of air in coolant line at the factory?
This is my first service repair since I bought the M3 in December 2019. It only has 6K miles.
Anyone else ever experience PCS overheating due to air in coolant line?
This thread is FYI in case you experience PCS related issues and it may not be a faulty PCS but a coolant system issue.
Peter
I was driving to Walmart parking lot, parked my car and noticed several alerts on the monitor screen saying something like "Power is limited" and "Speed is reduced to 60MPH, okay to drive" and it suggested to make an appointment with SC. I went home and plugged in the charger and set the charger limit to 70%. The charging current was 32A. Within 5 minutes, the charging stopped before reaching the charger limit and received more alerts saying something like related to PCS overheating and also said to check cooling system. Tried charging at 16A, charging quit after 10 minutes before reaching charger limit. Finally reduced charging to 10A, charging quit after about 75 minutes before reaching charger limit.
I was worried the PCS was dying and about to fail.
Took it to SC to diagnose the issues and a few days later I got a message saying my car is fixed and ready to pick up. This was their report:
"Performed multiple coolant vacuum fill and coolant air purges. Technician ran a thermal system test and verified test passed. Technician suspects air was in the coolant line causing PCS to overheat. Advise customer to monitor concern for future occurrences. Verified proper operation."
I recharged the batteries and finally it reached to the charger limit without issues. This time I set the charger limit to 80%.
I wonder how air got into the coolant line in the first place? Bad purging of air in coolant line at the factory?
This is my first service repair since I bought the M3 in December 2019. It only has 6K miles.
Anyone else ever experience PCS overheating due to air in coolant line?
This thread is FYI in case you experience PCS related issues and it may not be a faulty PCS but a coolant system issue.
Peter
Last edited:
