Reduced EV range with BCCM update (recall 93M2)

[a3etronsf]

I recently brought my car in for service and to get the tires replaced. While I was there, the technician mentioned that there was a new recall 93M2 to update the software of the Battery Charging Control Manager (BCCM). Since I had had persistent issues with the green charging light not turning off when the car was fully charged, I said sure, let's go ahead.

We immediately noticed a dramatic difference with the EV only range. Today I did my typical Sunday morning drive to take my son to practice, and noted that where we were previously reliably able to get about 8.5 miles (San Francisco hills, sigh) on EV only, we were now down to just 6 miles. That's a 30% drop in range!

Has anyone else experienced this?

I don't know the details behind the recall and haven't been able to find anything online. Until we know more, I would encourage A3 e-Tron drivers to refuse the recall as it does nothing to improve performance. Maybe there is some alleged safety improvement, but it's likely an edge case with a guaranteed drop in range. I am going to see if I can get the "update" rolled back since it sucks so bad.

Dave in San Francisco

 

[Etronik]

I recently brought my car in for service and to get the tires replaced. While I was there, the technician mentioned that there was a new recall 93M2 to update the software of the Battery Charging Control Manager (BCCM). Since I had had persistent issues with the green charging light not turning off when the car was fully charged, I said sure, let's go ahead.

We immediately noticed a dramatic difference with the EV only range. Today I did my typical Sunday morning drive to take my son to practice, and noted that where we were previously reliably able to get about 8.5 miles (San Francisco hills, sigh) on EV only, we were now down to just 6 miles. That's a 30% drop in range!

Has anyone else experienced this?

I don't know the details behind the recall and haven't been able to find anything online. Until we know more, I would encourage A3 e-Tron drivers to refuse the recall as it does nothing to improve performance. Maybe there is some alleged safety improvement, but it's likely an edge case with a guaranteed drop in range. I am going to see if I can get the "update" rolled back since it sucks so bad.

Dave in San Francisco[/quote]

Hola buenos días, hace poco compre un cable vag com, con el VCDS, y empezar a mirar todo, y en la centralita de control de carga de la batería de alto voltaje, la carga mínima de la batería estaba en 60% y la carga máxima al 100% algo sin sentido. Asi que cambié el valor a 25% de carga mínima, y de momento he conseguido 6km más de autonomía, y parece ir a más con cada carga, ya iré informando si la autonomía cambia.

 

[GolfCartDriver]

Recall 93M2 2021-12-09 - Battery Charging Control Manager Module - Has anyone received a plain language explanation of what this service action consists of? Does this govern the interface between the 12 volt battery and the high voltage battery? Hoping that I'll be able to discontinue my weekly trickle charge to top up the 12 volt (already replaced once as it was not charging properly and died prematurely).

 

[bruuster]

I had the 93M2 update a few week back on my 2017 A3 E Tron. After reading the first post, I've been monitoring it to see if I am getting less EV miles. I have noticed a slight drop but it is also much colder in the AM (40 degrees) so I'm not sure if it's caused by the update. I think the update makes it so the green and red charge lights at the plug turn off when fully charged. They used to intermittently stay on even though charging was completed.

 

[art]

Hey guys I've had that recall performed aswell. Nociced significant range drop ~20%. Also my battery can't be fully charged anymore. There is 1 bar that is alway missing in the charge status indicator.

If you see this happening to your car - let me know! It sucks and car is 2017 my. So there shouldn't be that much of a battery degradation at this time.

Cheers

 

[dnattig]

I've had that recall done as well ... after I got a check engine light (about DC-DC convertor issues) and a notification on the dash that the battery was not charging properly. This was all in single-digit Fahrenheit temperatures, so I would imagine the recall helps with battery maintenance in the cold.

 

[cmc]

Have not noticed any range issues but AUX heating no longer works! This is my favorite feature of the car and is a major major bummer... I will be taking it back, wondering if any of you use AUX heating/AC....

Researching I realized that I forgot that it won't work unless tank has "enough" gas... So ok fill up but still no go... grrrr. So full tank, full battery, plugged in to 240V, no go.

 

[BrockFry]

Have not noticed any range issues but AUX heating no longer works! This is my favorite feature of the car and is a major major bummer... I will be taking it back, wondering if any of you use AUX heating/AC....

Researching I realized that I forgot that it won't work unless tank has "enough" gas... So ok fill up but still no go... grrrr. So full tank, full battery, plugged in to 240V, no go.

Did you get this resolved? I have had no use for the heating, so I let it go. But I am thinking of selling, and I would rather not get a lower sales price because a software update broke a feature.

 

[cmc]

No it has not been fixed yet. Luckily the car was still covered by factory warranty and it appears to be unrelated to the update, just a unfortunate coincidence. A lot of parts getting replaced in an attempt to fix this, a lot of waiting for parts to appear etc... Dealer provided me with a loaner and I get to delve into Audi's latest mild hybrid system... In short it abuses the heck out of the 12V battery I will be surprised if regular 2021 cars have batteries that last more than 2 yrs.

 

[cmc]

Update: After more than a month waiting for parts and 2 attempts, the AUX heating/AC is still broken... In the meantime I got a new pop up display, heating unit, climate control console... Also a new charging socket in a unrelated mishap. I suspect it is a software bug and the hardware pieces are actually fine. Range is still an indicated 25 or 26 miles, which is unchanged as far as this topic is concerned.

 

[bros225]

I just had the 93M2 recall done on my 2018 last week and immediately had problems: 1) The charger will not obey the charging schedule when the battery is empty (it charges immediately); then it seems to behave unpredictably at different levels of charge. 2) The aux AC will not work under any circumstances (so yes, I believe that 93M2 caused both problems). I haven't check for any range issues yet. The dealer is so far clueless. The odd thing is that I had a 2017 that was lemon-lawed for the same reasons - it's as if the recall regressed to an older-buggy version of the module. My 2018 has been flawless until the 93M2 update. Any updates would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Hchi]

I recently brought my car in for two recalls:

93F1 High Voltage Battery
93M2 Emissions Service Action / Battery Charging Control Module Software

After the recall my car only shows a range of 20M instead of the original 25-27M that is usually indicated.

I have a Chargepoint charger at home that shows how much electricity is used for a charge. I would plug it in overnight and usually the car is charged in under 2h15m from empty with above 6.6kWh of power being used. After the recall, a full charge from empty takes about 1h53m and shows that the maximum charge from empty is only 5.8kWh.

Prior to the recall, it would occasionally trickle charge throughout the night, using additional electricity if I left it plugged in overnight. The Chargepoint app can display a graph of how much energy is being used to charge over time and you can see that additional power is being consumed overnight after a full charge is already complete, so my total power consumption is usually closer to 7kWh. I can see the power graph go up and down (close to zero) as additional electricity is being used overnight after the initial full charge had already completed.

After the recall, the graph displayed shows that it flatlines after the initial full charge in 1h53m. No additional electricity is used throughout the night after it hits 5.8kWh of charge.

93M2 is a required update in California in order to renew my registration with the DMV. It seems to fix some trickle charge issues but I am not happy about the reduced range (is the new update stopping it from charging past 5.8kWh???) I hope they can address this issue with a new update, but it sounds like this has been going on for quite a while now.

 

[Chiparoo]

Same issue with battery life. Had the update and now have a glorified golfcart that gets maybe 7 to 10 EV miles. Love the car but would have loved to stay with at least 17. Makes me skeptical about future EV purchase.

 

[17A3e]

I had the same issues described here immediately after having the "93M2 Emissions Service Action / Battery Charging Control Module Software" update performed.

Note: this is NOT an issue related to "normal" battery capacity reduction with use (charge/drain cycling).

The car would only change to 5/8-3/4 as indicated by the charge level on the dash (a battery with diminished capacity would continue to display as full at the end of a charge cycle). After a couple days I got a charge fault message and check engine light. The car is at the dealership right now. Dealer says it has a faulty charge control module and it is waiting on the part. I have no idea if the update caused the problem or exposed an existing problem. In any case, owners with this issue should be aware that federal regulations requires the EV/Hybrid batteries and charging components carry a minimum 8-year warranty. My controller is being replaced under warranty ($2.5K part? Don't know the labor involved).

I'll update here when I have the car back.

 

[Farmboy]

I have a similar, although much worse issue. I think during 93H4 service they disabled borderline cells in the pack which shortened over all capacity. And then they disabled EV mode at highway speeds to lower pack heating and try to maintain remaining life.

I now only get a few miles range when used over 35mph. Very much, glorified golf car as you say!

I have 68k miles, only 5 years old.
Can a battery really be replaced under federal rules? Details please.

 

[17A3e]

Can a battery really be replaced under federal rules? Details please.

My understanding is the fed regs specify minimum requirements that the auto manufacturers need meet in their warranty specs. You would still go back to Audi for a warranty claim. Check your warranty - mine (2017) states 96 months/100,000 miles. But it is pro-rated... so you would likely not get the full replacement cost if a claim you submit - if approved. I still recommend submitting a claim if your battery is as diminished as you say.

Also, I recommend anyone with a problem that is due to, or made worse by the BCCM update/recall 93M2 give Audi Customer care a call and register your complaint. The number is 1 (800) 822-2834. They probably will not offer much help, but they will log your complaint and the eventual gravity of a number of complaints may help find us can equitable solution.

 

[A3king]

Hey Guys I did this update about 2 weeks ago, all was well, I saw a slight decrease in EV range but the issue I am currently having is I am getting engine Code (P0e5e) from my understanding this new update added more error code options to the Error Reader. This more things to cause an engine light… Anyone else having these issues?

 

[Hchi]

Hey Guys I did this update about 2 weeks ago, all was well, I saw a slight decrease in EV range but the issue I am currently having is I am getting engine Code (P0e5e) from my understanding this new update added more error code options to the Error Reader. This more things to cause an engine light… Anyone else having these issues?

A few weeks after my car got the 93M2 update, MIL came on my car with the same P0E5E error code:

1 Fault Found:
26699 - Battery Charger
P0E5E 00 [175] - Internal Malfunction
MIL ON - Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear

I took it to the dealer and the notes state that they "replaced J1050 module ". This warranty work is still covered in California so I was not charged (my vehicle has 65k miles and past the regular warranty period). It took a while to get the part and they held my car for a few weeks as it was repaired.

 

[LegacEtron]

Also, I recommend anyone with a problem that is due to, or made worse by the BCCM update/recall 93M2 give Audi Customer care a call and register your complaint. The number is 1 (800) 822-2834. They probably will not offer much help, but they will log your complaint and the eventual gravity of a number of complaints may help find us can equitable solution.

I just called the e-tron support line (844-573-8766) and asked for help with this issue. I took my car to the dealer today for an oil change, the seat sensor pod recall, and to figure out why the range is down and it only charges to 75%. I had dumped the last 3 years of data from my charger and gave them a graph showing that the average kwh/session and average time of a session both fell off a cliff when I had 93M2 done last February.

They did the first two items and basically blew off the charging issue. When I asked about it at checkout, the service rep said I'd have to leave it overnight for them to check that. My position is that it had been there from 8 to 2:30 and that was *plenty* of time for the charge to top out, if they had even tried. (The range was 6 miles when I went in and 4 when I got it back, so they couldn't have hooked it up very long, if they tried at all...)

E-tron support's advice:
Take it in *just* for the charging issue
Talk to the service manager at the dealership
Go to a different dealership