I have a small symbol at the bottom of the i-Drive screen that periodically flashes and then disappears. It appears to the left of a series of communication bars at times and looks like an antenna symbol (or similar to a small letter "i"). It will appear for approx. 30 seconds, flashing the whole time, then disappear. The manual mentions that the symbol along with the bars indicate "Telephoning and emergency call possible", but says nothing about why it flashes at times and does not appear most of the time. I know it must have something to do with communications, but what? I do not have BMW Assist activated at this time by the way. Any ideas?

 

Usually, when that symbol is flashing, there is some sort of communication taking place between the car and a cellular network. For example, if you had a bluetooth phone paired with the car, it would flash while you were on a call. If you don't have a phone paired or if you don't have the CPT-9000 hard-wired phone, then that symbol and the signal bars next to it indicate the status of the built-in phone that BMW uses for BMW Assist and for service requests, etc.

I'm guessing that you're seeing the icon flash as the car is attempting to "phone home" and place a service request. Usually, that doesn't happen very often (30 days prior to something expiring like a state inspection, etc.) but if you see it happening often, it might be having a problem connecting to whatever it dials so it might be retrying every so often.

Go into your service menu and look at the service request screen to see if the car has recently placed any service calls. Also, while you're in the service screens, see if you have any service items that are due or will be due soon...

 

Thanks Rudy. I am waiting for a service to enable bluetooth thru software, so no pairing going on. Also no items are currently due, but I noticed that something is due in a few days - doesn't say what, but I'll explore more tomorrow. I'm sure it's exactly what you said - since it's coming up on something, it is trying to phone home. I do see a communication failure, so when I go in for service I'll find out what that's about. I'm guessing it's because I don't have BMW Assist in place, but then again, you would think it wouldn't even try if that was it. Thanks again for the clues.

 

The car will place service requests even if you don't have a BMW Assist subscription. There may be something wrong or misconfigured that is causing the communication failures.

The dealer will fix you up...