Delivered, deposit to driveway in 13 days with shudder

I don’t think this post goes in the order tracking thread, or delivery experience (in and out in 5 minutes). So I will just stick it here. Sometimes it pays to be lucky. I fully expected to have to special order an SE but after talking to the salesman about what I thought I wanted in colors and trim, the GM swung by and mentioned that they happened to have an Iconic trim on the boat, except for yellow mirror caps and Scissor spoke wheels (was thinking black caps and Rail spoke). Mirror caps can be swapped, was not sure about the Scissor wheels, not seeing them live. But what the heck, a $500 refundable deposit. It arrived at the port by the 17th, arrived at the dealer on the 24th. Picked it up with 10 miles on the odometer and in my driveway on the 26th.

I think the wheels just may be a little bright for the White Silver color, but the rail spoke may have been similar. No rattles, nicely put together.

I do notice the same steering wheel shudder that I noticed on the test drive of another SE weeks ago. A little difficult to repeat reliably as its only noticeable when taking it easy and driving on a slight downslope with just enough throttle to maintain speed or slowing a little and the power within a band of the ready point. There will often be a steering wheel shake for a couple seconds. After I flip from normal to sport under the same condition, if it shudders it will be worse.

Anyway it is a White Silver Iconic trim with the Mini Electric surface and optional roof rails. It did come with rear parking sensors and Hankook Tires. Currently connected to a Grizzl-E EVSE and charging. I hope to have plenty of miles of smiles and enjoying the conversations here.

Now to figure out what to do about carrying a bike, my shoulder had a stop in it that will prevent lifting the bike onto the roof.. shoulder surgery, hack on a hitch, use the truck?

 

I forgot an interior view with the Electric Surface, it has yellow threads.

I haven’t been able to recreate the shudder on demand, so its always one of those “what did I just do” things. I don’t think it happened in any of the green modes. Typically the car is moving 37-42 mph, down hill, while feathering throttle to maintain road speed, or slow just a bit.

Being an engineer, I hate to speculate. I’m going to have to review how the transition from drive to coast to regen works, if its documented anywhere.

If the throttle position and load is throwing off the regen/coast/power transition hysteresis, it may be bouncing back and forth a bit…. dunno, I did look briefly at the i3 forum, may have to look more carefully. The i3 and mini have basically the same motor/generator/control I think.

Both these are very new builds, perhaps newer control software.

 

Good thought. The road I was on today was freshly paved, no lane markings.... I'll have to watch out for the visual indication, or just turn it off for awhile.

 

A good possibility, I'll feel like a dope for sure. I didn't think lane departure worked on roads without painted lines, however. Perhaps its detecting the gravel shoulder.

 

It looks like I was observing two different shudders and thinking the same cause. First the lane departure steering wheel shake and second a minor shudder (like a tire a little out of balance). The minor shudder happens when traveling about 40-45 mph while slowing down hill with just enough throttle that the display pointer is pointing right at ready. It turns out my driving style and local road conditions put me into that edge condition once in awhile. I'm not worried about it. I was mistaken in believing the steering wheel shake was the shudder and that was more of a concern.

Thanks for all the help.

This is a great vehicle.

 

I've been driving with one foot and throttle. Friction brakes work fine as far as I can tell, only used them a couple times to slow/stop. I think its just one of those fuzzy edge cases, I'm not going to worry about it.