I2C problems with BNO080 board using Qwiic cable and ESP32 Thing WROOM board

I have been having issues with an ESP32 Thing Plus WROOM connected to a SparkFun VR IMU Breakout (BNO080) using a qwiic cable (both Sparkfun products). I have lost 4 VR IMU breakouts this way. The pattern seems to be related to the battery running low but it is not 100% clear.

I am using a simple circuit (Esp32 Thing Plus connected to the IMU using Qwiic cable) and using the BNO080 sparkfun library for Arduino. Things run fine for several hours, until they don’t. The pattern seems to be related to the battery running low. When I plug the ESP32 in again using a USB cable or a recharged battery, it is unable to communicate with the BNO080 through i2c. The damage seems to be permanent (I am unable to reconnect and have to change the BNO080 - then it works again). What can be the issue?

I haven’t been able to find any information on the internet but I can’t believe I am the only one with that problem. It is intermittent but I have fried 4 IMU boards in similar circumstances, so I presume I am not the only one experiencing that issue.