aux battery is flat

the auxiliary battery is flat on my imiev and the car won't start. The manual and the dealer say that it can't be trickle charged as I'd certainly get killed by the electric current that resides everywhere in these newfangled electric cars. Is the true, or just rubbish? Has anyone here trickle charged a flat aux battery?

Thanks

Rollo

That's rubbish. The i-MiEV's 12 v. battery is nothing special, so it can be trickle-charged like any other 12 v. battery. I would disconnect the 12 v. battery's ground cable to isolate it from the rest of the car's electrical system, connect the positive and negative charger cables, and turn on the charger.

Thanks. Thought so.

There are those mysterious lighter plug to lighter plug cables with a little bit of electronics in one end. Those cables can recharge a flat 12V battery in a couple of hours and they can actually jumpstart an i-MiEV. As soon as the i-MiEV is "ready" the DC-DC converter is charging the 12V battery.

Or you could use it to get the charger and EVSE working. The charger does activate the DC-DC too.

Cheers
Peter and Karin

Be careful. My iMiev was jumped to get started and then I had a high voltage warning that sent the iMiev to the shop to check out. Took a few days for the shop to release it back. They just reset the warning and didn't find any problems.

Good topic.
If the 12v battery is flat, will the car electronics "wake up" when the EVSE is plugged? Or does the 12v have to have some minimum voltage to stimulate the charging system electronics?

I still wonder why a 12v flooded lead acid battery was used in a high tech electric car with lithium batteries!!

Without the 12V the i-MiEV cannot tell the EVSE to connect. It is dead.

You dont need much juice to get things going again. So there might be a need to jumpstart and that is why I do have such a cable just in case.

Cheers
Peter and Karin

Just out of curiosity, how did the 12V get so depleted? Just want to make sure I don't repeat anything that would put me in the same predicament!

Running the main battery down to two bars and blinking and then keeping a door open while charging did not flat it but I noticed it was running out of juice. The dome light was burning a hole into the snow on the roof.

As a hamradio operator it is not difficult and I guess listening to music for too very long while not "ready" can do it too. Mind the seat heater (Karin's is 50 watts or some 4 amperes).

Switching the lights manually and forgetting them is an other way to do it.

Cheers
Peter and Karin

I have also heard reports about the 12V battery running low on distilled water. Yes, the 12V battery apparently is NOT a maintenance-free version. :shock: Without water, the battery will have a difficult time holding a charge.

RobbW said:

Just out of curiosity, how did the 12V get so depleted? Just want to make sure I don't repeat anything that would put me in the same predicament!

Click to expand...

By sitting on the dealer's lot for one year

The one I bought was the only one that didn't start. I didn't think anything of it when we tried to test drive it. Sales guy never told me it needed a jump. While doing the paper work downstairs, they jumped it. I test drove another iMiev.

No problems since that jump. No problems whatsoever actually other than a bit of foam popping out from the windshield. It wasn't put on perfectly but I didn't see that until I came home.