Hi Sisal47.
Love and appreciate your comprehensive overview of prudent maintenance for our MiEVs.
A couple of thoughts, and at least one question:
"...Anyone who owns an I-MiEV should also have the CANION program to monitor the battery pack."
That CANION program has been mentioned before.
It appears to me that it's only available for Android tablets and phones, not iPad?
Does that sound right?
If so does anyone know of an iPad app that could substitute?
And if I understand right it would require a separate device to connect to the MiEV diagnostic port?
"...... Tire rotation? You can only go left to right on the same axle but in some instances it might help. ....."
Here's my thought on that: If either pair (front pair or rear pair) is wearing unevenly ... particularly if the wear patterns are similar (for example my fronts both wear a bit too much on their outer edges) switching wheels left-to-right won't help much or any.
However, if you have the tire shop break them off the rims and rotate them (flip their inside wall to the outside of the rim) that can have much the same benefits of a traditional full four wheel rotation. My local Les Schwab agreed that was a reasonable alternative, and offered to do so for $30 per axel pair. Next time I'm in I'll do that.
"..... As these cars age, the rear brake drums should be removed, internal parts cleaned and checked for wear. Front disc brake linings should be inspected along with the discs for wear....."
Yes. But given that our cars do regenerative braking and our brakes are of identical design for cars without that advantage I expect even the brake linings, to say nothing of the disks and drums, to have extremely long life. At 30,000 miles my pads have no detectable wear at all.
".....Some cars are nearing five years old at which point the coolant needs to be changed to keep the level of corrosion inhibiters up to the proper level of protection. ....."
I'm lazy. Even on my cars I go at least 1.5 to 2 times the recommended coolant change times by adding some corrosion inhibitor additive to the cooling system to revive the coolant's own anti-corrosion properties. To add the typical 300 ml of inhibitor to the system you remove that much of the coolant and pour the additive in. If the drain plug is a PITA to access I instead siphon a little coolant out though the intake cap. I also add this thought. I imagine that coolant life is probably influenced by the temperature it spends its five years nominal lifespan at. In a traditional engine that would be about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Doubt it often gets close to that in functioning only occasionally for the cabin heater and doing light duty on battery cooling.
There are many of these additives at the local auto parts store.
".....Finally, for your own comfort, don't forget to change the cabin air filter....."
Yes. though those filters a little hard to find.
By the way: When you do that, if you want some even more robust cabin air cleaning (extract pollution, exhaust, and smoke hydrocarbons, not just particulates, try this:
Get some activated charcoal granules. Just Google "activated charcoal granules."
Was very helpful last summer when driving through thick smoke from the horrid west coast forest fire season.
Sprinkle them on the upper surface of the new, or old cleaned, cabin air filter. No, they won't scatter into the vent system and gum up the works (not unless you roll the car upside down
) because of gravity plus the airflow in the system flows from top downward.
My four cents.
Alex
