Bad cell - tips on dealing with Mitsu?

[suradasa]

I'm having an issue that looks a bad cell in my battery. The turtle goes on under high load (around 90-100 km/h), no matter the SoC. I went to the dealership and they couldn't identify a problem (no error codes). They say they called Mitsubishi Canada and didn't get any insight.

After looking through this forum, I did some digging with my Canion. Looks like one cell is going below 3V at high load, which causes the turtle, presumably due to high resistance. That cell is always lagging in voltage, except at absolutely full charge. It may be a function of temp as well (I'm in Ottawa, Canada), but clearly there's a problem with the cell.

I emailed the results to Mitsubishi, but I was wondering if anyone here has tips on how to deal with dealerships and/or Mitsubishi on issues around bad cells. It's a 2012, bought in 2013, so my warranty goes until June 2023. Is there some evidence that they need in order to demonstrate the issue?

Thanks!

 

[kiev]

The sure fire condition that will get the pack replaced is if it will not fully charge up to 16 bars. There may be other ways or conditions, but i am not aware of them.

In your case you have a worn cell with less capacity than the rest, but it is still "working" so it is not covered under the policy. If it would fail then you have a case, but "normal wear" is not covered.

i have a second car that behaves like yours--i keep wishing that the weak cells would just go ahead and die so i could get a pack before the warranty expires...

i wish you luck and maybe they will help you in the name of goodwill. Several folks have replaced a weak cell in the pack, but Mits doesn't perform that sort of work.

i wonder what the price would be to just buy a replacement pack--it seems such a waste to throw perfectly fine cars away just because the pack has worn out.

 

[JoeS]

I also wish you luck, as the friend I sold my original i-MiEV to had an even more drastic situation at a little under 90K miles, but the car did show all 16 bars when charged and would go into turtle at even a slight accelerator pedal depression (which I thought was a serious safety issue). After first agreeing to exchange the battery, the Mitsu service center re-negged on the deal but my friend did not want to pursue it further and bought an older Tesla and sold the i-MiEV to one of the large outfits that buys used cars...

I finally found the TSB that addresses this (thank you cha2ny) and added it to our technical read-only subforum:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4971

 

[suradasa]

Thanks for the quick replies!

It does charge fully, and the voltage seems fine at 100% charge. Yeah, it's not the end of the world now, but worried that it will degenerate further to the point that Joe describes...after the warranty is over. Have less than a year and a half left. The dealership did say that if it were on turtle all the time, they would probably be able to diagnose something. Like kiev, just wish the cell would "die", so that they would have to replace it!

It's kind of a funny. If you had an ICE car, and went in saying that it couldn't exceed 100 kph, they would not tell you that it's fine. They would find some way of identifying the problem and offering a solution (whether it was under warranty or not). It's unfortunate that batteries seem to be "untouchable" and they don't replace cells. Makes you wonder about the value of these long battery warranties if they won't address obvious failures to function to normal specifications.

If anyone has a story of a successful replacement without failure to fully charge, would be interested to hear it.

 

[pbui19]

you can take a chance to kill it ? by keep pushing it and repeatedly at low SOC ? just be sure doing near home or have a way out in case of being stranded. May be when it gets warmer.

 

[Adoepner]

I'm having the same issue with my 2012 and working with the dealership in Belleville, ON. No luck so far. I'll send you a PM with my phone number. I'd love to chat.

In my case, the car will not maintain speed on the highway. I can't get Mitsubishi to agree that that is a problem.

Andrew

 

[Phximiev]

Report it: https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

 

[Adoepner]

@JoeS: Thanks for posting the TSB (https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2017/MC-10116253-9999.pdf). It definitely explains the response I've had from the dealer. It is unfortunate that the service manager couldn't communicate this to me.

The TSB mentions Warranty Bulletin WB 2016-004. Do you know where I could find this without going through the dealer? I bought the car second-hand so don't have the warranty extension letter.

Andrew