Battery Failure?

[tonymil]

No break in period in manual.

Thanks Bill.

 

[JoeS]

tonymil, glad to see you got your car back and that Mitsu took care of everything. Did they provide any information as to why no error codes were generated? Hmmm, maybe this entire battery experience should be moved out of this thread as it was all covered by warranty

 

[Ozimiev]

No no don't move it !!! it is just what we all need to hear about.
Hopefully just an isolated case.... but all our warranties run out one day and the very detail of how Mitsi dealt with it is important.
..and how tonymil detected it and how he worked with it 'till battery replaced etc.etc.
We can't sweep it under the carpet as a warranty claim ! It has cost somebody a lot of money !

The i may have an achilles heel, hopefully this battery problem isn't it, but we should keep our eyes open.

 

[tonymil]

So this was my charge status this morning. Whew!!! First full charge in over two months!! What a relief.

JoeS, I agree, this was a poor choice for me to post this in. Feel free to move me!

 

[nt2w]

I think my i-MiEV has experienced (or is in the midst of experiencing) cell failure(s) in my traction pack. Symptoms very similar to what tonymil experienced in this thread:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1567

A couple weeks ago, it seemed like fully charged RR had decreased a bit (from 80-ish to low 70's), and the "top-off" portion of the charge cycle had gotten noticeably longer.

Then, one morning last week after fully charging (L2 as usual, no timer shenanigans), I only had 15 bars showing. Thinking for some reason that something had caused a premature shutoff, I went merrily on my way... I drove it that day and recharged--- same thing next day.

Got in and drove- my typical drive to work is five miles- I then left for a meeting in the next town down the road (about 10 miles away) and my RR meter appeared to be dropping a bar every 3 miles (4-5 miles is typical). I got real range anxiety and turned around when the RR had dropped to about 33 miles and I hadn't yet gotten to the other town. Got home with maybe 6-7 bars left, after babying it on the return trip.

After recharging that afternoon, I got only 14 bars (RR 57), which dropped to 13 in the first 3 miles of my drive to work the next day.

That evening, I used the L1 Mitsubishi EVSE- same result, 14 bars and RR 54.

Next day (I think), I drove down to 2 bars/ RR10 and recharged. Upon L2 recharge, it's only 12 bars.

Fast forward to today, full charge brings only 11 bars, RR50.

I've reached out to my dealer, who is working with MMNA- hope to get it flat bedded in for diagnostic later this week.

I'll keep you posted as things evolve.


Rich

 

[jray3]

Sorry to hear of this, Rich! Thanks for posting it, and I'd appreciate any info you can glean from the process about what data they may get from your car, such as whether each cycle is logged, # of fast charges, hi and low temps, etc...
At any rate, here's hoping for the upside, that you get a brand new pack, since dealers aren't allowed to replace cells!

 

[Malm]

Yes, i agree, it's probably a battery failure. Mitsubishi replaced entire battery pack of i-MiEVs that experienced that problem.

 

[sandange]

I'm also sorry to hear this news ,
I hope they get on it quickly and have you mobile soon, Please share & keep us up to date with details.

 

[JoeS]

Rich, sorry to hear this. You're an experienced EV'er and your RR figures confirm gentle use of your iMiEV. Have you ever gone turtle or left her fully fully charged for long in very hot weather? Still looking to see if there's anything we might be externally inducing, and based on my other EVs I'm recently particularly wary of high-power bursts at very low SOC. The good news is that we have a visual indication of a failing pack (but only if we fully charge). Hope Mitsubishi treats you well and gets you a new traction pack soon, and do keep us up to date.

 

[nt2w]

Rich, sorry to hear this. You're an experienced EV'er and your RR figures confirm gentle use of your iMiEV. Have you ever gone turtle or left her fully fully charged for long in very hot weather? Still looking to see if there's anything we might be externally inducing, and based on my other EVs I'm recently particularly wary of high-power bursts at very low SOC. The good news is that we have a visual indication of a failing pack (but only if we fully charge). Hope Mitsubishi treats you well and gets you a new traction pack soon, and do keep us up to date.

"Gentle" is a good term for it... I typically commute back and forth to town 35-45mph, almost always in Eco mode, except to "downshift" to B coming to a stop.

The turtle light has been on exactly once- I drove it to turtle to see how far it would go, but the last five miles to turtle were back and forth on my country road at 35-40mph, still going easy on Eco mode, no drag racing while on turtle.

"Hot weather" is a rarity here in Northern New York (today is an exception- it's been in the mid-80's today), and the only time I've left the car for a "long time" (maybe a week), I made sure to run it down to 1/4 "tank" or less.

We'll see how it goes. Hoping I get an answer soon, since my gauge this morning only read 10 bars "fully charged" and RR of 46. Yesterday's recharge from 6 or 7 bars to 10 bars took maybe 3 1/2 hours, with my AV L2 EVSE in "blinking" mode (reduced charge rate) most of that time. Typically L2 charging is 3.5 bars per hour for my car.

Cheers
Rich

 

[siai47]

If this was my car, I would park it outside and let the dealer flatbed it to their location and store it until it can be repaired. I wouldn't drive it or try charging it. You most likely have a failed cell in the pack that could get extremely hot if you tried to pass a lot of current through it. The other less likely cause might be a failure of the cell monitoring system and/or the BMS and it cannot get the pack balanced. I would think that one of the cells is reaching the maximum voltage (or the BMS thinks it is) before the rest and the BMS is unable to correct it. This is getting worse and it terminates charging at a lower and lower threshold.

 

[nt2w]

Well, looks like I'll be leaving the car parked at this point.

I drove the car about 22 miles today, starting at today's version of "full," or 10 bars and finishing with 4. 6 bars for 22 miles.

I parked the car in the garage, and when I turned off the key, I got the EMU warning light (yellow car with exclamation point) for a second or two while the car shut off. Just to be sure, I turned the car back on "READY" (no EMU light), but when I shut it off, I got the light again briefly.

I plugged the car into the EVSE and the EMU light lit up and stayed on- the car appeared to be charging (red plug light on, fuel gauge illuminated, and EVSE was not flashing, which would indicate full charging underway).

I didn't feel comfortable leaving the car plugged in with a high voltage fault light, so I unplugged it... and there it will stay until it gets towed to the shop.

Ugh.

ps- just went to the garage and re-started the car- went to READY, no EMU light. Shut the car off, no EMU light. Regardless, the car is parked and I'm not charging it at this point... :?

 

[nt2w]

If this was my car, I would park it outside ...

Given the unknown state of things, I took your advice- the car is out of the garage at this point. Better safe than sorry...

 

[PV1]

If you have an Android smartphone or tablet, you can pick up a Bluetooth OBD adapter and find out what is going on with your pack. This is found in the CanIon thread linked below. The app itself will give you SOC, voltage, individual cell voltage, and battery temperature. It works while the car is in READY mode, but I don't think it works while charging.

The OBDLink MX is supposed to be really good. It can also be used with other apps on nearly all other vehicles.


http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1762

 

[RobertC]

It would be interesting to hook up Canion to your i-MiEV to check the cell voltages.
If you were near me we could hook up my Canion, but unfortunately it's an 8 hour drive each way.
Fully charged the 88 cells are at 4.105 volts.
Here is a screen capture of my i-MiEV at 10.5% when the turtle comes on.

 

[RobertC]

If you have an Android smartphone or tablet, you can pick up a Bluetooth OBD adapter and find out what is going on with your pack. This is found in the CanIon thread linked below. The app itself will give you SOC, voltage, individual cell voltage, and battery temperature. It works while the car is in READY mode, but I don't think it works while charging.

Looks like we were posting at the same time. Canion does work when charging.

 

[PV1]

Canion does work when charging.

Sweet. That makes the app twice as functional, for logging purposes.

I've been wondering if the pack balances without going down to 2 bars first. If it doesn't, that could explain why two pack failures have occurred under easy driving conditions. If it does balance, then it may be a resistor blowing out, disabling balancing on that cell. Have you tried charging after going down to 2 bars on level 1? Any gain in bars? Level 1 (theoretically) is better for balance charging since the current is much lower. However, seeing that after a 2 bar recharge you still lost bars, that doesn't seem to shine much hope on being out of balance.

Maybe a bad cell in a batch of cells (Mitsubishi did have that bad screening process, done away with now).

 

[tonymil]

I think my i-MiEV has experienced (or is in the midst of experiencing) cell failure(s) in my traction pack. Symptoms very similar to what tonymil experienced in this thread:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1567

Rich, your battery degraded much more quickly than mine. I was able to keep using my MiEV for the many weeks it took to build/deliver my new battery. I hope the dealer is taking care of you with a loaner. Other than the long wait, my experience with both Mitsubishi North America and my dealer were completely positive. Let me know if you have any negative experiences. I should add that MM North America gave me a check for one month's car payment to compensate me for the long wait.

Tony

 

[nt2w]

Well, the i-MiEV went to the dealer on the flat bed today, so I thought I'd post a (Fri 13th :roll: ) marker to see how long things take. The dealer has promised me a rental car, but being so close to the weekend, I'm going to wait until Monday (I really don't need it for the weekend).

The dealership faxed me a questionnaire to fill out for Mitsubishi's tech line personnel, asking what (and when) the symptoms were occurring. Some of the questions on there were interesting, mostly not applicable for my situation- a car that seemingly drove fine, albeit with reduced range.

I'll keep the gang posted as the situation evolves.

RobertC- if you want to bring your testing gizmo, the dealership is two hours closer to you now--- only a 12 hour round trip! :lol:

 

[RobertC]

RobertC- if you want to bring your testing gizmo, the dealership is two hours closer to you now--- only a 12 hour round trip! :lol:

The dealership has their own testing gizmos ... and hopefully they will use them to quickly diagnose and fix the problem and return your i-MiEV to you.