Car on charge, now won’t run (asking for someone else)

PV1 · Aug 27, 2020

I got an email from another i-MiEV owner looking for help with their car. From what I’ve gathered so far, the car spent a day plugged in, then when they went to drive it, it wouldn’t start (exclamation mark light and no READY). They also said that when trying to start, the car doesn’t make any noises (no contactor clunks), so that seems like it rules out the P1A15 error. I suspect the OBC module failed, but not sure as I haven’t looked at the car yet (went to do that this evening but got rained out).

Any tricks or tips to help narrow down the culprit before taking it to the dealer? I have an OBDLink and Android phone at my disposal.

kiev · Aug 28, 2020

Without a DTC this is difficult. The FSM has this statement in the troubleshooting section, but of course they assume using a MUT is available:

The causes of many of the problems occurring in electric circuitry are generally the connectors, components, the ECU, the wiring harnesses between connectors, in that order. These inspection procedures follow this order. They first try to discover a problem with a connector or a defective component.

You will need a voltmeter to check the 12V aux battery both open circuit and under load, and/or replace the aux with a definitely known-to-be-good in order to rule out an aux issue first.

Then determine if any electrical modifications, add-ons or changes have been made to the car? Sometimes folks will tap into a line to get power for some gizmo without knowing what else is on the line.

Then you could check all the fuses and relays.

With the OBD tool you can check the pack and cell voltages. Maybe the pack is too low and charging is not working, which would be OBC replacement under warranty.

i use an iCarsoft scan tool, i909, to read DTCs. Without a code it is hard to know where to start.

PV1 · Aug 28, 2020

I know it is. The best I got is that there is a CAN error code, but no clue what it is. Will let you know what I find.

WReed82 · Aug 31, 2020

Hi PV1,

A long shot, but the shift mechanism not going completely to PARK will prevent the car from starting.
Maybe try a few, firm shifts up in to PARK, or look underneath for full travel of the mechanism?

Thanks and good health, Weogo

PV1 · Sep 3, 2020

Went to look at the car last night. When the key is turned on, the charge gauge is empty, RR displays ---, and the RBS and MCU Warning Lights are on. Opening up CaniOn, the battery cell voltage and temperature graphs wouldn't even load.

My thought here was no communication with the battery pack. SoC showed 122.5% and pack voltage was 6,446 volts with roughly 4.7 kW flowing. Obviously these figures are inaccurate. I closed CaniOn and switched to HobDrive and pulled the cell voltages there. It loaded and showed all but one cell at 4 volts, and that one cell was at 0.295 volts, which explains the strange SoC reading (that voltage is below 0% and the car must not be properly programmed to handle that low of a voltage).

So it is new battery time, but the fun thing is that this is an old enough car now that the original 8 year warranty is gone. I told the owner that most if not all i-MiEVs were extended to 10 years on the battery, so a new pack under warranty should still be obtainable. We'll see how this goes, although the dealer was good about replacing my battery pack a few years ago.

On the plus side, the car was bought used as an experiment for free commuting with workplace charging and the owner ended up loving the car.