How many miles should first bar last on low mile battery?

[Don]

Mitsubishi's idea of a battery warranty is replacing the pack when/if it gets a bad cell or two - Anything else is 'normal wear and tear' - They warn you upfront that a loss of 15 to 20% of capacity is 'normal'

Unless your pack is determined to have bad cells (and the usual first indication of that is it refuses to recharge to 16 bars) I'll be surprised if they offer you a replacement battery

I'm guessing the fact that they no longer opt to do battery checks at the one and two year service points is . . . . they already know as much as they need to know about the technology of this battery and they don't want to alarm owners that their battery is indeed deteriorating as it's pretty much guaranteed to do, hence we get no printed 'condition reports' to track the capacity loss which might get some folks demanding new batteries

But . . . . your dealer experience with your NOS (new, old stock) iMiEV will surely be of interest to us all, as many of us are now driving the same thing - A car which sat somewhere for a year or so with no one knowledgeable around to take care of the battery packs

Don

 

[Jiminy]

The service writer left voicemail that they downloaded a bunch of stuff from the car and were passing it on to Mitsubishi HQ in California to figure out what's next. He didn't allude to finding anything conclusive.

One noteworthy thing from yesterday was that the overnight Level 2 charge didn't yield a full 16 bars yesterday morning. This is after 7 discharges down to two bars and then full overnight Level 2 recharges.

Jim

 

[Jiminy]

One other tidbit the iMiEV tech told me was that if I needed a new battery it would come from Georgia, not Japan.

 

[Malm]

Jiminy. You need to see your cells with canion. With canion we will see if your problem his about one or two cells or is about general degradation of your battery. Mine, with two years and 7 months (more then 35000 miles) just charges to 95,5% (but will change to 90,5% if temperatures rise significantly after charging, and then it gives me just 15 bars). Mine balances very well cells at 80%, 70%, 60%. In both cases, Mitsubishi should give you a new one, because if the battery was sold as new, never should be that way. Your I-MiEV just charges to 96% like mine, but mine has more then two years.

 

[Jiminy]

I bought the STN1170 OBD-II Adapter this morning and am trying to narrow down which Android device to buy to run Canion. I will likely get the lowest Tab 3 since I don't really need one for anything else. I hope to get some good numbers maybe next week.

My dealer let me know that Mitsubishi received all of the info they need to make a call on the battery. I'm going to pick the car up in a few minutes and drive it until they need it again. -Jim

 

[Jiminy]

Mitsubishi HQ in California is still waiting on an answer from HQ in Japan on what to do about my battery pack.

I received my STN1170 diagnostic adapter in the mail yesterday (super fast delivery, BTW) and bought a Nexus 7 tablet. I loaded Canion, went out to the car, paired the adapter to the tablet and took a looksee at the battery. I don't know how to take or transfer a screenshot from the Nexus to my windows desktop but I'll get some help this evening when a family member more experienced in Android devices arrives for the Thanksgiving holiday. I did take pictures with my camera.

I can tell you that cell number 82 is much lower than all of the rest. When I accelerate, the graphical display for the cells undulate on the screen in response to my throttle request except cell number 82 which doesn't deviate much at all.

If anyone has any specific requests for data I will do my best to oblige.

Jim

 

[Malm]

Mitsubishi should replace that cell. If they can't do it, then give you an entire new pack.
You found the problem, your 82. A new i-MiEV should show all cells at 100% cells at 4,1V. Mine with 2 years and 7 months, at full charge, only show a deviation of 0,01V. Maximum voltage should be 361 V at full charge, mine do it after 54.000 km. You are charging everyday to full charge (should be 100% in a new i-MiEV), and that cell is not approaching to the others, so Mitsubishi has one of two options, give you a new 82 or give you a new pack. You can transfer your image to the PC by e-mail. I would like to see your battery at 100% and at 25% SoC.

 

[Barbagris]

I don't know how to take or transfer a screenshot from the Nexus to my windows desktop but I'll get some help this evening when a family member more experienced in Android devices arrives for the Thanksgiving holiday.

When stopped (better, the voltages don't varies), press in the marked area.

You must see a message as "Printscreen OK" or similar. A file named "pict_YYMMDD_HHMMSS.png" is created (i.e. pict_131126_163010.png) and stored.

Connect the Nexus with the PC with the USB cable. First time it delayed a bit, have to load the drivers. In a minute or so you can open your file explorer as usual, and you will see the Nexus as an external unit (as a USB pen). Find the directory "BT_CAN" and copy your pic.

Good luck, and keep us informed!

 

[Jiminy]

I hooked the Nexus 7 back up and touched the left side bar and got the "Print Screen OK" announcement to show up. I did this several times. I have a Windows 7 machine and cannot for the life of me find the file of the screenshot. There is no directory BT_CAN to be found. Any ideas?

Jim

 

[Malm]

Send a mail to yourself using the tablet with the screenshots attached. Then open your e-mail in the computer.

 

[Barbagris]

Mode 1: Cable USB. Is the easiest, I think. Have you done this?

[Connect the Nexus with the PC with the USB cable. First time it delayed a bit, have to load the drivers. In a minute or so you can open your file explorer as usual, and you will see the Nexus as an external unit (as a USB pen). Find the directory "BT_CAN" and copy your pic.

Without cable is possible, also.

Mode 2: email. Configure your mail account (you have a Gmail account, I suppose) in the Nexus, send a email to you with the screenshot attached. Read the email in your PC, with the screenshot attached.

Mode 3: by WiFi. You have to get the app "Airdroid" or similar, and your PC must be in the same LAN than your Nexus. Is a little tricky.

Mode 4: Use Google Drive. Any file can be uploaded to the cloud from any of your devices (Nexus), and read from another (Windows PC).

But with cable there should be no problem...

 

[offgridQLD]

I can tell you that cell number 82 is much lower than all of the rest. When I accelerate, the graphical display for the cells undulate on the screen in response to my throttle request except cell number 82 which doesn't deviate much at all.

If anyone has any specific requests for data I will do my best to oblige.

Just telling us things like much lower doesn't mean anything to us. You haven't given us any data at all by saying that. We need numbers. For example (highest cell number 5 = 4.100v ) (lowest cell Number 82 = 3.955v)


So don't worry about the screen grab for now. Just give us the raw numbers that's all that's important . At rest what is the lowers cell voltage and the highest cell voltage.


PS, I don't bother taking screen shots by the time you hook up your tablet to the pc find the file then downloading them on my pc then hosting them online and then linking then to the thread.

Its much quicker and easier just to take a pic of the tablet screen with my iPhone and hit post to flicker (or what ever hosting service you use) and your done.

Kurt

 

[Jiminy]

The bad cell is .065v lower than the rest.

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a way to host pics outside of my business website. I can't (don't want to) mix my personal stuff with work stuff so I will look for another way.

Jim

 

[offgridQLD]

.065v volt isn't fantastic but its nothing that bad. There is a local guy to me with a near new low km Imiev with more cell imbalance than that and his battery is performing fine.

Typically my cells are Balanced 0.000v after a full charge but can stray 0.005 to 0.010v at very low SOC .

I don't think that .065v imbalance is your problem. You need to check again after a full charge and balance.

For web hosing you can just open a free flicker or perhaps photo bucket account. I just opened one for hosting pics on forums and nothing much more.

Kurt

 

[Barbagris]

The bad cell is .065v lower than the rest.

Does not sound good ...

When?

And, at the end of the charge and balance, there is the same difference? (all cells should mark 4,100 V)

 

[Malm]

What is the 82 voltage at a full charge?

 

[Malm]

Many should think that i-MiEVs 16 bar would let do less miles as degradation goes on. As I will show that's not true. After 34000 miles and 2 years and 9 months, with the last bar I can do the same miles as ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTHIX7R2lTE

 

[Jiminy]

Update: My car's cell number 82 has gotten a little better at full charge but a little worse at 2 bars remaining. I get about 5 miles on the first bar (16th) before it disappears during easy driving. I have an appt to drop the car off tomorrow morning for another Mitsubishi corporate battery test. We'll see. They also had me fill out a questionnaire specific to the iMiEV. I scanned it into a .pdf if anyone is interested.

I have about a thousand miles on my car so far. I drive it a lot. My partner likes it more than our Leaf due to the superior driving position for shorter drivers (higher). Too bad it's mine.

Jim

 

[Jiminy]

Well it's been a while since I last posted. In January, Mitsubishi USA had my local dealer drop the battery pack and do a "deep balancing" on the affected cells. They would not allow me to attend. I can say that the battery balances much tighter than before and the former low cell is no longer below the others. The car shows about 90 miles of range fully charged now but in the beginning I never saw more than 60 miles RR on a full charge. I'm pretty happy about it but I still wouldn't recommend buying a 2012 that has been sitting around unless the dealer can show you 90 miles RR on a full charge and/or you can get the car scanned with Canion to see that all cells are pretty even.

as an aside, I no longer fully charge my car on a regular basis. I keep it about 3/4 full and drive it down to 1/2 or 1/4 full and then recharge. I rarely drive more than 30 miles in one day.

I'm so unconcerned with the battery after 2500 miles that I even thought about selling my Canion loaded Nexus 7 and BT OBD2 module. I just don't use it anymore.

Jim

 

[offgridQLD]

If the cells were way out of balance my thinking is doing a charge to 100% more often would be benefishial for keeping your battery pack from going out extreamly out of balance again.

I'm not saying always charge to 100% but going to much the other extream you pack would never have a chance to top balance. Most likely you pack was so unbalanced it needed manual cell level balancing by the service center.

Personally I charge to full once a week minimum.

All cells balance to 0.000v granted the resolution of canion is 0.005volts.

Good to see you had you issue resolved.

Kurt