Immobile i-MiEV with RBS and Electric Motor Unit Warning Lights

[MickeyS70]

Haven’t used the app in a while so had to go out and refresh my memory:

Car Scanner shows you the connection status to the ELM (dongle) and ECU (car), both need to be connected (green). Unfortunately (as I have just noticed) it’s not a guarantee that it will actually work, as I get both of my dongles to that stage but the cheap one (works fine with OBDZero) will not display any DTCs as it times out??

Tried the same with HobDrive and both work, however one needs the paid version to display/clear the complete trouble codes…

 

[mai-ling]

Tried that free Car Scanner ELM, no joy.
Connected to Bluetooth,
Selected I-MIEV,
Got loads of parameters to measure,
But only empty graphs were displayed.

Yep!

 

[piev]

Yep!

like I said, your local Mitsubishi dealer can read codes

 

[MickeyS70]

like I said, your local Mitsubishi dealer can read codes

True, but such a once off diagnosis is most likely going to cost you more than buying a top of the range OBD dongle and app.

 

[michael8554]

Car Scanner showed Connected, but found I had a different OBD dongle paired in my phone.
Paired the right one and it worked.

 

[mai-ling]

I like being able to use the OBD to read and scan DTC codes. I’m reading this post currently and maybe it can be updated.

In the meantime I did lubricate the gear linkage yesterday. Just to see what happens. Haven’t done another spray yet. I have t gotten out to the car either

https://myimiev.com/threads/smartphone-tablet-apps-for-i-miev-c-zero-and-ion.4936/

 

[MickeyS70]

I like being able to use the OBD to read and scan DTC codes. I’m reading this post currently and maybe it can be updated.

In the meantime I did lubricate the gear linkage yesterday. Just to see what happens. Haven’t done another spray yet. I have t gotten out to the car either

https://myimiev.com/threads/smartphone-tablet-apps-for-i-miev-c-zero-and-ion.4936/

What kind of Bluetooth dongle do you have?

 

[JoeS]

Reviving this thread and back to the original topic of the car's inability to provide any motive power despite being in READY after something went wrong when the car basically stalled out with the accelerator floored while dragging a log up a steep driveway. My neighbor finally took the car to Mitsubishi a few weeks ago for a diagnosis and now it's back in his yard, still untouched and with no failure diagnoses after $$$ (don't ask).

Based on @Rational's experience it seems to me that the likely culprit for this vehicle is one or more blown IGBTs, covered nicely in this portion of his thread:
https://myimiev.com/threads/im-buying-a-non-runner-miev-here-in-japan.5649/page-10#post-50550
@Rational finally solved his problem by replacing the entire MCU in his Japanese i-MiEV with no VIN recoding required.

Alternatives available to my neighbor are to test and replace any faulty IGBTs inside the MCU or replace the entire MCU and deal with the VIN encoding. I have a MCU that I pulled out of a wrecked 2016 i-MiEV that he can try to use.

Questions:
a) Is the 2016 MCU interchangeable with the 2012?
b) If yes, then do we know for sure MCU VIN recoding is necessary for North American i-MiEVs?
c) If yes, then swapping the 2016 MCU internal VIN-coded board with the 2012 one might also work?
d) Alternatively, does anyone have a part number for the MCU IGBTs as those might be simpler to replace?

 

[kiev]

Need to see a picture of it to know for sure. The later gen MCU uses different OBC-MCU harness and connection location into MCU than the 2012.

The IGBT part number has been posted, might take me a bit to find it again.

 

[martinwinlow]

I can't help but feel you are wasting your time unless you use a scanning app/dongle that is known to work *properly* with these cars and whatever smartphone/device you choose. Anything else may simply not reveal the diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) that are there waiting to be read... and thus telling you what is *really* adrift. I appreciate there is a not an insignificant cost to eg Hobdrive and a OBDLINK LX but, realistically, compared to the cost of just letting a dealer have a look, it will be comparative if not cheaper ... and you will have it for the next problem (inevitable if you have the car long enough) when/if it arises.

In my own considerable experience of these cars, just about any of the likely problems that may come up with age are DIY fixable - and that includes HV battery problems. Of course, this is only the case because of the wealth of knowledge and time-generous contributors on this (and other) forums. Good luck! (Edit: I only read post 28 above after starting this post… It is worth noting that in the linked to thread, it is only after five pages of basic ferrying about that the original poster finally got a proper diagnostic tool to read the P1A2A DTC that indicated what was actually adrift.)

 

[JoeS]

@kiev and @martinwinlow , thank you for your comments. I have the i909 CarSoft scanner, found my old Android tablet with its apps and the old OBDLink LX and also have the newer MX and a few other dongles, and am still trying to get my new Android tablet to do something. No problem with buying HobDrive if needbe. Will set things up as my neighbor's daughter (in the Midwest in Engineering school) would like to be involved and she will come home for Christmas and we then will all play with the car then.

 

[martinwinlow]

@kiev and @martinwinlow , thank you for your comments. I have the i909 CarSoft scanner, found my old Android tablet with its apps and the old OBDLink LX and also have the newer MX and a few other dongles, and am still trying to get my new Android tablet to do something. No problem with buying HobDrive if needbe. Will set things up as my neighbor's daughter (in the Midwest in Engineering school) would like to be involved and she will come home for Christmas and we then will all play with the car then.

Excellent! It may be the beginning of a life-long - and very rewarding - career in sustainable transport, something I dearly wish I had the opportunity to do when I was an engineering student 40 years ago!