My 2012 Won't Go Into Ready Mode - SOLVED!

[veimi]

I have a relatively new 12V battery in my car which has not been used recently.

It wouldn't start. Measuring the battery voltage it was low, about 11.5V so I put a solar charger on it. The voltage went to 12.5V but still wouldn't start.

After charging with an external charger everything returned to normal, but after taking a short trip and turning the car off it again wouldn't start. Recharging the battery for a short period again allowed the car to start.

My first thought is that there could be a bad cell in the 12V battery but the battery is new.

Is there any chance that it may not be the battery but the contactors for some reason or other or the sensing circuitry that monitors the 12V battery are at fault?

 

[coulomb]

Just because it's new doesn't mean it hasn't been ruined, unfortunately.

Give it a really good charge first; 12.5 V under charge is not even close to a full charge. It might take over a day, depending on the size of your battery and the current rating of the charger. It may come good.

If not, sorry, you're probably up for another auxiliary battery. It could be the isolator; see other posts about this; you can confirm this from the error codes the car will be showing.

 

[veimi]

Thanks for your reply, but I have discovered the possibility of a new scenario.

It now seems likely that even though the shift lever inside the car was in the Park position, the switch mechanism located on the left side of the transmission housing at the rear of the car was not.

In the past I have had to lubricate this cable to ensure that the shift position indicator actually matched the position of the shift lever.

There is the possibility that cold weather played a factor as since it has warmed up the car is behaving normally.

 

[veimi]

I thought that some might enjoy reading an article from an I-MiEV owner who had to replace a broken shifter cable which required removal of the main battery.

It now seems likely that my shifter cable was the reason my car would not go into Ready mode.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-i-fixed-a-broken-3500-ev-in-my-driveway

 

[veimi]

Just an update. After getting stuck in a shopping plaza parking lot because I couldn't start my car even though the shift lever was in park, I lubricated the shift cable which is connected to a switch on the left side of the transmission housing at the rear of the car.

Problem solved! The car now goes into Park every time the shift lever is in the Park position.

I recommend this as a regular maintenance procedure for any who live in a wintery climate where salt corrosion can play havoc with external car components.

The link below is not my car but another individual on this forum who had a similar problem.

https://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4972

 

[kiev]

Thanks for the follow-up, this will be helpful to others down the road.

Would you please edit your first post to add "[Solved]" at the end of the title to flag this as a solution.

 

[PV1]

Ah, yes. The ol' Park but not Park. Quick way to tell is to look at the dash. If none of the shifter positions have a black background, the switch isn't fully in place. Giving the shifter an extra nudge up and away from you should be enough to get the gearbox fully into Park, and the P on the dash should go from light to dark background.

If that doesn't work, one might try rocking the car forward and backward to get the switch to click into place. Or under the back of the car, pull the lever on the side of the gearbox towards the back bumper (ideally with the handbrake on). It'll only move a bit, but you should hear a click.