My just purchased I-MIEV is not running well! Help needed.

[Boeing7873]

Hello I-MiEV community,
We adopted a 2014 I-MiEV with only 12000m on it, looking really good. We had it for two month already and we love it. But we are having an intermittent fault.

First time we observed the problem was after charging it overnight. After unplugging the slow (8A) charger, car would not go to READY, and red BATTERY light would stay on. After multiple attempts to get her started, we let it sit for a day or so, then tried again and started.

It run for 10 days with no issues, until the fault appeared again. Now, we also figured out that when the car is unable to start, it also is unable to charge. The charge light in the car (red plug) and the charger green light both blink.

So I have gotten to get the car out of the fault a few times by attempting to start it multiple times while changing the drive lever to different positions, D, E, B, N, and back to P. At least this has worked 3 times.

My understanding is that the red battery light illuminates when the 12V battery is low or has a problem. The battery is new, normal voltage with car off is 12.6V, with "ignition" on, 12.48V, and when I get the car to charge, 14.2V. So I have no reason to believe the problem is in the battery.

I have above average skills to try to get this problem solved, but I will need your support and guidance. I have read as much as possible the forum but I am still lost on what to look for.

First probably I need a good scan tool. I have read the forum and it looks like the i909 is an option. Can someone please confirm this is the way to go? Or is there a better option?

I have a Mitsu dealer with EV certification but I am afraid I will not be able to reproduce the fault while there, and if we could, they will try a shotgun approach and suggest to change a couple of $3000 components. I paid $7K for the car...

Any help will be very appreciated,
JC

 

[JoeS]

Boeing7873, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your purchase.

First off, yes I would get an i909 to be able to read what codes are being set by the car.

Since almost all 'weird' symptoms with the car misbehaving are inevitably traced to the 12v battery, your initial measurements were the right way to go; however, even new 12v batteries have been known to be a problem, especially if allowed to remain discharged for a while (e.g., sitting on dealers' lots).

I would go a step further and put a smart 12v charger on that battery and then try two things, separately, with the charger connected -
1. Plug in the J1772 and make sure the car is charging properly
2. Try starting the car
As long as both of the charger's connectors are directly on the battery terminals, there should be no problem of conflict with the car's dc-dc (which is also always ON when the car is charging), as the smart charger will cut back to zero current when the dc-dc drives the battery to 14.4vdc -
(Edited for clarity)

The granddaddy of i-MiEV apps is CaniOn, only for Android. It is just a nice all-round app that provides details of many of the car's parameters (especially the battery status) and active feedback on energy consumption while driving, but it is passive and only reads data and thus doesn't interrogate for codes.

I think there was a compatibility problem with CaniOn on the 2016 i-MiEV - can anyone confirm that it works with the 2014?

Good luck, and do keep us informed of your progress.

BTW, it's always fun to know where in the world someone is located, as we occasionally find other i-MiEV owners close to us. You might consider updating your profile (which will show your location by your username whenever you post), the procedure described here: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3196

 

[Boeing7873]

Dear Joe,
Many thanks for the reply!! I am very excited to join the forum and try to fix this car. We LOVE it. Only two months and we wonder why we took so long to get one. Can't believe it was a failure in the US market...

Anyway, here I am, with the fault that comes and goes.

1rst, the 12V battery is brand new. Never sat for long periods of time, and the car has been a daily driver since it got the new battery. Is there anything specific about certain batteries that would trigger this fault? Capacity? I did not chose the battery model, the dealer changed it before shipping the car to me.

2nd, what do you mean by smart charger... would a tender do the trick for this test? I am assuming this is just a test. I keep a deep cycle battery fully charged in my garage, for multiple applications. When the fault occurred for the first time, I connected the battery in parallel to the car's and did not make any difference. Both had good voltage at around 12.5-12.6.
When the fault is present (the car won't start and the red battery light is on), the charger will not charge. I get blinking lights in the charger and the dashboard. You are suggesting that with a higher voltage (14V+) we could see a difference?

3rth, I have been quite successful and resetting the fault by trying to start (READY) the car by trying multiple times while putting the drive lever in different positions and back to park. That seems to clear the fault... what could be happening with the car's logic between the 12V battery and the cycling of the drive selector lever?

Many thanks and just ordered the i909 and the Canion BT scanner for fun... hopefully it works on my 2014!



Jerome

 

[JoeS]

Jerome (Boeing7873), glad you like the car, which is the most underrated electric car in the US, no thanks to Consumer Reports and its incomprehensively terrible review http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1286&p=7004 which I personally believe was a major contributor to the car's non-acceptance. OTOH, they also incomprehensively loved the Ford Focus. Go figure...

All modern chargers (including float chargers such as BatteryTender) are 'smart' in that they have built-in Bulk, Absorption, and Float stages and constantly monitor the voltage and current levels going to the battery. What isn't smart is an old fashioned transformer-rectifier with no controls (that includes the old 'trickle' charger) which murder batteries if left attached.

You have pretty-much ruled out the 12v battery as being the problem, although I wouldn't quite give up on that path yet and perhaps try sticking that battery tender onto that 12v battery without touching anything else when it fails to start and let it charge up the battery to >13.0v and see what happens.

Moving the shift lever gives us a big hint as to where the problem might lie, especially when engaging "P". Having the shift lever in "Park" is a prerequisite to the car starting (and charging). There have been a few issues with this lever, primarily dealing with lack of lubrication and crud on the underside of the car interfering with its operation. Whereabouts was this car located in its past life? I'll let someone else comment and make suggestions in this area.

Edit:

For the caniOn to work, you need a genuine OBDLink LX or MX (now MX+), as other Bluetooth OBD adapters don't seem to work.

 

[PV1]

Does your car shift into Park or B mode with some difficulty? You might need some lubricant on the shift lever at the motor/gearbox.

 

[Boeing7873]

Many thanks for the comments to all.
I do not think this is a mechanical issue with the drive selector lever. Although I have to admit that my car has been in a very corrosive environment, as if it had been driven in salt. The funny thing is that it was never out of North Carolina. I suspect that I was driven near a cement plant because of a light gray powder that sat on top of the inspection lids of the electronic modules.

Anyway, I doubt we are dealing with a mechanical issue. The lever operates well, smoothly and the dashboard indicator follows the selection flawlessly. I am more inclined to think that moving the selector could reset the con
dition that triggers the battery light fault.

An I909 and the Canion tool hardware are on the way. I hope to get codes ASAP.

 

[Don]

1rst, the 12V battery is brand new. Never sat for long periods of time, and the car has been a daily driver since it got the new battery. Is there anything specific about certain batteries that would trigger this fault? Capacity? I did not chose the battery model, the dealer changed it before shipping the car to me.

The dealer installed it, so you assume it's new and in good shape and it's never sat for a long time . . . . or, you checked the date code on the battery and that's how you know it's new?

Sadly, not all dealers would pay for a brand new battery for a car they're going to get rid of soon, especially if they had a suitable battery laying around . . . . maybe even one they took out of another car

If this problem isn't caused by the 12 volt battery, it will be a bit unusual - Maybe 95% of these types of problems over the last 10 years have been 'fixed' just by changing the battery

Don

 

[rmjohns1]

We had a similar issue with our 2012 that was fixed by lubricating the shift linkage with a drop or two of bicycle chain oil. Took me two minutes under the back of the car and the mysterious intermittent problems were gone -- definitely worth a try. I followed the instructions and very helpful image in this forum post: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4364&p=40297&hilit=rbs#p40297