my Miev will not charge

[mikedufty]

We may be nearing a resolution for ours. Paceway Mitsubishi say they have narrowed down the issue to a wiring concern, have performed a dummy fix and seems to be all good, but still another few weeks wait for the proper replacement parts.

 

[redcane]

Sounds promising Mike.

I'm again pondering which way the causal relation goes - did the wiring problem cause a fault elsewhere? Or is it a bit of a coincidence.

 

[mikedufty]

They said they can give me some more detail next week. Not sure if it will answer that question though. Would be good to know exactly what the wiring issue was so others with problems can check it.

 

[jray3]

I don't think it is the main drive fuse itself - 280A 300V is a lot of power to not notice the smoke come out somewhere.]

I agree it would be unlikely for the main drive fuse to blow from what you've described, but a quality 300 amp fuse could easily blow without anything being noticeable beyond the loss of power.

I had an EV conversion in a commercial fleet, and the newby driver got stranded when "seeing what it could do" up our longest, tallest local highway hill. Main pack breaker was good, but a bare metal 400A fusible link within the pack had had opened up only a foot behind the driver's seat, leaving a big smoke stain in the lexan tube that had contained it. Neither the driver nor his passenger recalled hearing or smelling anything...

Personally, I like lexan covers in DIY battery packs. Besides clearly allowing easy inspection, the Lexan will begin to melt, bubble and release a potent acrid smell long before you'd notice a loose terminal or other 'hot spot' via the gauges, but it doesn't burn easily (or sustain a flame- ask how I know!). :twisted:

 

[Bjron]

Redcane did u try QC relay 12v force measure on Chademo port? I get relay click and switch to closed. Measured it closed. But no voltage on chademo. I have same code p1a15 its not going to ready mode.

Do u have any new for tell from this week?

 

[redcane]

Yes, we get pack voltage on the chademo port when forcing the QC contactors to close.

Given you have no voltage on chademo port, and a failure to go ready, the only shared circuitry is in the battery pack. There is the main 280A high voltage fuse, and the service plug. Then there are all the cells.

Have you used an app like canion to read cell voltage information?

 

[mikedufty]

I've just been informed our i-MIEV will charge again. All fixed by the dealer.
I will see if I can get any more details when picking up, but my current understanding is the charger was replaced, there was also a "wiring fault", and the fuse.

 

[mikedufty]

I now have the written records, and it seems like the 'wiring fault' was the MCU fuse. That and the charger were the only things replaced. I have the car back and it is running and charging normally.

 

[redcane]

Our imiev is now fully charged.

In the end, without the additional work we created for ourselves, we only actually needed to replace the snubber capacitors and fuse in the MCU.

 

[jray3]

MikeDuffy, I'm glad that you finally got the car back. From your reading of the service notes, am I to gather that the fault that you presented to the dealer in June was finally addressed with a charger replacement in October, and then they finally replaced the blown 20 amp MCU fuse in December? This is for something that us shadetree mechanics diagnosed and fixed in the span of a few hours spread over as many days?

It boggles the mind... :shock:

 

[mikedufty]

That seems to be the case to me. There was a delay of a few weeks while they decided whether to cover it under warranty, then another delay of about 6 weeks waiting for delivery of the charger which was never sent, I'm not sure what happened there, they said something about the part number changing. Then another few weeks for the charger to actually be shipped. Then a few weeks figuring out that the MCU fuse having blown ( I did pass on advice to check it from this thread, but not sure if it got through to actual mechanic). Then a few weeks for the fuse to arrive.

So a bit frustrating. Mitsubishi did eventually provide a courtesy car, and I ended up with a new charger for free.
My wife was wanting to change cars anyway, so we bought a new car about a week after it broke and weren't actually inconvenienced much apart from paying an extra set of rego and insurance for half a year.

 

[redcane]

So after being pretty dirty that the charger I got as a recall replacement only lasted 18 months in service, I got a phone call yesterday from the local dealer. They've done a clean out of their storage and discovered my original 2010 charger unit! They were going to throw it out, so now I have spare. Would have been great if they'd been able to find it back when the car needed repairing.

 

[JoeS]

So after being pretty dirty that the charger I got as a recall replacement only lasted 18 months in service, I got a phone call yesterday from the local dealer. They've done a clean out of their storage and discovered my original 2010 charger unit! They were going to throw it out, so now I have spare. Would have been great if they'd been able to find it back when the car needed repairing.

All things considered, I think it was nice of them to take the trouble to call and offer it to you.

 

[redcane]

Yes, I am grateful for it. It goes a long way to making up for the unhelpful attitude from the organisation when the car developed problems.

I think it's just one of those things - I now know that the while the car was off the road several months while I was trying to repair it, there was a working charger sitting on a shelf locally!

End result is I have two working chargers, so I should't complain too much.