On-Board Charger (OBC) Warranty Extended!

[Lithim]

FYI fellow IMIEV owners:

Just received a letter from Mitsubishi Warranty Dept. regarding" potential low durability of the capacitors on the circuit boards in the On-Board-Charger (OBC)...... " As a result, the drive battery may not be charged by regular charging and the 12V battery may not be charged." ...

Reference; TSB-19-54-016
Vehicles affected; 2012 IMIEV
Dated September 2019
Warranty on OBC is extended to 10 years/unlimited miles

Stay charged my friend.

 

[Phximiev]

FYI fellow IMIEV owners:

Just received a letter from Mitsubishi Warranty Dept. regarding" potential low durability of the capacitors on the circuit boards in the On-Board-Charger (OBC)...... " As a result, the drive battery may not be charged by regular charging and the 12V battery may not be charged." ...

Reference; TSB-19-54-016
Vehicles affected; 2012 IMIEV
Dated September 2019
Warranty on OBC is extended to 10 years/unlimited miles

Stay charged my friend.

Me too!

 

[honesteffort1]

I just got a notice from Mitsubishi today about the Charger and DC/DC converter issue. I'm pretty computer illiterate, and I can't seem to be able to bring the scan over, and The TSB is illegible on my letter, BUT, here's the body of the letter:

AFFECTED VEHICLES
MODEL 2012 i-MIEV

Dear Terry D Richards
Mitsubishi Motor North America Inc. has determined that due to potential low durability of the capacitors on the circuit boards in the On-Board Charger (OBC), the capacitors may short and cause the high voltage fuse in the Motor Control units (MCU) to blow. As a result, the drive battery may not be charged by regular charging and the 12V battery may not be charged. When this occurs, the power unit and 12 v battery warning lights will turn on.

To ensure your continued satisfaction with your vehicle, Mitsubishi is extending the warranty for the OBC on your vehicle to 10 years / unlimited miles.

If you have already had the OBC replaced on your vehicle and have paid for the repair, you may send you original receipts and / or other adequate proof of payment to the following address for reimbursement consideration:

Mitsubishi Customer Relations Department, P.O. Box 6400, Cypress, CA 90630-0064

Please keep a copy of this notification with your vehicle's warranty book for future reference. If you have any questions, please contact us:

Mitsubishi Customer Relations Department, P.O. Box 6400 Cypress, CA 90630-0064
Phone 1-888-648-7820 Hours: Monday - Friday 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. Pacific Time

Sincerely,

Mitsubishi motors North America

 

[JoeS]

Really wonderful news! I can now stop composing the letter I was planning on sending to Mitsubishi Corporate.

Hope our friends across the world will also benefit.

Note: I had moved the above posts over from the OBC Poll thread because this topic merits its own highly-visible flag.

 

[clovi]

I just received 2 letters also.
Good news from Mitsu.
Yes, I think I should keep my IMIEVs . Forever????... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Cheers,

 

[kiev]

i got that letter today also, and just in time since one of my OBCs has failed. Awesome service by Mits to offer refunds for folks who paid to replace theirs.

Now i just have to wonder which capacitors could be the culprits to which they refer? Big electrolytic or the blue snubbers? But why doesn't the little 20A fuse between the snubbers and the MCU fuse ever blow...?

i'm a big fan of roadway vibration-- the fuses fail over time due to mechanical fatigue.

 

[jray3]

Grrreat! Now this sounds like an occasion to make a claim, and when my dealer has one in stock, take 45 minutes to reinstall my failed OBC rather than negotiating for a $400 reimbursement for the junkyard replacement that will almost certainly have a shorter life than a new factory replacement!!!

 

[DBMandrake]

It may be that these snubber capacitors are the components that triggered the recent warranty extension by Mitsubishi.

Have you got more details about this warranty extension ?

Onboard charger only or the whole HV system and/or battery ?

US i-Miev only or i-Miev world wide ? Ion and C-Zero as well ?

 

[misterbleepy]

Have you got more details about this warranty extension ?

Onboard charger only or the whole HV system and/or battery ?

US i-Miev only or i-Miev world wide ? Ion and C-Zero as well ?

My guess is US Mitsubishi’s only at the moment.

I spotted this thread immediately before I started opening up my Ion - I was torn between getting stuck in, and trying to contact Peugeot to see if they were going to extend the warranty.
I decided to get stuck in, as I figured it would hopefully get me back on the road much more quickly.
I hope I’m right [fingers crossed]

 

[DBMandrake]

I've tried to look up the TSB online but it's not showing up (yet ?) on any of the TSB search pages I used.

It says that "2012" i-Miev's are affected - the unanswered question is whether older models are also affected like my 2011 Ion, or was 2012 the first year the i-Miev was sold in the US ?

 

[Don]

Have you got more details about this warranty extension ?

Onboard charger only or the whole HV system and/or battery ?

US i-Miev only or i-Miev world wide ? Ion and C-Zero as well ?

My guess is US Mitsubishi’s only at the moment.

I suspect you're correct - US and Canada only. The letters are from MMNA - Mitsubishi Motors North America

But, now that they've admitted this is a universal problem, I would hope they'd be willing to do the same thing for owners worldwide. I'd be asking them about it for sure if you've had a failure

Don

 

[wmcbrine]

... or was 2012 the first year the i-Miev was sold in the US ?

Yeah it was.

 

[JoeS]

I received two of these, one for each car -

 

[jray3]

I called the hotline, which confirmed they will not swap a new charger for my obviously failed one if it is not inside the car and throwing the code. :roll: So, it looks like I'll be reinstalling the failed charger to go thru the exercise of getting a new (and hopefully longer-lasting) OBC...

 

[phb10186]

This may be of interest to people on this string:

As the owner of a 2012 IMIEV I recently received a letter from Mitsubishi.

...... " due to potential low durability of the capacitors on the circuit boards in the On-Board-Charger (OBC), the capacitors may short and cause the high voltage fuse in the Motor Control Units MCU) to blow. As a result, the drive battery may not be charged by regular charging and the 12V battery may not be charged. When this occurs, the power unit and 12V battery warning lights will turn on."

Mitsubishi is extending the warranty for the OBC to 10 years / unlimited miles.

TSB-19-54-016

Letter dated September 2019.

Mitsubishi Customer Relations; 1-888-648-7820 M-F 7AM.-4PM. PT

Stay charged my friend

That is sort of interesting, but I don't understand what 'potential low durability' means - they are either low durability or they are not - unless Mitsubishi don't have a handle on their third party supplier quality control in the way Toyota, for example do... That particular issue has brought down several companies I can think of, but notably Motorola with their cell phones.

I interpret this as meaning that due to a cars age, there may be age related degradation, meaning that those capacitors were not perhaps as good in the real world than as tested. Ive had a few Samsung TVs go with capacitors on the PSU - those were not durable either. It sort of also makes the case for topping up the battery, rather than fully charging, when those capacitors are given their longest workout.... but I don't do that.

 

[kiev]

ten days and it's done!

The dealer called and said it was ready, so i just got my car back with the newer style OBC (9481A171, serial # 00007) . It does not have the little external AC filter box on top. Date code is 2018.05.17
Img/Img

No cost to me.
Img/Img

The biggest delay they said was waiting for the fuse, so they must have shipped a bunch of OBCs over before the letter went out.

Be sure to ask if you can have the old unit--we will need them for repair parts for those who don't get the extra warranty.

 

[Don]

That is sort of interesting, but I don't understand what 'potential low durability' means - they are either low durability or they are not

Some of them may last for 250,000 miles and 30 years, so until there is an actual failure, it's 'potential low durability' because a large number of them HAVE failed - 'Large' in this case is probably 5 or 10% . . . . so far. The ones that last forever are NOT 'low durability' . . . . are they?

Don

 

[pbui19]

wonder if my 2014 iMiev is covered, haven't received the letter yet.

 

[coulomb]

wonder if my 2014 iMiev is covered.

No idea.

But if there IS a cutoff date, that might tell us that they (think they) have fixed the problem at a certain point.

 

[pbui19]

Hopefully that is the case; but doubtful as Mitsu seemed totally surprised. Wasn't there a poll to tally with year info ? I believe kiev started.

I've been charging DCQC almost exclusive for a year now. But during the recent multi days power shutdown in California due to wind&fire; I used the iMiev DC/DC converter output to run my house a bit and was worried about the OBC. I did make sure to leave the rear hatch open and the OBC was never about 72F

Are those bad capacitors part of the DC/DC or also part of the charging system ?