SLC Charging Problem Is Battery

[tonymil]

I didn't want to post any updates until it was definitive, but it sounds like my car is finally ready for pickup now.

The problem was battery failure — one of the cells died. The technician had to go through and test all 80 battery cells to find the one that died, although they replaced the full battery.

It seems likely to me that the cold weather sped up the battery failure, but that's pure speculation. It could have simply been coincidental timing.

I guess the good news is that this isn't standard behavior for the car in winter, which was my worry.

My car had two battery cells fail in June, so your cell failure may not be weather related at all. I also got a full battery replacement but it took two months for it to be delivered and installed. I've had my new batter since the end of August and so far so good.

 

[jray3]

nsps, sorry for all your hassle. Here's to a fresh start with your i, and if you don't mind pressing the question, would Mitsu give you any pricing option to keep the old pack and/or divulge their cost for a replacement pack? Mitsu has done a lot towards developing secondary markets for the used cells by demonstrating battery-backup solar EVSE, standby power packs, etc.. I'm wondering if they'll follow through with that and have a closed-loop market, or it'll devolve to the current state of hybrid batteries, which as I understand, has a bunch of third party rebuilders competing against high-priced dealer replacement packs. That's one big reason I wish Mitsu market success with the new low i-price. Achieving a critical mass of cars for US aftermarket support will make long-term ownership easier, and increase the chances for performance modifications and salvage opportunities.

 

[nsps]

My car had two battery cells fail in June, so your cell failure may not be weather related at all. I also got a full battery replacement but it took two months for it to be delivered and installed. I've had my new batter since the end of August and so far so good.

Thanks for the info. I definitely don't think the cold weather caused the failure — I just suspect that maybe it put some extra strain on the battery and prompted a quicker failure. This is pure speculation, of course. Either way, maybe this discussion should be moved to a new thread now that we know it isn't standard cold-season behavior.

Anyhow, I'm happy to have my car back after two and a half weeks. It was no fun paying for gas contributing to my city having the worst air in the nation.

nsps, sorry for all your hassle. Here's to a fresh start with your i, and if you don't mind pressing the question, would Mitsu give you any pricing option to keep the old pack and/or divulge their cost for a replacement pack? Mitsu has done a lot towards developing secondary markets for the used cells by demonstrating battery-backup solar EVSE, standby power packs, etc.. I'm wondering if they'll follow through with that and have a closed-loop market, or it'll devolve to the current state of hybrid batteries, which as I understand, has a bunch of third party rebuilders competing against high-priced dealer replacement packs. That's one big reason I wish Mitsu market success with the new low i-price. Achieving a critical mass of cars for US aftermarket support will make long-term ownership easier, and increase the chances for performance modifications and salvage opportunities.

There was no discussion of the replacement pack, but the manager did describe it as an $18,000 battery.

 

[JoeS]

nsps, thank you for the update and glad you've got your car back (and with a new battery pack!). As you can see, I split this topic off from where it had been originally posted and hopefully have picked up all the posts related to it.

Incidentally, there are 88 cells in the battery pack and here's an example where CaniOn would have been an invaluable tool in pinpointing the problem.

 

[nsps]

An alarming followup: A fellow Salt Lake City i-MiEV has also had battery failure, with the same symptoms that mine had.

I am currently waiting for my onboard charger to be replaced. It turns out that when they replaced my battery, the onboard charger was reporting a failure (code 83 is what I THINK the technician said), but it stopped once my new battery went in, so Mitsubishi decided not to replace it at the time. But it was reporting failure again when I brought my car in for the study discussed in this thread: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2251 .

I'm not sure if I was called in for this study before or after that car's battery failure was reported.

 

[Malm]

That's against all odds. Two i-MiEV's, in a place where there are so few, with the same battery problem. Maybe the Malm's lake curse is gaining ground.