Question about defective motor I-Miev 2012

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Forum

Help Support Mitsubishi i-MiEV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
5
Location
Canada
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to I-Mievs. I saw an ad around here for a 2012 I-Miev for sale with defective motor. It has 150000 kms and the seller ask a cheap price due to it's condition of course. He said Mitsubishi (dealer) diagnosed a defective motor and that it takes a motor controler. I think that saying that maybe they have'nt been able to diagnose precisely. I searched the Web a lot about defective I-Miev or repairs but found absolutely nothing.
Are I-Mievs bullet proof or are they still too Young to find a list of problems? Or is it a nightmare to work on the electric of these cars?
In the past I used to get many challenges and I estimating the possibility of putting back this one on the road but not at all costs.
I don't know the codes that have been extracted from the car computer nor the symptoms.
Any opinion?
Thank's
 
Defective motor would be a first, but we've seen a couple of issues with the MCU over the years. If there is an issue with the motor controller (MCU), it might fall under last year's recall and be replaced for free. If you have the VIN, you can go to Mitsubishi's website and see if there is a Garage/owner portal. Add the car to the garage and it will list all work done and recalls on the car.

Usually, we see a cell in the drive battery fail and render the car un-drivable within a month, or an on-board charger go bad. Overall, the I-MiEVs have been solid outside of finicky behavior at times and the occasional glitch that a restart or replacing the 12 volt battery usually fixes.
 
Thank's for your help. I forgot to mention that the battery pack has been changed around 1 year ago and approx 20000 kms ago.
If the motor has to be changed is there something else than a oem part to install in there? A rebuild possible?
 
Any shop that does electric motor rebuilds should be able to do it if the issue is the motor. It should be relatively easy to source parts from a wrecked I-MiEV. I don't believe that the MCU is VIN-encoded, and the motor itself definitely is not.
 
But . . . . if you have experience in buying salvage title cars and putting them back on the road and making a profit you may be getting in over your head on this one unless you know an awful lot about EV's, which doesn't appear to be the case from your questions

If someone gave you this car for free, you might still spend more getting it running than you could resell it for - Good used running 2012's can be bought for $5K or less and many of the components in the drive system (motor, MCU etc) are very expensive and sometimes replacing the defective parts isn't all that needs to be done

Learn all you can and proceed with caution

Don
 
Don said:
But . . . . if you have experience in buying salvage title cars and putting them back on the road and making a profit you may be getting in over your head on this one unless you know an awful lot about EV's, which doesn't appear to be the case from your questions

If someone gave you this car for free, you might still spend more getting it running than you could resell it for - Good used running 2012's can be bought for $5K or less and many of the components in the drive system (motor, MCU etc) are very expensive and sometimes replacing the defective parts isn't all that needs to be done

Learn all you can and proceed with caution

Don

Thank's a lot Don for your help. Your answer as so much wisdom :) I did'nt want to make money out of this, most of all after selling the car we keep a certain responsability. It was just for the challenge and to learn more about E cars. That's why I began here.
I'm an electronic technician and I already worked in Mitsubishi components and they are not the easiest things to fix.
Yes I will think twice and more before going into this project. I could have used the batteries for the conversion of one of my antique cars as a plan B.
Thank'S again
 
imievfutureowner said:
I could have used the batteries for the conversion of one of my antique cars as a plan B.
If the price is right, that might be a good 'Plan A' - If I was looking to build my own EV, something like this car would be exactly what I would look for. A nearly new battery, a complete A/C system, designed to run off that battery, electric power steering, DC to DC converter - There's lots of pieces there which would be of use. Not to mention, you could probably eventually sell all the iMiEV body parts, lights etc. If the price is right, I don't see how you could go wrong

Don
 
Don said:
imievfutureowner said:
I could have used the batteries for the conversion of one of my antique cars as a plan B.
If the price is right, that might be a good 'Plan A' - If I was looking to build my own EV, something like this car would be exactly what I would look for. A nearly new battery, a complete A/C system, designed to run off that battery, electric power steering, DC to DC converter - There's lots of pieces there which would be of use. Not to mention, you could probably eventually sell all the iMiEV body parts, lights etc. If the price is right, I don't see how you could go wrong

Don

That's what I'm studying Don but here the regulations are very strict see almost impossible to get a converted car ''streetable''
Even an antique car without power brakes, abs, power steering and airbags.
By the way around here used Imievs sell around 7 to 8k.
 
Back
Top