Battery only charging halfway

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Well, our cars are now 3 years old (many have had them that long), so I guess it's normal to start seeing some degradation and maybe a few failures. As for myself, I just turned over 20,000 miles a few days ago and have had my white car for 2 years and a month now. So far, I'm still seeing the range numbers that I had when the car was new. I fully charge the car every night before a drive, try my best to not leave it sit at full charge for long, and this winter, I was very successful at keeping the pack above freezing with level 1 charging.

Any updates from the OP regarding battery vs. charger failure?
 
A brief status update. As you might recall, I had left my ailing new used i-MiEV at the dealer, had filled out the necessary paperwork, and we were waiting to hear from Mitsubishi HQ. Today I was in the area so I decided to give the dealer a visit - when the service manager saw me he was all smiles and pointed to a huge open crate with a brand-new battery pack and my car up in the air with its pack already removed. He allowed as everything had been approved and I should have my car back in the next couple of days. Yes, I'm happy. :D

Will provide a final update when I have my car home.
 
WOW Congrats !

I bet that was not what you were expecting !
Bravo for the dealer to start putting in in asap !

Did you take any Pictures ? just curious
 
tigger19687 said:
WOW Congrats !
I bet that was not what you were expecting !
Bravo for the dealer to start putting in in asap !
Did you take any Pictures ? just curious
Yes, it was a pleasant surprise, as I was afraid the paperwork might have been held up. I did take a couple of photos of the car up in the air and the battery and plan on posting them.
 
Early this afternoon received a call from the dealer that the car with new battery was ready to pick up. Went over there in Mitsi and retrieved Mitti and simply drove home. Uneventful, with RR about normal for this trip. Haven't taken any data nor attached CaniOn yet. Dealer suggested I contact Mitsubishi directly for the refund of my tow.

Yesterday I had taken a few photos, mostly uninteresting shots of my removed battery pack and new battery in its shipping case. Here's the only photo that might be of interest: the underside of my i-MiEV with the battery removed:

MittiUndersideNoBatt.jpg


Looking forward to a long and happy life with this new battery pack, and hope to do a baseline battery capacity test soon (without stressing the pack).
 
I'll be finishing three years with my miev in may. I have about 17k miles on it. I don't use canion, but I am getting the same RRs I was getting when the cat was new. I only charge with level 1. I only charge about every other day. About half the time I charge to 80%, the other half, full charge. Fwiw.
 
Joe, I'd call you a lucky bastard, :twisted: but as an early, nearly full-price adopter, you deserve a break on the second car! :cool:

Bargain used i-MiEV, about $9500. Free new unobtanium battery pack? Priceless!! :mrgreen:

If you have further correspondence with corporate, please tell them that releasing pricing on non-warranty pack replacements would greatly reduce nervousness in the owners' community and quite possibly help to sell a few of these 2016's that are supposedly en route...
 
Not quite halfway, but 76% :cry: :cry:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9eggubu8h653j63/Screenshot_2015-05-14-06-22-34.png?dl=0

Events leading up to today include:

1. Morgantown trip of 127 miles with a quick charge and max battery temperature of 37 C..
2. Several days with 90 F highs. Battery pack was in low to mid 80's F. I was running the AC on Friday (last day I drove it).
3. Car sat for four days at 9 bars.

Car seemed fine the last time I drove it.

***UPDATE***
After driving to work, I've noticed cell #10 is holding approximately .085 volts lower than the rest of the pack, even under heavy acceleration and regen. Also, the other cells seem to be 50/50 on being .005 volts off from each other when before it was a flat line.

Is it possible that this could've been covered up by a full charge & balance every workday? I calculated that the car sat for 120 hours, and for that stretch of time, cell #10 discharged at a rate of .71 mV per hour. Does anyone know what the shunt current rating is on the balancers?
 
Here's some of my observations.

The voltage disparity was .085 volts before leaving the house. When I got to work and when I checked it at lunch and before leaving work, the difference was .125 volts. When I got home, it was .140 volts. During charging, the difference went as high as .145 volts, but fell to .110 as the charge continued.

It charged at full power until a cell hit 4.110 volts, then started to taper. It went as low to .7 kW before stopping and just sitting with the car's systems pulling energy from the battery (like READY). My cells are currently at 4.100 volts with cell 10 at 3.990 volts. It charged to 72.5%, close to the starting charge of 76.5%. It stopped charging completely at that point.
 
PV1, sorry to hear. You didn't mention whether it was your original "Bear" or your new "Koorz"? I would let the charge drop to say six bars and get it to the Mitsu dealership and explain all your symptoms in detail - maybe even write it up. In my case I didn't mention the individual cell voltage readings as I didn't want it to appear as though I'm telling them their job. All the best.
 
Sadly, it's Bear. I guess I bragged one too many times about the pack's health during my quick charge experiments. Something is up with Koorz, though. It would only quick charge at 10 kW, no faster. Oddly, though, it has stronger regen than Bear.

I woke up early this morning and checked OVMS. It said 96%. I thought it was odd, so I went downstairs and triggered a charge with the remote. OVMS then showed the pack drop to 91%, but wouldn't charge. I do this two more times, dropping to 86% then 76%. At that point, I go out to the car and sure enough, 13 bars on the gauge and it's refusing to charge.

It charged to 12 bars tonight, and I'll let it sit with the cord still plugged in. I caught the car a couple of times randomly re-engaging the charging system and do some balancing in the past. Hopefully it will try to balance during the night. I also noticed it slowed charging briefly, but never completely stopped until the end. Normally, we have that 6 minute timeout where no charging occurs mid-cycle. I sat in the car and watched the entire charge on CaniOn, which only took two hours.

I won't tell them anything technical, just that it isn't fully charging. I'll also advise them of the pending recalls and hope everything ships together.

This car sure gets jealous if I don't drive it for more than three days. The last time it sat unused, my custom door lights quit working.

On the plus side, I should be getting brand new cells, replacing the currently three year old cells.
 
Yep, every day that I used the car got a full charge the night before. I tried to time my charging to finish between 2-5 AM followed by a 7:30 departure.

Looking at the charge levels this morning, it was .125 volts below the others, roughly where it was after driving to work. I've been grabbing screenshots and have CaniOn running full time.
 
PV1 said:
Yep, every day that I used the car got a full charge the night before. I tried to time my charging to finish between 2-5 AM followed by a 7:30 departure.
Veddy interesting... you'd think that Mitsubishi would have a very detailed battery-use-specific questionnaire as a follow-up for those of us who have lost our packs. Their present generic questions don't quite do that, IMO.

PV1 said:
Looking at the charge levels this morning, it was .125 volts below the others, roughly where it was after driving to work. I've been grabbing screenshots and have CaniOn running full time.
Time to get Bear to the dealer while you can still make it.
 
PV1 said:
Yep, every day that I used the car got a full charge the night before. I tried to time my charging to finish between 2-5 AM followed by a 7:30 departure.

If memory serves you have around 35k miles on it? What do you generally drive in a day? I'm trying to get a ballpark on charge and discharge cycles #'s to compare to others.

Thank you,
Aerowhatt
 
There is currently just shy of 22,000 miles. My normal work day is 22.7 miles. I like to say an average of 25 miles a day. I can upload the full driving log if you'd like.

To clarify on the voltage difference.

Morning 1 (Thursday): the pack was at 76.5% with a difference of .085 volts.
Lunchtime Thursday: There was a difference of .125 volts.
Evening Thursday: The pack had a difference of .140 volts.
After a recharge to 72%, the difference was .125 volts.
This morning before leaving and after arriving, the difference was .125 volts.

I'm going to try the local dealer about 20 miles away. I still have RR in the high 40's low 50's. This morning was 49.
 
Sorry to hear this,
I hope you end up with a new pack .

I also charge up full every morning and timed it to finish an hour before I leave.
Up here we preheat often with our weather - preheated this morning for 20 minutes.

Good luck with the dealer service.
 
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