won't start

[DRMOLOKAI]

my 2012 i-miev won't start big battery was replaced 3 yrs ago and i just put new 12 v battery in--any ideas? when i turn key to start the light on the clock goes out

 

[MickeyS70]

Hi there
Sorry to hear about your troubles, replacing the 12V battery is a good start, but beware even a new one should be fully changed before use..

Was the car working fine until now or was it in storage for a long time? What happens if you try to charge it?

Mickey

 

[DRMOLOKAI]

ALOHA
car was running fine didnt drive it for about a month --cant get obd2 readed to connect to ecu--it wouldnt start for my wife but i started it then wouldnt start again

 

[DRMOLOKAI]

doesnt seem like large ibattery is charging anymore it almost fully charged when i turn on key it slowly shows battery level going up=i live on molokai nobody here works on ev's gotta ship it to oahu cost over $2000 i just sent my bolt for new battery

 

[jray3]

Wow DRMOLOKAI, that's some bad luck to experience this failure after you got a battery under warranty. We have one similar case in the community being worked right now, as JoeS is helping a little old lady who received a diagnosis of "Failed ECU". The part was months out and a couple thousand $, but fortunately the dealer was willing to install a collision-salvaged unit that I had. JoeS will gather as much info as he can get on the swap process. Initial indications are that VIN programming is going to be required, though we might be surprised. After all, a 2012 battery swap is simple plug-n-play. The battery ECU is a black box below the rear seat with four multipin connectors; green, orange, blue and blue. It is very easy to remove.

 

[JoeS]

... JoeS is helping a little old lady who received a diagnosis of "Failed ECU"...

I'm afraid that the EV-ECU replacement was a dead-end. After we had replaced the known failed OBC/dc-dc with an unknown quality replacement resulting in inability to ac charge (dc-dc works fine) and lots of DTCs, she took it to the Mitsu dealer who cleared all the codes and they told her the only remaining DTC (dunno what number) says to replace the EV-ECU that they swore was the only remaining issue. They quoted her $1000 + 2-1/2 month wait for shipment from Japan. jray3 was kind enough to expedite getting one down to us right away. Mitsu reprogrammed it for the new VIN and.... continued failure. They worked on it for half a day with inputs from Mitsubishi and declared inability to identify cause of failure. She took the car away from them and it's now sitting in my backyard. Next step is to install a known good OBC/dc-dc from one of my cars to positively rule that out.

DRMOLOKAI, sorry, the above is of no help to you. Could you provide us with some more technical detail as we could use a bit more information in addition to "when i turn key to start the light on the clock goes out". Which OBD2 reader were you attempting to use?

 

[jray3]

OUCH- sorry to hear that JoeS, and doubly miffed to find this matching my worst fears about modern EVs, that being EVen when a willing and trained repair ship is available, the overlapping computer-controlled systems may be too complex to efficiently repair.
As the simplest of all modern EVs, having a trained dealer throw parts at the problem before throwing up their hands in despair is exactly what I feared about the ability to maintain these vehicles long-term. My classic conversion EVs are the only cars that truly meet the mantra of "a lot fewer parts that last a lot longer, a lot less to go wrong, and a lot simpler to fix".
-Jay
(happy to refund the EV-ECU once you're sure you don't need it)

 

[kiev]

If it is related to an EV-ECU problem, that could also affect the OBC charging due to lack of CAN messages. The DCDC section is not on the CAN Buss and doesn't need CAN to function, so it is working okay.

 

[coulomb]

The DCDC section is not on the CAN Buss and doesn't need CAN to function, so it is working okay.

I thought that the DC-DC was on the CAN bus; the PHEV reports data on CAN id 0x377. But maybe you can't adjust the voltage that it aims for. Certainly other cars will charge the auxiliary battery at either float-like voltages (e.g. 13.0-13.8 V) or at bulk voltage (14.0-14.4 V), depending on various factors. The Leaf will even charge at a higher voltage for a minute or two when you operate the windscreen wipers.

But I don't see CANH or CANL on CN201 (per the first page of the on-board charrger troubleshooting page, at least). So maybe the iMiEV doesn't and can't adjust the target voltage. Strange.