Soon to be owner of a 2013 FFE

[ajbessinger]

Howdy folks!
I'm planning on picking up a non-running 2013 FFE next week, and will be working on getting it fixed up to likely keep around as a "shop car". I actually own a 3rd party EV repair shop in Portland OR (a "franchise" location for QC Charge).
Not totally sure what is actually wrong with this car, (or really much of anything about it period) but the owner tells me that the dealer checked it out and said the battery doesn't have coolant intrusion, and needs a "harness replaced". Whatever the case may be, I couldn't pass up the deal on this car, so I guess I'll have to dig in and figure it out after I pick it up!

Pics of my shop attached for those interested.

 

[Heima]

Two Rav4 EVs in the shop already? Are their drive units on the fritz? I see one battery pack has been dropped.

 

[ajbessinger]

That picture was actually taken a couple months ago, but at this point I think I've had a total of 3 or 4 RAV4s in here so far. Of course, down at the San Diego location, there are always at least 10-15 RAV4s on site at any give time (it's kinda like the QC Charge mascot, haha).

The white one on the left got our new rotor cooling delete manifold, which eliminates the rotor coolant seal issues that are so prevalent on the Tesla Large Drive Units (RAV4 and Mercedes B-Class use a slightly modified version of the LDU). The silver one on the right originally came in for a set of failed battery contactors, and also got the rotor coolant delete treatment as well.

 

[Heima]

That billet rotor cooling delete manifold is so much fancier than Tesla's cast version.

 

[ajbessinger]

Just picked up the car this morning! Will start digging into it today.

 

[ajbessinger]

Ok, so I was able to clear out a bunch of messages using ForScan, and the car magically came back to life. Test drove it around a bit over the course of the day, and I did get the dreaded P0AA6 code, which then disappeared the next time I started the car.
Pulled the rubber plugs on the upper and lower packs, and interestingly the upper pack is dry, but the lower pack has definite signs of coolant leakage (though not totally flooded), which seems to be the opposite of most reports I've seen where typically upper pack seems to have issues first.
In any case, I guess I'll be pulling the pack(s) from the car to perform repairs. Has anyone here successfully "re-compressed" the cells after drying everything out, as opposed to eliminating the pack cooling?

 

[Heima]

I have not. But I was thinking about your question. Could you just take a slim needle, puncture a hole into the top of just the outer "bag", press the gas out, then reseal with a drop of silicone sealant?

Most likely the gassing will continue as a by product of charging and discharging. So maybe not seal the pinhole?

Congrats on getting it working, and hopefully you can add FFEs to your list of vehicles serviced.

 

[ajbessinger]

Pulled the pack out and got the covers off to take a look. 3 of the clips in the center sections of the coolant manifolds popped loose from too much expansion, and it also looks like one of the coolant inlets was leaking as well.

 

[Heima]

Thank you for the photos!