Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada, Vancouver's best auto service experience, and we're talking cars. How you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So 2017 Fiat 500E, electric vehicle, as our guest today, what was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: So this vehicle had been sitting for apparently six to eight months. And it would not start because the EV battery was dead. The big drive battery was dead. So the owner towed it to our shop for us to have a look at it.
Mark: How common of an issue is this with the EVs?
Bernie: We see a lot of hybrids where people have left them sitting. We've had a couple EVs come in, you know, that have had batteries. So you basically don't want to leave them too long sitting dead. You do need to keep them charged up or use them a bit here and there.
Mark: Yeah. So there's a certain amount of usage that keeps the battery charged, basically? The charging needs to happen in order to keep the battery charged. And it doesn't go without some juice in it, in other words.
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It'll go too low and you really don't want to do that because then the vehicle doesn't work. You can't plug the charger in because the voltage is too low. The whole system just kind of gets, I'll just say simply, screwed up and it just, you just can't plug the charger in and it'll work. Need to either, you know, charge it up every once in a while or actually get out, just move it around a tiny bit and then charge it.
Mark: Yeah. So here's our fiat.
Bernie: Yeah. Little dusty from sitting for a while.
Mark: And the culprit.
Bernie: Yeah, the culprit. So the battery. So the process is to remove the battery from the vehicle. To take the battery apart so that this case can be removed.
There are some EVs, names we won't mention where you can't actually take the battery apart, but this is one where you can, and a lot of 'em you can. So we take the cover off the battery, I believe there's 76 bolts holding the cover down. Quite a few. And from there we can access the proper terminals inside the battery and test it. That's our charger over there. And there's a volt metre sitting on top.
And, this was a voltage in the battery when we started. It's, it's supposed to be 360 volts, but it's only got 36. If you just move the decimal place to the right by one, then it would have the right voltage. And that's what happened when we had finished the charging process. But to get it there took quite a long time of charging to get some voltage into the battery. So our charger, which is a very slow charging process, would actually allow the charge to come into the battery.
Mark: So why does it take so long?
Bernie: Well, when a battery gets weak, you can't just shove a lot, it's kinda like shoving water into a hose. It's too small. It'll only allow a certain amount of electrons in, so to speak. So it just takes a while to put that voltage.
Mark: So is it the internal resistance is too high at the low voltage?
Bernie: I think so, but I'll be honest, I'm not a genius on this sort of thing. But yeah, batteries generally when they get weak, you know, you have to just charge slowly and then they'll take more of a charge.
And that's why when you plug the, you know, I mean among the many reasons when you plug the charger from a wall and even the level one charger, which is not charging a very high rate, it's still way too much for the battery. So it just can't take the charge.
Mark: And so in terms of time, what, did it take a couple days?
Bernie: It took a day and a half. Yeah. And we brought it back up to, it was about 300 and I think 365 volts was reading on our volt metre. Now that isn't actually a full charge really. You know, like you could probably drive a little bit, but we could have still charged it for days. Our charger only puts like two amps in the battery.
So it takes a long time to actually bring the battery up to a charge state of driving. But this brought the battery up to a state of, you can now plug the charger in and use that.
Mark: So then you plug in the 240 volt charger that you guys have in the shop, and then you charge it properly just like the owner would at home.
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. And then a few more hours, then the battery's good to go.
Mark: So once it's all back, you button it back up, put it back in the car. How did it run?
Bernie: It was good, but there was quite an ordeal of trouble codes to be cleared, modules to be re-initialized, you know, just to get things going. So here's a take on this thing. It's like running a diesel out of fuel. You don't want to do this. Like keep it charged because it's a big ordeal to get it going again. A lot of codes to be cleared, modules to be reset.
You know, at first we're going, oh, okay, great. Now it's taking a charge, because it wouldn't take a charge for a bit. Then it started taking a charge and then we went to drive the vehicle, and all these warning lights came on. It wouldn't work. Just a process. And once we got everything cleared, it ran just like a new car.
Mark: So lesson keep your EV charged.
Bernie: Yeah. I'm very happy for the owner of this vehicle because to replace the battery is really expensive. There's ways you can change individual cells and modules, but fortunately this battery just went evenly dead and so we were able to evenly charge it back up and he was lucky. But it's still not cheap. But a lot cheaper than replacing a battery.
Mark: Yeah. Lend it to a friend while you're away on holiday in Spain, in other words.
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. It never hurts to use them.
Mark:If you are looking for service for your EV in Vancouver, BC Canada, the experts are at Pawlik Automotive, you can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. You can book your appointment right there. Or you can call them at (604) 327-7112. They'll find out what's going on. They'll get ready for your appointment and you have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching.
