Berlingo in need of some Bats

If you own a Electrique or any of the other PSA range of vehicles then look here for your answers and post your questions or general views here
Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:55 am

The berlingo is a 2000 (w) with 10k on the clock, bought of ebay with a subsequently totally duff controller. Evan Tuer has been great at sorting that out. A very talented chap.
Now its up and running and charging its knackered batteries are now the problem. It been fed and watered but it wont get beyond 62% power, and drops to limited performance mode by about 8 miles. Voltages while running under load lurk about 140v. Despite the maintenance charge and watering and subsequent re-charges, the top engine bay batteries are low on voltage. Three of the four are under 6 v so I guess its a a good indication of the overall poor state of the battery set.
I am located just North of Colchester. This is my first Battery vehicle and Im determined to get it sorted, and converted to a partial multispace. It will become a significant part of our household transport. With shops etc abot 8 miles away it would be perfect. Work is 18 mile each way so even that should be feasible. They have also committed to put a charging point in for me.

So the hunt is on for some good batteries at less than a significant morgatge. Even though I see this as a long term vehicle for us, I really cant justify the high new cost from Citroen or the e700 each (minimum of 3) that SAFT have offered.

I should be moving it over to a friends place so I can use his forklift/ pallet truck to get the batteries out and do a proper cell by cell check.

Regards
Grumpy_b

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timpootle
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Postby timpootle » Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:59 pm

If I was in your position I'd be looking at lithium. Thankfully my batteries are holding out.

Look out for the thread elsewhere on Lifebatt LiFePO4 batteries- looks very promising, but no road tests yet. These could give exceptional range if you could afford to replace all 3 packs.
Tim Crumpton

Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:25 pm

Lion looks interesting, Evan is fairly confident he could modify the charger to run them. Long term maybe you are right, but short term I would like to at least prove to myself that the EV route is where I want to be going. So short term I guess I will try and get the best SAFT based battery set I can. Then long term who knows.

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Grumpy_b

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:22 am

Ah why welcome over Grumpy-b you found us from the message I sent you then :wink:

Sorry if the system locked you out I only noticed that the other day and activated you account for you :wink:

I'd say hook the crates out and find out how many are playing up, I'm surprised that a 2000 vehicle is suffering from the dreaded dicky batteries, must admit I thought it was only the pre 2000 ?

What was up with the controller ?

The batteries arnt to hard to hook out, see my battery change thread in the PSA forum :wink: should give all the stuff thats needed to take out the batteries.

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!

Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:15 am

There were a number of problems that Evan found, but the most interesting was that the circuit boards had some corrosion on and this had extended to some of the components. It almost looked like something had dripped along the board. Evan had a few probs with some of the components but sorted it.
Interestingly after the maint charge had done about 30 hrs it measured no charge rate on the evlite, but no battery water light came on. I did this anyway and obviously used lots of water. Its had one charge since. But with the perfornmance light now up and power limited, its either take it out for a non taxing run to lower the charge a bit further and do a maint charge again or just do a few small runs and recharges. I think its worth a try in case the batteries were low on electrolyte and so low on voltage/ capacity. I cant take the battery units out till next week end anyway.

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:45 pm

If the batts where quite dry then you may well find that it will take a few gentle cycles to build the cap up.

Odd that Evan found the board had corrosion on it :?

Try doing a few short runs and as I suspect Evans said dont drive it to much when the eco lights on :wink:

My first set of batts would only do about 5-10miles before it would go into limp mode, I did around two dozen or so very short trips slowly building the range and avoiding the eco light/limp mode and built the range to about 35miles..............wasnt long after mind you one of the bats blew up :cry:

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!

Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:08 pm

The corrosion was odd, I noticed it before it went to Evan, it looked like the sort of corrosion you get on copper pipe when you leave the flux on. It also had started on the 40way cable as well. We have checked the seal for the ECU to the main casting and it looks ok. I have to assume this was probablt started during manufature and some moisture in the casing has enabled it to progress.

I am now doing another Maintenance cgarge with the batteries fully watered, its just prolonging the inevitable, but Its worth a try.
So I stilll need spare good batteries. Please dont be shy in offering them!!!!!!

Regards
Grumpy_b

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:44 pm

Moved the thread into the PSA area :wink:

Got some dodgy pre 2000 batts but I wouldnt recomend them :(

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!

EVan
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Postby EVan » Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:06 am

Water gets in when people pressure wash the enclosure, exactly like it says not to in the manual. In this case, it had bridged HV into the LV logic and blown up a variety of things.

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:55 pm

Preasure wash the engine bay :shock:

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :roll:

Sometimes you really have to wonder with folks dont you.

I can imagine getting the HV tracking onto the LV stuff causing loads of whoopsies :roll:

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!


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