Bent Berlingo

[wattson]

Advice for the ignorant, please! I have just bought a 2001 Berlingo from a salvage yard with all its batteries - a rare thing here as most cars, like my 106, was sold without its batteries which were leased & I never did find a set at a cost that I could afford so it went to someone with a crashed Saxo. I have taken a chance that despite a rear end shunt the packs are undamaged, there is no sign of cracked cases & it looks straight there. The coolant resevoir is still full which indicates no broken units. The van has done 25000 kms & been maintained by Accuservice in Bordeaux.It has been in the yard for a year. I intend to collect it tomorrow & put it on charge but before I do are there any checks I should make? I know that I will have to change the car battery.
The idea is to see if all the electrics work prior to either buying another van to put the packs in or breaking the whole thing for spares. As I'm not up to speed with the technical side an experts view would be most helpful!
Thanks all.

[cianof]

Check the motor brushes and the state of the commutator before driving via the inspection hatch on the bottom of the motor.

If you have an evlite, check the AH on the ECUs counter. The batteries will need charging, watering and cycling.

Check for any fault lights. Look up their codes with evlite.

There's a good FAQ on Evan Tuers site which has some good advice for 1st charging of a vehicle that has been sitting idle.

http://www.tuer.co.uk/info---faq.htm

[ChrisB]

As above really, certainly becareful the first time its driven if its been left sat for a long time and if your saying its been a year, then be double gentle on them and give them a maint Charge and watering ASAP......... and not forgetting the brush condition.

If the Traction pack is VERY flat then it may not charge to start with and may need to be left for quite sometime before it will start charging, personally if it was me I'd try and get some volts in the pack manually via a decent PSU rather than just plugging it in and potentially stressing the on board charger

ChrisB

[wattson]

Thanks guys, but what is a maintainence charge & how could I charge the pack without using the on board charger?

[cianof]

The maintainence charge is the charge that is done before water is added to the batteries.

This is usually done every 6000 miles or every 650AH on the charge counter.

You will always use the onboard charger to charge the batteries. To initiate the maintenance charge you will a need watering (fresh Di-ionized or Distilled water) kit and diagnostic device that will put the vehicle into maintenance charge mode. You can't do this without a diagnostic device. Usally people would have brought their vans to their citroen dealer for this process. Probably most dealers won't offer this service any more. It is this watering process/maintenance charge is the biggest part of maintaining the health of the battery pack. (As well as careful driving)

Evan Tuer sells a device to initiate the watering of the batteries.
http://www.tuer.co.uk/evlite.htm

You can download a copy of the berlingo e500 owners manual here.
http://www.rmsconsult.co.uk/berlingo/manuals.htm

HTH

Do u own the vehicles in your sig?

Pug 106
Scootelec
Friend's Pug Partner

[ChrisB]

Thanks guys, but what is a maintainence charge &

I'm concerned your not aware of this As cianof says get a EVlite, its a MUST if you own one of these vehicles, I really wouldnt even start to think about owning one without a EVlite as you'll need it to carry out the watering DO NOT TRY AND WATER THE BATTERIES WITHOUT ONE as you will permently damage the batteries

how could I charge the pack without using the on board charger?

You'd need a decent powersupply thats fully variable really and you would need to know exactly what you are doing, or you could use another Berlingo and "jump" pack to pack to at least bring the volts up on the really flat pack again this isnt for the first timer really.

Is there anyone local to you that already owns a Berlingo electrique that can assist you and may be already have a EVlite you can borrow or a DIAG 2000 box or the Planet software which is main dealer software which does the same ??

ChrisB

[wattson]

Thank you for that info.
I do not now own the vehicles in my sig & must modify. I started off "borrowing" my friend's Peugeot Partner which he bought from a government auction & had been standing for years. The maintainence was carried out by Accuservice in Bordeaux. I then bought a Renault Clio Electric which I had for almost a year when I thought it would sell well in London, as everyone was raving about the G wizz which I thought looked rediculous, & I thought that a 5 door hatchback would be a real treat! It sold to a guy in Portugal after just 2 bids. I then bought the 106 from Toulouse city. It was like new but did not have batteries & I never had 3500 euros at the same time as a set was available so never put that on the road. I also had a few scootelecs, purchased at the same auctions as these generally came with the same batteries & I thought that if I could buy enough I would have the batteries for the 106 - but without the containers! I gave up on this in the end & that kind of finished my interest in EVs. It was only when I was looking in a salvage yard for something else when I saw this Berlingo, written off WITH its batteries! Knowing how hard they are to get here I asked the price for the wreck & was pleasantly surprised that they had not done their homework (or maybe they know something I don't!). If the working parts are not damaged the plan is to either buy a battery-less van ( one at auction in a couple of weeks locally with a 500 euro reserve) or break this one & sell the bits. Not sure which.

[cianof]

Sounds like you have had some good experiences with EVs so far. I hope the next project works out.

The reason we're going on about the battery maintenance is that this is the most common point of failure of these PSA EVs. The batteries are the most valuable part of the vehicle, yet many owners don't look after them. Considering the cost/resources required to create these batteries this is big waste.

IMO, 500 or close too this would be a great price price for a berlingo w/ out batteries.

[Grumpy-b]

Before you do anything, check that there is no cell damage or damage to the cabling.
When you try and charge the batteries from flat, it may prove impossible. I have had to slave another Berlingo to a pack (with a light bulb in circuit) , just to get it up to a point where the charger would kick in. Sometimes it can be plugged in and it will start after a half hour or so. They seem very variable as to how they deal with very low battery voltage.
If its been hit in the rear, check out any damage to the petrol tank and its holder. They are quite close to the rear pack.

Good luck.

Grumpy_b

[wattson]

Collected the bent Berlingo this morning & had a good look underneath while it was on the forklift. No sign of any damage so when it arrived home took a chance & put a new vehicle battery on, replaced main fuse & plugged it in. After a couple of minutes the pump started & charging commenced! After 6.5 hours it was showing over 100 percent so I un hooked it & tried it. Apart from the rear bumper rubbing on the tyres all seems as it should. Before deciding the van's future I will see if a local body shop can jig the back out which would give me a nice van.
Watch this space.