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BMW i3 Won’t Move After Big Repair Bill! Here's How I Fixed It — Transcript

by Out of Spec Renew · 5,562 words · 823 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00Howdy folks. Welcome back to another
  2. 0:02AutoSpec Renew video. Today you join me
  3. 0:05here with this 2014 BMW i3. This is the
  4. 0:09battery electric version, not the Rex.
  5. 0:12Um, this customer brought it in because
  6. 0:15uh the car is not currently running.
  7. 0:18They actually had it brought to the BMW
  8. 0:20dealer. They replaced a whole bunch of
  9. 0:22components on it. Basically just fired
  10. 0:24up the parts cannon and tossed whatever
  11. 0:27they could at it. uh very expensive bill
  12. 0:30and uh after all that it didn't work
  13. 0:33still and ultimately the solution that
  14. 0:36they came up with was that they said the
  15. 0:37EM needed to be replaced and their quote
  16. 0:40for that was something absurd like 8 or
  17. 0:4210,000 bucks. Uh so the customer brought
  18. 0:45it in here. They actually sourced their
  19. 0:47own used replacement EM. Uh but we're
  20. 0:50going to go ahead and take a look at
  21. 0:51this thing and confirm that that's
  22. 0:53actually the issue. and then uh if it
  23. 0:55is, we'll go ahead and go through with
  24. 0:57the swap.
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  58. 2:23we've got the car powered up here. I've
  59. 2:25got just an external power supply
  60. 2:27connected uh to keep the 12volt battery
  61. 2:29from going dead. Don't know if you guys
  62. 2:31can see on the instrument cluster there,
  63. 2:33but we've got a drivetrain stop
  64. 2:35carefully message on there. And uh
  65. 2:38there's a couple of other faults that
  66. 2:39it's scrolling through on the main
  67. 2:41screen. Let's go ahead and connect to
  68. 2:43the car here with our diagnostic tool.
  69. 2:46We want to go to BMW.
  70. 2:51Where is BMW?
  71. 2:54Let's just go Europe. There we go. That
  72. 2:57makes it a little easier. So, we'll go
  73. 3:00ahead and connect to this thing, see
  74. 3:02what we've got for faults,
  75. 3:05and
  76. 3:08find out what's going on here.
  77. 3:16Yes, all that's correct.
  78. 3:19Connecting.
  79. 3:27All right, we're connected. We're just
  80. 3:28going to go ahead and do an auto scan.
  81. 3:30This will just scan through any faults
  82. 3:32that the car has. It probably has a
  83. 3:34bunch of stuff related to like low 12vt
  84. 3:36and stuff just because the car has been
  85. 3:38off and the 12vt has been disconnected
  86. 3:41and reconnected and all sorts of good
  87. 3:44stuff. But we'll let it go ahead and
  88. 3:45scan through all the modules here. See
  89. 3:47what it comes up with for faults.
  90. 3:51And that actually went pretty quick
  91. 3:53there. It's almost done.
  92. 3:56There we go. We'll go to report, see
  93. 3:58what we've got here.
  94. 4:00And let's see. Cyclical recharge not
  95. 4:03successful.
  96. 4:05Driving readiness cannot be established.
  97. 4:10Um, terminal 30F reset or deactivated.
  98. 4:13Automatic air circulation. We don't care
  99. 4:15about that. We had our I had the high
  100. 4:18voltage uh the high voltage disconnect
  101. 4:20on this has been off. So, we've probably
  102. 4:22got bunch of stuff there.
  103. 4:27under volt
  104. 4:30preloading blocked due to maximum number
  105. 4:33of failed attempts.
  106. 4:37Circuit interrupted.
  107. 4:39Let's go ahead and clear our faults here
  108. 4:42and see what we get to come back
  109. 4:46just because we've got so many other
  110. 4:48stuff saved in here
  111. 4:54just from dead 12vt or disconnected uh
  112. 4:58interlock loop and whatever.
  113. 5:02All right, I'll come back to you guys
  114. 5:03when I can get this thing rescanned. Oh,
  115. 5:07there we go. We're back.
  116. 5:11Okay. And now what have we got? We've
  117. 5:14got driving readiness
  118. 5:17not started in SP unable to activate
  119. 5:20driving readiness. Okay.
  120. 5:23Well, let me try and turn the car off
  121. 5:26and back on again and see what we get.
  122. 5:28All right. So, we are in the car here.
  123. 5:30As you can see, we have a drivetrain
  124. 5:32stop carefully message. Let's go ahead
  125. 5:34and start.
  126. 5:38Okay, I hear what sounds like
  127. 5:40contacttors may be trying to close but
  128. 5:43not closing. So, let's go ahead and do
  129. 5:46our scan here. Let's see what we get for
  130. 5:49faults.
  131. 5:53We're getting battery discharge, start
  132. 5:56engine, whatever. I actually have a
  133. 5:58power supply that's currently keeping
  134. 6:00the car alive so the 12volt battery
  135. 6:02doesn't die. Okay. And we've got a few
  136. 6:04different faults here.
  137. 6:07So let's go down here and see what we've
  138. 6:09got. Cyclical recharge not successful.
  139. 6:12Cannot be established. Driving
  140. 6:14readiness.
  141. 6:16Contacttors underload open.
  142. 6:20Okay. High voltage system preloading.
  143. 6:21Short circuit between both high voltage
  144. 6:23cables.
  145. 6:25Uh contacttors switch off after fault.
  146. 6:30Immediate opening of switch contacttors.
  147. 6:32So, it looks like we've got a short
  148. 6:34circuit in the high voltage system,
  149. 6:35which is actually what the BMW dealer
  150. 6:37said. They said that there was a short
  151. 6:39in the EME. So, it looks like we do
  152. 6:42indeed have faults for that, and it's
  153. 6:44set as a permanent fault, uh, which
  154. 6:46means that it's a current code.
  155. 6:50So, let's go ahead and power the car
  156. 6:51back down here.
  157. 6:54We'll, uh, disconnect the 12volt
  158. 6:55battery, high voltage disconnect, and
  159. 6:57all that stuff. And, uh, we'll go in the
  160. 7:00back and start testing components. and
  161. 7:02see if we do indeed have a short. All
  162. 7:04right, so the car actually came already
  163. 7:07disassembled like this, so saves us a
  164. 7:09little bit of time and having to take
  165. 7:11things apart. Uh, so this big box right
  166. 7:14here on the top is the EME, and it kind
  167. 7:16of does a few different things. It's the
  168. 7:18traction inverter for the motor. So it's
  169. 7:20a DC to three-phase AC inverter. It also
  170. 7:24acts as a junction box for a lot of the
  171. 7:27high voltage system components. Um, so
  172. 7:30it's got all these uh cables that are
  173. 7:33attached on the side here. It also
  174. 7:34houses the DC toDC converter. Um,
  175. 7:40yeah, that pretty much does it. I mean,
  176. 7:41that's basically everything that it
  177. 7:43does. Uh, so let's go ahead and get
  178. 7:45everything unplugged here. So,
  179. 7:49these two big connectors here on top,
  180. 7:52one goes straight to the battery, and
  181. 7:55then the other one,
  182. 7:58um, where does the other one go? Well,
  183. 8:00yeah, I guess that one that one goes
  184. 8:03straight to the battery.
  185. 8:06I don't know. I'd have to look at the
  186. 8:07wiring at the diagram for this, but one
  187. 8:09of these goes straight to the battery.
  188. 8:11Uh, one probably goes to the junction
  189. 8:14box down here for the DC charging, I
  190. 8:17think. Um, not sure which one's which.
  191. 8:20I'm not an expert on BMW stuff. I don't
  192. 8:23work on them very often, but
  193. 8:26this part of the diagnostic process
  194. 8:28should be pretty cut and dried. We're
  195. 8:30basically just looking for a low amount
  196. 8:34of resistance in the high voltage system
  197. 8:37indicating that there's some sort of a
  198. 8:39short circuit that's preventing it from
  199. 8:41being able to pre-charge.
  200. 8:43Um, and it might not even necessarily be
  201. 8:46a direct short. I mean, it could be uh
  202. 8:49just a low resistance value, you know,
  203. 8:51say in the
  204. 8:54um, you know, couple hundred or a couple
  205. 8:56thousand ohms range. uh that would
  206. 9:00probably be acceptable. But if it's
  207. 9:01anything more than or anything less than
  208. 9:05like a couple hundred ohms
  209. 9:08or Yeah, I mean realistically probably
  210. 9:10even several thousand ohms. If it's
  211. 9:12anything less than that, uh the system
  212. 9:14just won't be able to pre-charge and uh
  213. 9:17close the contacttors.
  214. 9:20So,
  215. 9:21I could probably look up the exact value
  216. 9:23for
  217. 9:25what they want to see, but we're just
  218. 9:27looking at this very moment for anything
  219. 9:30obvious.
  220. 9:32So, we got that unplugged.
  221. 9:35And then we can do the same
  222. 9:38on this connector.
  223. 9:40So, those just slide like so.
  224. 9:45And then we can pick that whole thing
  225. 9:46up. [gasps]
  226. 9:48And then I've got just a standard
  227. 9:51multimeter here.
  228. 9:53And we'll just set it to ohms. And we
  229. 9:56want to see how many ohms of resistance
  230. 9:59we get across this thing.
  231. 10:02I'm just going to set that there where
  232. 10:04hopefully you guys can see that on
  233. 10:05camera. Can you? Yeah.
  234. 10:08I'm just going to put this on the two
  235. 10:10prongs in the EDM EME here.
  236. 10:15And yeah, only one ohm. So that's like a
  237. 10:17dead short. I mean, we've got Yeah,
  238. 10:20that's dead shorted. There's no way the
  239. 10:21car would be able to start. Even if it
  240. 10:24could close the conttors, it would just
  241. 10:25immediately blow the high voltage uh
  242. 10:28fuse.
  243. 10:30Do we have that on both sides? Probably,
  244. 10:32because that should just be a direct bus
  245. 10:34between there. Yep.
  246. 10:36Uh so we definitely have a short. I
  247. 10:39guess what we need to do now is
  248. 10:41determine whether it's the EME or if it
  249. 10:43could be something downstream. So, we
  250. 10:46probably want to disconnect anything
  251. 10:47that's part of the high voltage system
  252. 10:49from the EME.
  253. 10:52So, we've got this connector here, which
  254. 10:56goes to probably onboard charger, I
  255. 11:00think.
  256. 11:02If I can get it undone.
  257. 11:05That is
  258. 11:11There we go. So, we got one. Got two
  259. 11:14more connectors down here.
  260. 11:17One probably for
  261. 11:20cabin heat and then the other one's
  262. 11:21probably for AC compressor or something.
  263. 11:26[snorts]
  264. 11:31Come on. [snorts]
  265. 11:34I might need a pair of disconnect pliers
  266. 11:36to put enough pressure on these.
  267. 11:40All
  268. 11:45right, let me go grab a tool here real
  269. 11:47quick.
  270. 11:48All right, got my disconnect pliers.
  271. 11:50Hopefully these help. And I should
  272. 11:52probably just get a light, too, so that
  273. 11:54we can see better. Of course, there's no
  274. 11:56good place to attach a magnetic light
  275. 11:59since nothing on this car
  276. 12:02is magnetic other than some fasteners.
  277. 12:07Uh,
  278. 12:10that might kind of work. How about if we
  279. 12:12just connect it to the back of the seat
  280. 12:15there?
  281. 12:17Okay.
  282. 12:19All right.
  283. 12:21So, we've [snorts] got all those
  284. 12:22disconnected. Let's go ahead and hook
  285. 12:24back up here.
  286. 12:26See what we've got.
  287. 12:30Okay, so we still have a dead short
  288. 12:34on the EME. So, that's looking like that
  289. 12:38is indeed our issue. So, let's come up
  290. 12:40with a game plan to replace it. All
  291. 12:42right, I kind of got sidetracked with
  292. 12:43some other stuff, but we're back to it
  293. 12:45on this thing. Basically, at this point,
  294. 12:47I've just got to go ahead and try and
  295. 12:49disconnect everything from this. By the
  296. 12:53way, these are kind of funny. They use
  297. 12:55these sort of big standoffs.
  298. 12:58>> [snorts]
  299. 12:59>> on the output for the DC toDC so that
  300. 13:02you can use them as jump posts.
  301. 13:07So yeah, basically I'm just going to go
  302. 13:09through try to disconnect everything,
  303. 13:12get as much of this stuff out of the way
  304. 13:14as I can. The real hard part is going to
  305. 13:16be getting the fasteners out. So
  306. 13:19basically there's a fastener that's down
  307. 13:21tucked down here underneath that goes
  308. 13:24bottom to top. So it's upside down.
  309. 13:26We've got the same on this side, which
  310. 13:29is easier to get to, but we've got very
  311. 13:32little clearance between the side here
  312. 13:35and then sort of the structural uh
  313. 13:38framework of the vehicle. And then we've
  314. 13:41got two more at the front which are
  315. 13:43tucked back way underneath here. And
  316. 13:46those I think are going to be
  317. 13:49kind of difficult, especially the one
  318. 13:50that's in the back corner this way, just
  319. 13:53cuz there's not very much clearance. So
  320. 13:55hopefully I can get in there just with
  321. 13:57uh just with like a universal joint and
  322. 14:00a socket. I don't have any shorter e
  323. 14:04torque sockets, so hopefully this will
  324. 14:06work.
  325. 14:08Um if not, I might just have to use a
  326. 14:10shorter like a short 12point socket to
  327. 14:14get that off. Um which isn't ideal, but
  328. 14:18it'll work. Um so yeah, clearance is
  329. 14:22kind of our enemy here. And then of
  330. 14:25course the clearance to actually get the
  331. 14:27EM out of here is pretty narrow. I would
  332. 14:30say I've got maybe
  333. 14:35maybe 3/4 of an inch to work with for
  334. 14:38this thing to come up. So hopefully
  335. 14:40that's enough that we can actually get
  336. 14:41it out of here. I think that I can sort
  337. 14:43of tilt it and then pull it out. But I'm
  338. 14:47going to continue on with the
  339. 14:48disassembly here and
  340. 14:51hopefully we can get it pulled out
  341. 14:52without too much of an issue. All right,
  342. 14:54so we've actually got the car up in the
  343. 14:56air here. And that's because I've got to
  344. 14:58disconnect some coolant lines. The one
  345. 15:00up there we can get from up top pretty
  346. 15:02easily. But there's one on the back side
  347. 15:04of this thing that is pretty tough to
  348. 15:07get to that maybe I can try to show you.
  349. 15:12If I can get a light in there in a good
  350. 15:15enough position where you can actually
  351. 15:17see.
  352. 15:20Anyway, it's right back there.
  353. 15:25You can just see
  354. 15:27the nipple on it where it connects. So,
  355. 15:29that's going to be tough to get to. I've
  356. 15:31got a set of uh remote hose clamp
  357. 15:34pliers. It's got a a cable on it. I
  358. 15:37won't be able to see show any of that on
  359. 15:39camera because it's just too tight of a
  360. 15:40space to work and film at the same time.
  361. 15:43But I'm going to try and get that hose
  362. 15:45off, drain the coolant out of this
  363. 15:47thing, and then uh we can do the other
  364. 15:49one and keep going from there. But uh
  365. 15:53yeah, the AC compressor here is
  366. 15:54definitely kind of in the way and
  367. 15:57there's nothing I can really do about
  368. 15:59that. So, on with the disassembly here.
  369. 16:03All right, I've made a fatal flaw in my
  370. 16:05reasoning on this thing. So, I actually
  371. 16:07got all of the bolts out on the EM. I
  372. 16:09got the two out on either side that go
  373. 16:11up from the bottom, and I got the two on
  374. 16:12the back side that go down from the top.
  375. 16:15Uh, the coolant hoses have proven to be
  376. 16:17a challenge. The one on the back side
  377. 16:19here, or I guess technically it's the
  378. 16:21front, but the one up there is uh
  379. 16:25not playing ball. The one on the side
  380. 16:27here is easy enough to get off. It's
  381. 16:29just a quick disconnect. So, that one I
  382. 16:31can do no problem. But my error came
  383. 16:34over here where the three phases from
  384. 16:37the EME, which is up on top, connect to
  385. 16:40the motor behind this plate. And uh I
  386. 16:44can almost remove the plate except
  387. 16:48that bolt right back there up top is
  388. 16:52blocked by this plastic motor mount
  389. 16:55bracket. So, I'm going to have to remove
  390. 16:58the motor mount bracket in order to get
  391. 17:00that plate off, which kind of sucks. So,
  392. 17:05anyway, I'm going to go ahead and
  393. 17:07disconnect all the motor mount bracket
  394. 17:08stuff. Uh, if you'll remember, I
  395. 17:11actually did a previous video where I
  396. 17:13replaced that same motor mount bracket
  397. 17:14on a car where it had a sheared off
  398. 17:16bolt.
  399. 17:17So, I'm not going to go too into detail
  400. 17:19on that. It's a pretty simple process,
  401. 17:21but I'm going to go ahead and remove
  402. 17:22that bracket. Then we should be able to
  403. 17:24get this cover piece out of the way and
  404. 17:27then unbolt the three phases between the
  405. 17:29motor and the EME. All right, that was a
  406. 17:32bit of a struggle fest, but I did
  407. 17:33finally get the side mount out. I think
  408. 17:36I'm realizing at this point that I
  409. 17:38probably would have been better off just
  410. 17:40to drop the whole motor out of the car.
  411. 17:42I think it probably would have been the
  412. 17:44easier route to go. All I would have had
  413. 17:46to have done was undo this mount bolt,
  414. 17:49the mount bolt there, the rear mount or
  415. 17:53I guess front mount rather that's
  416. 17:55underneath the gearbox in the middle
  417. 17:57there and then just remove the axles
  418. 17:59from both sides and this whole thing
  419. 18:00would have just dropped out. Probably
  420. 18:03would have made things a whole lot
  421. 18:04easier, but uh we've already made the
  422. 18:07road that we're on here, so we're just
  423. 18:09going to keep on going. But, uh, yeah.
  424. 18:12So, I've got to pull the end cover off
  425. 18:13of the side of the motor there. So, I've
  426. 18:16already gotten one fastener out. So,
  427. 18:19I've just got to get the rest of those
  428. 18:20out. We can get that cover out of the
  429. 18:21way. And then we can undo the three
  430. 18:23phases on this thing. All right. I think
  431. 18:25we're finally ready to get this thing
  432. 18:27out of here. The only connectors that
  433. 18:29are down here are some sort of
  434. 18:30self-aligning, self-connecting uh stuff
  435. 18:33for the resolver setup. But, if we lift
  436. 18:36it straight up, we shouldn't have any
  437. 18:37problem with those. Uh, the only thing
  438. 18:40left that's still kind of connected is
  439. 18:41the coolant hose on the very front end
  440. 18:43of that thing. I couldn't get that thing
  441. 18:46off of there in in the car. So, it goes
  442. 18:49straight from the the EM here down to
  443. 18:52the motor. So, hopefully we can just
  444. 18:54pull it back enough that we can actually
  445. 18:56get that hose out of the way. Actually,
  446. 18:58I almost wonder if we drop the jack down
  447. 19:02if I can maybe get to it.
  448. 19:05Well, I kind of can actually. I might be
  449. 19:07able to see if I can get that undone now
  450. 19:11since I can actually fit my hands in
  451. 19:13here. Let me try and see if I can shove
  452. 19:15that off of there. All right. So, I
  453. 19:17ended up just unbolting the uh the
  454. 19:21actual coolant hose connection on the
  455. 19:22back of there since I'm able to get this
  456. 19:24down enough I was able to get a tool
  457. 19:26back in there so I could unbolt it. And
  458. 19:28now, uh this thing should be ready to
  459. 19:30pull out. So, I'll try and just see if I
  460. 19:32can shove this cable out of my way. And
  461. 19:34I should be able to basically just pick
  462. 19:35this thing almost straight up.
  463. 19:39And then it should in theory
  464. 19:44be able to come out.
  465. 19:47Assuming I don't get caught up on a
  466. 19:49bunch of stuff.
  467. 19:53What am I hanging up on?
  468. 19:56Is it just too It's just that it's
  469. 19:59heavy. I know I'm kind of catching on
  470. 20:01this wiring harness, but I think I have
  471. 20:03everything else disconnected on it.
  472. 20:17Well, I guess these connectors were
  473. 20:18supposed to be unplugged before I pulled
  474. 20:21that out.
  475. 20:23I think they're okay, though.
  476. 20:26[snorts]
  477. 20:30Oh, and there goes the coolant.
  478. 20:40All right.
  479. 20:41All right. So, we've got the old EM that
  480. 20:43we just pulled out of the car. And then
  481. 20:45we have our replacement, which the
  482. 20:47customer provided. It's just a used one
  483. 20:49that they sourced from somewhere. Look,
  484. 20:51we got a little spider friend there. Uh,
  485. 20:54we want to go ahead and pull this
  486. 20:55acoustic cover off of this thing, which
  487. 20:58I don't know why they bother to put that
  488. 21:00on the EME.
  489. 21:04I can see why they have them on the
  490. 21:05motor, but it's kind of pointless to
  491. 21:07have it on here.
  492. 21:09Um, but I think we should be able to
  493. 21:11pull that off relatively easily.
  494. 21:17Goodbye, Spider.
  495. 21:19And
  496. 21:21let's see, we got a couple more clips on
  497. 21:23this end.
  498. 21:31There we go. So, we can transfer that
  499. 21:33over when the time comes. Uh, but in the
  500. 21:36meantime, we've got to get these opened
  501. 21:38up. We're going to swap the control
  502. 21:40board from our old one to the new one.
  503. 21:44And uh that way we should be able to
  504. 21:45avoid having to
  505. 21:48um do any kind of coding. I don't know
  506. 21:50if I mentioned this before, but based on
  507. 21:52the research that I've done, you can't
  508. 21:55really code one of these things um if
  509. 21:58it's already been paired with a VIN.
  510. 22:00There apparently are ways to uh revise
  511. 22:04it where you can erase the VIN off of
  512. 22:05it. Uh but that's a pretty complicated
  513. 22:08process. And I think in this particular
  514. 22:10situation, our control side uh board
  515. 22:14should still be good. So, we should be
  516. 22:16able to swap that over um because
  517. 22:18clearly we've just got a high voltage
  518. 22:19side issue with with a short. So,
  519. 22:22hopefully that didn't cause any damage
  520. 22:24to the control board and uh we can get
  521. 22:28away without having any drama there. All
  522. 22:29right, I've got all the fasteners pulled
  523. 22:31out of the lid here. Let's see if we can
  524. 22:33get this thing opened up. And I guess
  525. 22:36the first thing to find out is if
  526. 22:37there's any visible signs of carnage in
  527. 22:39here
  528. 22:41or if everything looks clean.
  529. 22:51Just work this lid up a little bit at a
  530. 22:53time here.
  531. 22:55There we go.
  532. 22:59All right. So, that's the cover off. I'm
  533. 23:02not immediately seeing signs of damage,
  534. 23:05but
  535. 23:08we certainly have got to have something
  536. 23:10going on here. That's for sure.
  537. 23:15All right. Well, I think we're going to
  538. 23:16want to take this top piece off. Uh, but
  539. 23:20in order to do that,
  540. 23:24we're probably going to need to do some
  541. 23:25further disassembly here.
  542. 23:30Doesn't smell like anything's burnt. So,
  543. 23:33it's interesting. I don't see
  544. 23:36I don't see any signs of a short,
  545. 23:40even though that we clearly have one.
  546. 23:45All right. Well, I guess I'll uh
  547. 23:48continue along here. Probably going to
  548. 23:50end up taking this whole top section
  549. 23:51off, which I'm going to have to figure
  550. 23:53out how to do that. I believe that this
  551. 23:58connector is attached to this board.
  552. 24:01This should be the control board if I
  553. 24:04recall correctly based on what I've
  554. 24:06seen.
  555. 24:08Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right. So,
  556. 24:10this connector will kind of stay
  557. 24:12attached to this board when we pull this
  558. 24:14off. But that means we're also going to
  559. 24:16have to disassemble the high voltage
  560. 24:18connectors here.
  561. 24:20Um,
  562. 24:22so let me work out how to do that. All
  563. 24:24right, I think I've got all the
  564. 24:26fasteners removed. There's a bunch of
  565. 24:27different fasteners on some bus bar sort
  566. 24:29of around the periphery and then on all
  567. 24:31these legs that stick down, but I think
  568. 24:34we should be
  569. 24:36pretty much disconnected.
  570. 24:42There's sort of a gasket around that
  571. 24:43connector.
  572. 24:46And oh, I guess I missed a couple of
  573. 24:48cables here that we have to undo. So,
  574. 24:51let me get those real quick.
  575. 24:53There we go. Now we should be good.
  576. 24:58Oh, except for one more connector. Oh,
  577. 25:01and that's probably for the high voltage
  578. 25:02interlock,
  579. 25:05which those are just connected on either
  580. 25:07side right here.
  581. 25:12Okay,
  582. 25:14I get those undone.
  583. 25:18I might need a pair of pliers for that.
  584. 25:22Can't quite get my fingers in there. Get
  585. 25:24those untangled from that.
  586. 25:28All right. And now we're disconnected.
  587. 25:33Interesting. Yeah, I don't see anything
  588. 25:35here that's a short circuit.
  589. 25:37So, it might be further down in there.
  590. 25:39I'll be curious to do uh
  591. 25:43to tone stuff out and see
  592. 25:46if uh
  593. 25:48if it's somewhere further down in here.
  594. 25:50I don't see anything that looks like it
  595. 25:51got burnt. So,
  596. 25:54yeah. Fascinating. Anyway, the control
  597. 25:57board here is what we're really after.
  598. 25:59That's what we're going to want to swap
  599. 26:00out. And uh
  600. 26:03yeah,
  601. 26:05so hopefully there isn't a problem
  602. 26:08there, which I don't think there should
  603. 26:10be.
  604. 26:12I think we're pretty much good on
  605. 26:13everything in here.
  606. 26:17There is a high voltage bus that goes
  607. 26:19through that. I think that's a current
  608. 26:21sensor on there. So, I don't think it
  609. 26:24actually has anything to do with the
  610. 26:25high voltage itself. So, I'm going to
  611. 26:27continue with the disassembly here. Try
  612. 26:30and get this board off and then uh we'll
  613. 26:33do the same thing on the other one. Get
  614. 26:35this swapped over and then uh I think at
  615. 26:38that point we should be able to get this
  616. 26:40thing back into the car. All right. All
  617. 26:42right. Well, just to satisfy my own
  618. 26:43morbid curiosity, I pulled the bottom
  619. 26:45cover off of this thing. And you can see
  620. 26:48something definitely got cooked there.
  621. 26:51It uh it blew a big crater
  622. 26:55in the circuit board. You can actually
  623. 26:57see all the way through it. I don't know
  624. 26:58if that shows up on camera, but there's
  625. 27:00a hole blown all the way through the
  626. 27:02circuit board there. I can't even tell
  627. 27:05what component used to be there. It's so
  628. 27:08badly damaged. You see it left a big
  629. 27:10stain on the inside of the cover.
  630. 27:13[snorts] So,
  631. 27:15I mean, potentially we could try to swap
  632. 27:17the DC toDC converter out in this, but
  633. 27:20it's got lots of MOSFETs and stuff in
  634. 27:21here that are heat synced to the case.
  635. 27:23It's going to be a lot easier just to
  636. 27:25swap the control board over uh to our
  637. 27:28replacement unit here than it would be
  638. 27:29to swap the DC toDC over. But anyway, I
  639. 27:33was mostly just curious what happened
  640. 27:34here. Clearly, that is not repairable
  641. 27:37because the board is just so severely
  642. 27:39damaged. Um, even if we knew what
  643. 27:42component that was that blew. Uh,
  644. 27:45obviously the board here is a lost cause
  645. 27:47cuz it's got a giant crater in it. So,
  646. 27:50I'll uh go ahead and get all the parts
  647. 27:52for this buttoned up and put away. Stick
  648. 27:56it all in a box and it'll probably get
  649. 28:00recycled or whatever. But let's go ahead
  650. 28:02and get this one opened up and we'll
  651. 28:04swap our original control board to this
  652. 28:06one. And then we can prepare to start
  653. 28:08getting this back into the car, which I
  654. 28:11might not necessarily get to today. I
  655. 28:14guess we'll see if I have it running by
  656. 28:16the end of the day or not, but it might
  657. 28:18be tomorrow that this thing ends up
  658. 28:19running again. All right, the control
  659. 28:21board's all swapped out. I got this
  660. 28:22thing all put together. I even got the
  661. 28:24acoustic uh cover back on it. Now, I
  662. 28:27guess it's time to just throw this thing
  663. 28:29back in the car and get everything
  664. 28:31reconnected. I'll just get however far I
  665. 28:34get tonight and uh yeah, most likely
  666. 28:38I'll have this thing running in the
  667. 28:39morning. But should be pretty
  668. 28:42straightforward from here. It's just the
  669. 28:43reverse of what we've done up to this
  670. 28:45point. All righty, folks. I've got this
  671. 28:47thing buttoned up enough that I think
  672. 28:48that we can at least test it out. And um
  673. 28:52yeah, so clearly we still don't have the
  674. 28:54motor mount or anything on this side.
  675. 28:56Um, it's a real pain in the butt to get
  676. 28:59all that together. So, I really just
  677. 29:01want to make sure that this is going to
  678. 29:02work before we continue wrapping this
  679. 29:04thing up and getting it fully
  680. 29:06reassembled. Uh, I guess I do still need
  681. 29:08to put my two interlock connectors in
  682. 29:12there. So, let's just stab those on real
  683. 29:15quick. Uh, but yeah, that's pretty much
  684. 29:17it. So, I'll go ahead and reconnect the
  685. 29:19high voltage disconnect under the hood,
  686. 29:21reconnect the 12volt battery, and we'll
  687. 29:24see if we get any signs of life out of
  688. 29:25this thing. Uh, I assume we're probably
  689. 29:28going to have to clear some codes, but
  690. 29:29who knows? It might just start right up.
  691. 29:31So, let's give it a shot. All right,
  692. 29:34let's go ahead and reconnect our high
  693. 29:36voltage disconnect. So, that's plugged
  694. 29:38in. We'll connect our 12volt battery,
  695. 29:41which I think that terminal is a little
  696. 29:43loose, so I might need to tighten that
  697. 29:45up. Uh, let's see if I can get an Allen
  698. 29:49key that will fit that. Is that the
  699. 29:52right size?
  700. 29:54It looks pretty close.
  701. 30:00It is. How about that?
  702. 30:03Okay, so we got that snugged up. Then
  703. 30:07we'll actually connect the terminal.
  704. 30:11Okay, I think I heard contacttors there.
  705. 30:14Let's go ahead and hop in
  706. 30:19and see what happens when we try to
  707. 30:21start it.
  708. 30:25Start.
  709. 30:27I hear contactors.
  710. 30:30How about that? We've got a service
  711. 30:32[clears throat] light, but we do not
  712. 30:34have our check EV system.
  713. 30:37Will it let us go into drive?
  714. 30:41It does indeed.
  715. 30:43I'm not going to go too crazy because we
  716. 30:45don't have a motor mount or anything in
  717. 30:46it, but it is allowing us to put it into
  718. 30:49drive and reverse. So, I think that's a
  719. 30:52mission success there. Uh, let's go
  720. 30:55ahead and power this thing down.
  721. 30:56Probably have to disconnect a few of the
  722. 30:58cables and whatnot to actually get the
  723. 31:00motor mount brackets back on. Um, but
  724. 31:03yeah, so I'm just going to continue
  725. 31:05reassembly on this thing, get it all
  726. 31:07sorted, and then uh once it's all
  727. 31:09together, we can take it for a test
  728. 31:11drive. It's pretty much the end of the
  729. 31:13day here today. So, I think I'm probably
  730. 31:15going to come back to this tomorrow and
  731. 31:17get it finished up. All right, got this
  732. 31:19thing all buttoned up. Got the motor
  733. 31:21mount back in. Got everything bolted
  734. 31:23together. Everything's plugged in,
  735. 31:24connected. Wiring harnesses are all
  736. 31:27secured where they need to be. Even got
  737. 31:29the wheel back on here. So, ready to
  738. 31:33repower this up since I had to power it
  739. 31:35down and disconnect some cables to get
  740. 31:38everything buttoned up there. So,
  741. 31:40there's our high voltage disconnect
  742. 31:43and our 12volt battery.
  743. 31:49There we go. I guess we might as well
  744. 31:51lower it off the lift here. And I do
  745. 31:54hear contacttors clicking.
  746. 31:58We'll go ahead and power it up real
  747. 31:59quick just to make sure that
  748. 32:02everything's working.
  749. 32:05And uh I need to put the
  750. 32:09uh motor bay cover back in before we
  751. 32:12test drive it. But I believe we are just
  752. 32:16about good to go.
  753. 32:20Look at that. We are in ready mode
  754. 32:24with uh no significant alerts present.
  755. 32:30Wants us to set time and date and
  756. 32:31whatever, but we should be all good
  757. 32:33there. So, I'm going to go ahead and get
  758. 32:35that rear cover buttoned up. Probably
  759. 32:37put the frunk and stuff back in it, and
  760. 32:39then we'll take this thing for a little
  761. 32:40spin. All right, we've got everything
  762. 32:42all buttoned up here. I'm going to go
  763. 32:43ahead and back this out of the shop
  764. 32:45here. Take it for a little spin, and
  765. 32:48I'll join you guys when we're out on the
  766. 32:51road. All right, we're getting out onto
  767. 32:52the road here. I'm going to take it kind
  768. 32:55of easy cuz we do have a motor mount
  769. 32:57that's slightly broken. I did let the
  770. 33:00customer know. um they opted they're
  771. 33:02just going to do it themselves. Uh it's
  772. 33:04it's pretty easy to replace on these.
  773. 33:07And uh if I were to do it, we'd have to
  774. 33:10wait probably a couple days to maybe
  775. 33:13even up to a week just to get the part.
  776. 33:16And he wants to try and get the car back
  777. 33:17home again so that it they can at least
  778. 33:21uh drive it and he'll order the part and
  779. 33:22just install it himself. It's just one
  780. 33:24bolt. You just have to pry the mount out
  781. 33:26of the frame. Not too difficult. But
  782. 33:29yeah, we are moving along here. It looks
  783. 33:32like we've got no faults present or
  784. 33:34anything, and uh this thing is running
  785. 33:37good. So, I'll just take it around the
  786. 33:38block, put it through its paces, and uh
  787. 33:44we'll uh get it back to the shop and
  788. 33:46wrap this thing up. All righty, folks.
  789. 33:47Well, that's a wrap on this one. Uh
  790. 33:50fairly straightforward job.
  791. 33:52Like I said during the process of that,
  792. 33:55I really think that I would have been
  793. 33:56better off just pulling the whole uh
  794. 33:58motor assembly to pull the EM off. I
  795. 34:01think it would have ultimately been the
  796. 34:03easier route to go, but uh I stuck with
  797. 34:06the method that I started on. And yeah,
  798. 34:09anyway uh yeah, so relatively
  799. 34:13straightforward. Clearly that DCtoDC
  800. 34:15converter section of the EM had the
  801. 34:18short and uh luckily we were able to get
  802. 34:20it swapped out and just keep the
  803. 34:24original control board so that we didn't
  804. 34:25have to do any coding. Like I said in
  805. 34:27the beginning, I think coding on used
  806. 34:30EMEs for these cars can be a bit of a
  807. 34:32problem. So, uh that's kind of the hack
  808. 34:35to get around that if you're in that
  809. 34:36kind of situation. Um really the only
  810. 34:39other issue with the car is it does have
  811. 34:40that motor mount that's kind of broken
  812. 34:42on it. I don't know if I really showed
  813. 34:43it on camera, but the actual rubber part
  814. 34:46of the motor mount is cracked and it's
  815. 34:47leaking the oil out of it. Uh, these are
  816. 34:50oil filled motor mounts on these things.
  817. 34:53But that pretty much uh does it for this
  818. 34:56one. The customer is going to take care
  819. 34:57of the motor mount themselves and other
  820. 34:59than that, the rest of this car is good
  821. 35:01to go. So, as always, thanks for
  822. 35:03watching.
  823. 35:06[applause]

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