Very lucky to have such s qualified technician. My Zoé 41kwh charger failed, it charges at home but not on public chargers. I live in France, they want to charge me 3900 Euros to replace the WHOLE unit. But your video proves thus isn't necessary.
We will have a lot more confidence in EV's in the future when we know that repairs are possible to individual parts like this. Well done James and Matt.
Impressive they have all the diagnostic tools and know how. Easy access to purchase the individual parts. Nice. Tesla watch out, second hand EV's have to be repairable at reasonable cost out of warranty. Parts availability is key. Renault are doing well by their customers.
@@JeanPierreWhite Ah I see what you mean, hopefully Tesla will be able provide after market parts eventually, Renault have been doing it for a while I guess.
Great explanation of how it all works, really enjoyed watching, Not sure I’d call several hundred quid a cheap fix though, cheaper than a dealer though I suppose. Nice to see they built it with maintenance in mind to swap out parts rather than changing the whole lump 👍
Not that I needed reconfirming, but it has confirmed two things; 1. I am going to leave this sort of thing to experts, and 2. I live FAR too far away from Matt’s Magic Motor Cave. Very interesting and educational video. Great stuff.
Loving this series James. We’ll see mechanics skilling up like this over the coming years and repairing/modifying EVs will be no more scary than it is with ICE cars today.
Nice to see a tech who really knows his stuff, I wonder how many there are around at his level. It would be great to have a channel just explaining the car electrical systems. Just for those of us who just like to know.
Very important video by independent expert member of the EV community. This is a vital community capacity and service in order to accelarate thr transition to sustainable transport.
Impressive stuff! Is it sad that I recognised the Infineon IGBT pack and associated capacitor before you said what they are...? Very impressive knowledge there, nice one.
I don't have a Zoe any more but that was interesting. People are so used to throwing out perfectly good parts that they don't think about this kind of repair. I have always had similar frustrations with ICE vehicles too.
Clearly nothing ‘Cheap’ about this (cheap has connotations of shoddy and inadequate). Hope I’m not sounding picky here James. This is obviously a very professional job done by a company and technicians that know what they’re doing. Great job James and the crew at Cleevely. As others have said, it’s great to know that there are facilities available such as this to keep older EVs on the road at economically viable prices.
All very interesting👍 More concerning is WHY did the Infineon module fail? If it's a common issue like you said, it sounds like a design fault meaning ALL modules are at risk.
Have a Zoe that is taking 18 hours to charge on a 43KW charger and I have been told by Renault dealer that the whole thing needs to be change, over £6000 for a car that is barely 5 years old. I lost faith on EV and unfortunately on Renault. I'm thinking to go back to petrol until mechanics figure out how EV works, unless @james knows best and can help : )
Nice to see that service can be broken down to individual devices inside the larger package. We don’t necessarily like to see a repeatable failure on an EV, since that appears to be a sort of design or performance shortcoming, which could steer people away from a particular brand if the likelihood of failure is high, and it can occur outside of warranty. Is the replacement part “improved”? Or could/will the same part fail again?
When i saw him handling the igbt rectifier on the concrete floor, i immediately thought: that's going to need replacement as the cooling contact plate is damaged. Then he told us that's the culprit he's going to replace.... I was so relieved😂
Any teardown technical documents, diagnosis tools etc you can share further on this repair? Or any good sources for used/rebuild BCB's? Are they car/VIN specific or swappable? I have a 2013 with a defect BCB. Are damaged sub-components typically visually diagnosable?
Thanks a lot for this info ! I am having charging issues with my Kangoo Z.E. 22 KwH and are at the point of selling it for a way to low price. It is in new state !!! I will find out at Renault tomorow if I can buy these parts. Thanks again !
I met a Zoe owner at a rapid charger in Evesham. She said that it wasn't able to charge at home or work. She'd bought it second hand and her dealer had "very kindly" exchanged it for a Cloe to help her out. Trouble is she will not be buying electric in future.
Interesting video, my zoe going in next week for charging issues, thankfully James got the car running ok at home and charging in the Tempory condition ok with no heat or air con but usable.
I had decided to go for an ev next but after having to make a longish drive at night recently 125 miles and return within an hour I realised if I'd of been in an EV it would not of been possible. I am now thinking of a hybrid such as Peugeot 3008 hybrid 4. It has good reviews and is affordable. The bulk of journeys I can do in EV mode but with the ice to fall back on. I did check there is only 1 public charger en route as well but on this occasion I was on a tight schedule.
You could do that in a Zoe ZE40 without a problem, at least down to -5C if staying below 95km/h, even with a crappy battery. With the new Zoe ZE50 no problem to go 110km/h all distance even at -10C. My best so far has been 238km with 7% left at -17C (comfort 20C inside and 95km/h highway usage) but that was with an SoH (State of Health) at 99% battery. 59000km SoH is at 97% in 15 months. Or as a backup plan, preheat the battery/compartment for at least 3 periods (stupid french programmers) before starting the journey than on the way back go for eco mode and stay below 90km/h and no heat... Then it would work just fine even at -10C in ZE40
Before lockdown I was commuting 120-130 miles a day in my ZE40 without charging. It could technically be done in a ZE40 with a Q motor or a ZE50 as long as you had a rapid charger en route. Something like a Hyundai Kona or a Kia E-Niro could do it in one but are more expensive. All I'll say is maybe not now, but soon you'll have an affordable EV option for that type of journey. The at night bit makes little difference as the lights are run off the 12V battery and the only connection with the 12V circuit and the traction circuit is the DC - DC converter that takes a small amount of power from the traction battery to keep the 12V battery topped up.
As a LEAF owner myself, where I'm from the issue is a lack of people with this kind of expertise - so you end up taking the car to the main dealer who has little idea what they're working on. I cannot imagine them even replacing the OBC, let alone repairing it!
For vehicles sold in the United States, its a federal mandate for car manufactures to provide an 8 year warranty for the battery, electric motor and electric components including the inverter and charge controller. So a 2014 vehicle would still be covered, for no cost repair at the dealer assuming they have someone trained with the know how. For example, Chevrolet says on its web site... in addition to the Bumper-to-Bumper Coverage described previously, Chevrolet will warrant certain components for each Chevrolet Volt, Bolt EV, and Malibu Hybrid for 8 years or 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) , whichever comes first, from the original in-service date of the vehicle, against warrantable repairs to the specific electric propulsion components of the vehicle. If you don't have something like that in the UK, tell your MOT staff they should add that to the car manufacture's requirements as part of the 10 point plan green revolution recently published. Well done.
That’s brilliant, just shows than contrary to what some say, these cars can be repaired and at a reasonable price by specialist repair shops. This is another fledgling industry born out of BEVs. alongside mining for lithium in Cornwall and the supply and maintenance of charge points both domestic and commercial..
My wife’s 2015 Zoe (Q210) has just come up with that fault code.. we’ve tried 2 other charge points in case our home charger is faulty, but still same. Battery charges when being driven (braking, slowing down), but not from charge point. Only happened this week when it was really hot, charged fine on Sunday.. really stumped now
Mine didn’t charge 3 phase anymore and threw an error after every 100% charge. It also didn’t charge if the battery was over 27ºC. With a special software I was able to reset the error over and over again. Suddenly, now the error doesn’t show up anymore and I can charge single phase at least just fine, as if nothing happened. I did’t dare to try whether I can charge 3 phase because when I had the problem this made a horrible short circuit. PS: Renault behaved horribly, refused to grant warraty. I paid 1650€ for a new filter and after 600km I had the same problem (as discribed above) again. So they wanted to sell me a new motor for 4000€. Nope.
Nice one James. Great to see that proper repair and diagnosis is being done. Are the component subassembly parts available from Renault or are they aftermarket only? (So Renault just does bigbit swapping as you describe). Great video!
@@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524 I don't think it is OEM made for Renault. I believe Renault picked available at the time components from Infeneon's catalogue (and other brands too) and combined them together into the aluminum casing as a Renault part.
@@klisurski Yes indeed. How many times as a small possibly even single item buyer have you bought anything from Infineon? They are a B2B company! You have to buy through multiple intermediteries if the part is even available throught that route... Not always guaranteed.
@@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524 you are correct-I thought I've bought some SMDs for ECUs from their website in the past, but it was actually a reseller's website. I just confirmed now.
Hi James yet another fantastic video. With what you said about how much the main dealer would charge for that job thank god for these people. Is it the same garage you did all your other videos from and can they work on any Ev. Once again James a very informative and interesting video.
I have to say that it is really great to see that you can order the components new from renault. Nissan fails badly in this area. Also they appear to have been designed with maintenance in mind. Again Nissan fall down here too.
How much of this equipment is different for rapid/Q models vs regular? We have a Q model Zoe, but I've heard there are less than 400 of them in the UK, which makes me worry about part availability.
Hey guys. First of all, awesome documentation. It’s nice to know there is someone who can diagnose this cars. My big problem is to get Information to repair these parts. And to offer it to my clients. I try to find information about the parts in the ZOE. Talk to Renault and Continental but they won’t give me informations about this stuff. So I searching for workshops which repair these parts for me. It is possible to get in contact with these technicians? Best regards
Hello! Is it possible to charge the car with one phase split by three ? To connect L1, L2, L3 on one phase? Or just to L1 and L2 and the L3 connects to the Neutral? I read somewhere, if charging only with one phase, the capacitor will dry out and on three phase charging can be an issue with time. Is it true?
You can use 1p or 3p. If you start on 1p you can't switch to 3p without stopping the charge, if you do you'll damage it. Going the other way isn't an issue, it will pull the charge. It sets the type of charge from checking if you're on 3p/1p during initialisation. Charging on either for long periods is no issue. You can't split 1p across the three phases as the PEB drops L3 to neutral.
@@Jamesandkate ok. What will happen, if I split one phase to two? To L1 (230v) and L2 (230v) as the PEB drops L3 to neutral. Will it see it as a 1p charge? but using all 3 lines?
Hi, I am like stuck in such a problem. Zoë quick charge, had an upgrade to 41 kWh battery, got it second hand. Worked perfectly for me for 3½ years so the car is total close to 7 years old. Does not charge on 3 fase anymore, only 1 fase charging works which I can do at home only atm. Official Renault dealer saying, only fully replacing the rectifyer unit at 4200€ will fix the problem. Which just breaks the bank for us. As I had my education in electrical engineering (landed in IT specialist work, sorry 😉) it feels totally idiotic to throw away the whole rectifyer unit. And we simply can't spend this chunck of money in current crisis. Do you have any pointers where to find such a skilled repair shop in the Netherlands?
Hello! Thanks! Too good Videos. I read in a newspaper that it cost a Renault Zoe owner from Scotland 100,000 Swedish kronor to have a new charging port installed and connected. Do you know if this is really correct? Thanks! From Tommy.
Hi, thanks the lecture video, it was very informative. I have a question (maybe not a wrong supposition), I am curious about your answer: is it reasoneable assumption, that the AC charging (up to 22kW) is much better for an EV battery's lifeterm (like Zoe), than the DC charging (50kW and beyond)? What do you think about it, what is your experience? What battery-degradations you have perceived yet? If my supposition is right, it means, the Zoe could be better choice, than many newer EV (in long term), because of its 22kW recharging possibility (if that is better for the battery than the DC charging). And btw it's cheaper, too! What is your opinion?
For most people they would be charging daily using 7kW or 11kW charging at home on any EV and then only occasional rapid charging for longer journeys, and it would do little harm.
Atm it’s a distant dream having a ev mechanic that knows what they are doing! Having t charging issues with my kangoo ze! Can’t find anyone who can fix it! Is this gentleman in the London area by any chance?
Are those kind of faults eventuelly caused by software bugs of those components (PEB, BCB, EVC, ...)? Because Renault offers different updates for each of those components which I forced my dealer to install. XD I heard that there was a bug where one compoment was smoked, when a charging station offered 2 of 3 phases and the Zoe then thought it could start a single phase charge or something. So this should be fixed with updating the components right?
The issue that you are describing is when 2nd phase goes down from your 3ph supply for some reason during charging (eg separate fuses in the fusebox and only 2 goes blown) then Zoe decides to switch to single phase charging as it monitors just 2nd phase to establish if 3phase AC supplybis available and decides the supply is single phase only. This causes a relay to short the 3rd phase to Neutral and BANG. I am not sure that monitoring the 3rd phase could be fixed with SW update, but disabling the auto 3to1phase switching could be. I might be wrong. The relay is in the filter box which is the smaller lid that he did not open in this video.
So it's just hardware parts? No need to reprogram or pair with the car? I signed on a 17 ZE 40 R90 on Thursday and they're supposedly giving it to me on Tuesday or Wednesday. The problem is yesterday I was googling for more info about the equipment of my model and trim level and I stumbled on a post about a car exactly as mine with charging problems that the dealer bought back because of that and that they had sold it like an R110. It's too much coincidence, the Km, first registration, location and everything seems to fit with my car... If it is the case and I have problems with charging it I could buy a used charging unit and swap it into mine? I'm a mechanic, but I've never touched an EV, so I would have to learn before I do anything to it. The problem is that there seems to be no garage in my area that specializes on EV, and if the dealer didn't help with the last owner... 😰
Hi guys, wondering if there are any tips after arriving at a charging station (AC Fast Charger) with really low battery left (2% and less) and the car doesn't want to charge, fault message comes up to say battery charging impossible and this has happened twice to us. Thanks
so the rectifier - inductor - motor - motor windings and the voltage is step up to the needed voltage and then come back to the battery, it is the flow of charging in renault zoe. please comment me if I wrong
Had charging problem last last year with my 2013 Leaf, would only charge on chademo port. Nissan dealership had her for 1 week, charging unit replaces at £2700 pounds. best extended warranty I ever took out for £300 pounds. I wonder how much of this is still down to dealerships not understanding the tech they are working with.
None of it. Dealers are replacing the whole units. There are cases where for similar problem, as the one in the video, dealers are quoting replacing the entire drivetrain as parts were hardcoded by VIN. Most of the dealers don't understand electric modules at all. They would have to learn at some point in order to keep their jobs.
Interesting video because I know early Zoe's were very fussy on their charging requirements and I remember having a Zoe for 4-day trial which wouldn't charge on a granny charger at my home and I had to keep going back to the dealer every day for a couple of hours. Regarding the repair, isn't this sort of thing a warranty repair or does Zoe have a short warranty? Technical point but the camera you used in the workshop I think wasn't set to 50Hz lighting and the brightness (of the workshop floor in particular) had a pulsing effect.
My Zoe from 2014 stopped charging recently. My Renault service workshop did a diagnosis and they say the whole motor must be replaced. The issue should be with the motors insulation and as the motor is part of the charging system, the car refuses to charge. Does this make sense? Did anyone have the same issue?
I hope this will not be a common problem. My Zoe Q90 has now 140.00 km after 2 1/2 years. And so far every thing ok. Almost zero problems. Except after 4 week, there was an error message on the display for 2 seconds "electrical system fault" So the Renault garage don't know why this happens and Renault told them to replaced the carbon brushes in the motor. But that was a warranty case... Until now all is fine!
@@eDriver Carbon brushes? Really? Wow, my washing machine used to have those. They used to wear out and have to be replaced. I thought all EVs used brushless motors these days. Glad that it’s not a common issue.
@@eDriver I think Renault just didn't know what were talking about. Hopefully they were joking. This message usually appears when 12v battery is low, but not only. There are no carbon brushes in ZOE motors as the coils are in the stator (synchronous electric motor)
