Thread: EV general discussion

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Its very deliberate the modern cars being unservicable. Edison motors posted a very interesting video yesterday. Everyone will have seen the hiundi crap, where you need a service tool worth thousands of dollars and a weekly subscription ...... to change your brake pads



towards the end he describes the crap all the modern manufacturers are doing. they all want everything to be a "subscription service".

Honestly .. at this juncture it's not about serviceability. Luckily these cars actually needing anything being done seems to be very rare. At the moment it's just a case that there are no parts. You crash your car and you need a bumper, a bonnet, a guard and a headlight and they just aren't in the country. And they are still months away. Meanwhile people are paying leases on cars they can't drive.

I spoke to my panel beater mate today. He said it's hard getting parts for any cars at the moment. Where they used to hit the wreckers.. the value of metals is high enough that many cars are being melted for their metals. He was pointing at a relatively new Mazda and telling me this story.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Honestly .. at this juncture it's not about serviceability. Luckily these cars actually needing anything being done seems to be very rare. At the moment it's just a case that there are no parts. You crash your car and you need a bumper, a bonnet, a guard and a headlight and they just aren't in the country. And they are still months away. Meanwhile people are paying leases on cars they can't drive.

I spoke to my panel beater mate today. He said it's hard getting parts for any cars at the moment. Where they used to hit the wreckers.. the value of metals is high enough that many cars are being melted for their metals. He was pointing at a relatively new Mazda and telling me this story.

That is true, even for the most main stream of cars. For 10+ year old cars I drive .... Not such a problem as there is lots of wrecked/crashed cars to scavenge parts from.



I'm about 1/2 way through this .. Fascinating ... why do the bus bars in the battery develop corrosion. Its a vented weather proof box (maybe its heat cycling). Anyway he soon works out the "rebuilt" battery in it ..... isn't rebuilt at all. The battery modules are "pairs" of cells. So the rebuilder had just arranged all of the best cells and paired them with the worst cells. So the average voltage was almost in spec. And just like magic a "rebuilt" battery.

I'm quite amazed the current hybrids sound to be using the identical cells (decades later), so he has just harvested them from a modern battery.

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

That is true, even for the most main stream of cars. For 10+ year old cars I drive .... Not such a problem as there is lots of wrecked/crashed cars to scavenge parts from.



I'm about 1/2 way through this .. Fascinating ... why do the bus bars in the battery develop corrosion. Its a vented weather proof box (maybe its heat cycling). Anyway he soon works out the "rebuilt" battery in it ..... isn't rebuilt at all. The battery modules are "pairs" of cells. So the rebuilder had just arranged all of the best cells and paired them with the worst cells. So the average voltage was almost in spec. And just like magic a "rebuilt" battery.

I'm quite amazed the current hybrids sound to be using the identical cells (decades later), so he has just harvested them from a modern battery.

I haven't watched the video.. but times have changed. Batteries are different. Chemistry's are different. Cell voltages are monitored individually in good batteries.

What hasn't changed is people doing dodgy stuff. Mate at work who is an electrical engineer. His electric scooter he rides to work on.. battery was failing. He noted that there were two capacities of batteries in the same size. He opened it up and all the cells were all over the place. He believes the lower capacity packs are just all the B and C cells thrown in that weren't good enough to make the good packs. Waste not- want not.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

I haven't watched the video.. but times have changed. Batteries are different. Chemistry's are different. Cell voltages are monitored individually in good batteries.

What hasn't changed is people doing dodgy stuff. Mate at work who is an electrical engineer. His electric scooter he rides to work on.. battery was failing. He noted that there were two capacities of batteries in the same size. He opened it up and all the cells were all over the place. He believes the lower capacity packs are just all the B and C cells thrown in that weren't good enough to make the good packs. Waste not- want not.

the chemistry might be different. unlikely. they appear to be direct replacements, same voltage, same internal impedance.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Honestly .. at this juncture it's not about serviceability. Luckily these cars actually needing anything being done seems to be very rare. At the moment it's just a case that there are no parts. You crash your car and you need a bumper, a bonnet, a guard and a headlight and they just aren't in the country. And they are still months away. Meanwhile people are paying leases on cars they can't drive.

I spoke to my panel beater mate today. He said it's hard getting parts for any cars at the moment. Where they used to hit the wreckers.. the value of metals is high enough that many cars are being melted for their metals. He was pointing at a relatively new Mazda and telling me this story.

with the parts thing. The eldest daughter rang me last night. Car is stuck in supermarket carpark and wont move. Head up there, its screaming when Istart it and the clutch will not dis-engage. Its a stupid robotic manual so hard to diagnose. But I'm pretty sure its throw-out bearing has expired. That is the second car here that has had it's clutch expire due to a plastic thrust bearing this year. Gee's I hate cars made this century. I contact the local seller (european auto parts melbourne). Parts hard to get? $280 for a full clutch kit, it will be here tomorrow. I need to go collect the car and verify it is the thrust bearing before I place the order though.

If this was a modern car I'd probably be waiting on parts from china ... Anyone feeling like whipping a gearbox out this weekend?

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

with the parts thing. The eldest daughter rang me last night. Car is stuck in supermarket carpark and wont move. Head up there, its screaming when Istart it and the clutch will not dis-engage. Its a stupid robotic manual so hard to diagnose. But I'm pretty sure its throw-out bearing has expired. That is the second car here that has had it's clutch expire due to a plastic thrust bearing this year. Gee's I hate cars made this century. I contact the local seller (european auto parts melbourne). Parts hard to get? $280 for a full clutch kit, it will be here tomorrow. I need to go collect the car and verify it is the thrust bearing before I place the order though.

If this was a modern car I'd probably be waiting on parts from china ... Anyone feeling like whipping a gearbox out this weekend?

My landrover mechanic says that's one of the issues they face. New parts are not as good quality as the oem ones.

Sorry to hear about the gearbox. Over christmas I'm going to remove the lotus drivetrain (well pretty much everything mechanical other than the diff) so I can fix the gearbox selector which wasn't broken before I paid a guy to rebuild it. :| It's just run in too.. One of the quirks of the "x-frame chassis" is you can't get the gearbox out without entirely removing the engine. Which is not very convenient - if I'm honest.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

My landrover mechanic says that's one of the issues they face. New parts are not as good quality as the oem ones.

Sorry to hear about the gearbox. Over christmas I'm going to remove the lotus drivetrain (well pretty much everything mechanical other than the diff) so I can fix the gearbox selector which wasn't broken before I paid a guy to rebuild it. :| It's just run in too.. One of the quirks of the "x-frame chassis" is you can't get the gearbox out without entirely removing the engine. Which is not very convenient - if I'm honest.

On a hobby car I don't mind that. I prefer to pull the lot, it allows you to do all the "while I'm here" jobs. The new clutch kits OEM all have plastic throw-out bearings. The new clutch I just fitted eariler this year to my wifes car also had a plastic throw-out bearing (a quality veleo clutch). The bearing is SKF branded.

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

On a hobby car I don't mind that. I prefer to pull the lot, it allows you to do all the "while I'm here" jobs. The new clutch kits OEM all have plastic throw-out bearings. The new clutch I just fitted eariler this year to my wifes car also had a plastic throw-out bearing (a quality veleo clutch). The bearing is SKF branded.

I don't even understand how a throwout bearing can be plastic.