Bad SLI battery

Well, on my way to work Wednesday morning the check engine light came on solid. This is the Zilla’s way of telling me that something is amiss. The can continued to drive with full power and the Zilla wasn’t overheating (according to the gauge) so I continued my drive. Once in the parking garage I plugged in my laptop and looked at the error codes. I was surprised to see a whole bunch of 'em:

1224 - SLI battery too low and caused shutdown of controller
1221 - Major Overspeed Either Motor Beyond redline by X
1223 - SLI battery below warning threshold
1124 - Main Contactor Stuck On

2 of these, the overspeed and contactor stuck on are pretty serious, but the motor wasn’t over-reved, and the contactor was not stuck on…

By the way, SLI stands for Starter, Lights, Ignition since that's the role the battery plays in a gas car. In an EV, it's more of a buffer to keep the 12v system running during heavy loads.

I cleared the errors and thought I’d take a look at it again on the way home.

After work I drive the car out of the garage without the check engine light lit. On my way home the light came on steady again. It was raining so I was using my wipers and headlights, so then I started to think the real error was low SLI battery voltage and this low voltage was causing the Zilla problems in its logic which made it think the motor was over revving or the contactor was stuck.

A few blocks from my house it did stall, but I was able to get it running again and brought her home.

I tested the voltage on the SLI battery – 12.4v, not too good. I got out my 12v charger and charged it up.

The next day I drove it to work when the check engine light came on again. Once in the garage I checked the error codes and this time it was just 1223 - SLI battery below warning threshold. I left work a little earlier to avoid using the headlights, and it wasn’t raining, so the trip home was, other than the check engine light staying lit, uneventful.

Back at the house the SLI battery again showed 12.4v. I put it on the charger for a couple of hours, but when I removed the charger the voltage started to drop. In an hour it was back at 12.4v - must be a bad battery.

I checked on line and the nearest auto parts store, Kragen, doesn’t carry them. I tried Sears, and they don’t carry them either. I was thinking I was going to have to order one on line and pay a hefty shipping fee, when I found that Auto Zone did carry them and the one 20 minutes away had one in stock!

Saturday I pulled the old battery, picked up the new one and gave them the old one in return. Connected it up and thought I was all set…

Monday on the way home the light comes on again! Same error, 1223. I put the new battery on the charger and checked under the hood to see if my Iota was disconnected. It was wired fine, but I did find one of its fuses blown. Not sure when this would have happened (maybe when installing the new battery?), but this must be why the new battery died on me. Just the same, the old battery was bad because it wouldn't hold a charge.

So, moral of the story?
- Low SLI battery will make your Zilla think strange thoughts
- Check your fuses!

ZEV Stickers

I just got a letter from the DMV in Sacramento with 3 silver stickers. These are similar to the yellow stickers you see on hybrids in CA, but these are better - they're silver.
These will let me drive in a carpool lane and park in an "EV only" spot for charging.

Earlier, the DMV denied my application because they were not aware the car was converted to electric. I sent them a response with the BARs report showing that the state representative attested to it being fully electric.
How could they say no...

Range update

So, I probably have a good 10 months of driving on the car and the battery pack is broken in quite well. The SOC gauge has been showing over 100% in the morning for a few months, but now it seems pegged. I was estimating the old fully charged SOC at 110% but now I'd say it's 120%. After I drive the 4.5 miles to work and she sits a few hours it shows 100% SOC. When I return home and let her sit, it now shows 70% remaining. These are highway miles too, at 60+ MPH...
Back in June I did a test and put 17 highway miles on a full charge. Now I could probably do 20 or 25. Maybe I should revise the range up a bit?

New plate

My wife was driving the car one afternoon and got a ticket for no front license plate. Since the car didn't come with a front plate, I needed to get a new set to clear the ticket. Sounds like a good excuse to order personalized plates... Took a few weeks, but I picked them up on Tuesday. Now I just have to get the front plate installed...

0-60 time revisited

Quick update on the 0-60 time. I occasionally make a pass on my way to work and see what time I get. I still spin the wheels a bit, but I've been getting 12.8 seconds pretty consistently, so this may be the best I can do.
I can't help but think a real driver on a track could do better, but this will have to do for now. Still, it's faster than a Triumph Spitfire, MGB or the original Porsche 914 - http://www.albeedigital.com/supercoupe/articles/0-60times.html
I'll continue taking an occasional pass to see if I can better 12.8.

Denied!

I'm looking at adding an AVCON charging port to the car since the public charging locations here in SF are mostly all equipped with them. In order to use the public charging spots in parking lots, you need to have the proper silver ZEV stickers on the car. Since the car is now registered and the stickers are only $8 (plus they let you drive in the carpool lane) I figured I'd send in the form.
This was in September.

A month later I get a letter from the DMV - not with my stickers, but with my uncashed check and a nice letter explaining that a 1992 Miata is a gas car and if I want to register it as Natural Gas, blah, blah, blah.

The form wasn't very detailed - it was intended for hybrids, those Ulta Low Emission Vehicles and maybe an EV1 or RAV 4 EV - not for a conversion. I can see how they might think I was just trying to get into the car pool lane for free...

After stewing for a couple of days I wrote them what I thought was a nice letter and included a copy of the BAR Referee certificate to prove the car is now electric.

I was going to include some pictures, and a link to my web site, but figured that may just annoy them.

We'll see what they say.

New website is up!

I'm happy to say the new website is finally up! We've been working on getting the kits ready to ship, getting the new web site designed, working through a bunch of issues with PayPal then Google Checkout, but it's finally ready to go - at least close enough, and I'm tired of looking at it.

The kits are orderable from the pricing page and we decided to have a special introductory price of $2,000 instead of the $2,500 we plan on charging. How long will the discount last? Don't know. You might want to buy one now while you can save the $500.

I was hoping to have a shipping through a couple of carriers but this turned out to be a big hassle, so shipping is through UPS only for now.

I no longer have a link from the site to this blog - I wanted to keep it the way it was rather than try to give it a serious business tone. I have another blog - EV Miata News - for the serious business stuff.

If you feel like it, drop me an email to let me know what you think and especially if you find any bugs, typos or etc.