FS diahatsu sirion conversion - SOLD

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brendon_m
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Joined: Sat, 28 Oct 2017, 11:00
Real Name: Brendon McCarrol
Location: Perth, Western Australia

FS diahatsu sirion conversion - SOLD

Post by brendon_m »

EV Diahatsu Sirion
$6500

Converted to electric in 2012 @230,000km
Engineered and licenced (Registered untill Jan 2022)
Air conditioned

44x ThunderSky 100Ah cells estimated to be around 70% SoH. A few cells (8? 12? I can't remember) have been replaced with Calb 100ah cells.
Original capacity was 14kWh

9 inch Kostov 144VDC motor

Zeva 600A motor controller

3.3kW TC charger (I have it turned down to 2kW to charge from a 10a GPO, at that rate it recovers about 15km of range per hour of charging)

I have not done a full range test in a long time but I have done 100km in it however I would say 70-80km is the real limit. Previous owner said the range when first converted was around the 120km mark.
I was using this as my daily driver going 40km to work, then charging during the day and driving home again and it never let me down.


Full disclosure because I don't want to waste your or my time

The gearbox is noisy, oil change may help this but long term it'll probably need a new one. Works fine at the moment.

While the air con works, the belt is not aligned right so it is noisy even when the aircon is off, I've done my best to rectify this and it's alot better but you can still hear the belt.

The battery suffers from voltage sag under load so the max power is around 50kW and worse on cold mornings. That being said, 50kW is more than the original 1L petrol engine produced.

I've just replaced the brushes and bearings in the motor and I had to resolder a burnt connection. I was happy with the motor when it was on the bench but after installing it there is a bit of noise coming through, though it may just be the gearbox input shaft. Hard to tell

The motor controller brings up an overheat warning light on hot days (35°C+) when driving under load. I've not had this happen since I added an extra fan to the controller but I also haven't driven it on any really really hot days since that modification.

There are scratches and marks around the car. Nothing serious but it it doesn't look like it rolled off the showroom floor.

To get it licenced the middle seat belt in the rear had to be removed so the seating capacity is only 4 (not that you'd want 5 people in a sirion...)

The glass has become detached from the passenger front electric window. The regulator still works fine but the glass needs to be glued back on. I didnt have the glue for it on hand so I didn't fix it when I diagnosed it but it's not a hard/expensive fix

This has been my daily driver for the last few years and has been cheap and relatively reliable motoring but this is a modified vehicle and needs to go to someone with some knowledge or interest about this sort of stuff. This is not something you should buy for your kids first car, it will need work done to it at some point.

The only pictures I have are too big for the forum so I'll take some low res ones and add them later. In the meantime here's the link to a Gumtree ad

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/kelmsco ... VIP_sticky
Last edited by brendon_m on Mon, 03 May 2021, 17:28, edited 1 time in total.
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brendon_m
Senior Member
Posts: 1315
Joined: Sat, 28 Oct 2017, 11:00
Real Name: Brendon McCarrol
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: FS diahatsu sirion conversion

Post by brendon_m »

Here's some pictures for you all.

Also asking $5000 now



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antiscab
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Posts: 3183
Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

Re: FS diahatsu sirion conversion

Post by antiscab »

Does the Sirion have a Tacho?

I was just looking at the performance curves of the motor - the 1hr rating is 270A, with backemf of 140v at 5500rpm

The 600A motor controller is rated to 200A continuous (which would be why it gets hot, even with the 3 fan cooling)
do you normally drive with the motor spinning at high rpm?

I remember for my mazda 2, it was an efficiency balancing act between the resistance losses in the motor and the friction losses in the gearbox
Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
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brendon_m
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Posts: 1315
Joined: Sat, 28 Oct 2017, 11:00
Real Name: Brendon McCarrol
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: FS diahatsu sirion conversion

Post by brendon_m »

No tacho, but I marked the 5500rpm redline for each gear on the speedo.
And yes it's a balancing act.
The trip home from work is all 80-100km/h and it never was a problem except for the end of Thomas road which is 70km/h. After travelling through there for a few km and then trying to accelerate from the lights on Southwest hwy up to 90km/h was when the controller started to complain.
If I did the same section in 2nd rather than 3rd it wasn't an issue, less efficiency due to the gearbox losses and a noisier drive but no overheating.
70km/h in 3rd for a long period and then heavy acceleration uphill on a 35+°C day was just too much for the poor old controller.
Normally I drive in 3rd gear and shift to 4th if the gearbox noise is annoying me too much while cruising.
If I'm feeling hoonish I'll take off in 2nd and shift up once I'm at 60-70km/h.
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