Minicab MiEV support with charger/blown capacitors

[mark_hetho]

You might have to clear the error code after replacing the capacitors. I believe at least one of the trouble codes associated with the charger failure is persistent.

[walkingthedog]

Thanks Mark. I'm not really sure which DTC relates to which thing. If I put it all back together again and then clear the codes and it doesn't work then I'll probably just have to take it apart again. I understand why mechanics charge lots for the hour now.

[nuggetgalore]

Yeah, after replacing them the charging light is flashing, it wasn't doing this before when charging and it didn't short circuit some things in the garage.

.
The charging light flashes if the charge plug is inserted when the "ignition" is on Acc or READY. turn the ignition to OFF, then it should start charging if the 230 VAC is live. Once it is charging, the ignition can be turned on to "Acc" ("READY" is locked), that allows you to check odometer and all the other data displayed on the dash.

Not sure how to purge the coolant lines..

viewtopic.php?p=80675#p80675

[ Edited Coulomb: fixed URL link ]

[walkingthedog]

Yeah, after replacing them the charging light is flashing, it wasn't doing this before when charging and it didn't short circuit some things in the garage.

.
The charging light flashes if the charge plug is inserted when the "ignition" is on Acc or READY. turn the ignition to OFF, then it should start charging if the 230 VAC is live. Once it is charging, the ignition can be turned on to "Acc" ("READY" is locked), that allows you to check odometer and all the other data displayed on the dash.

Not sure how to purge the coolant lines..

viewtopic.php?p=80675#p80675

[ Edited Coulomb: fixed URL link ]

Hmm.. It was flashing when the vehicle was turned off though. Thanks for that link guys. I really appreciate your help and support. How come the coolant needs to be purged btw?

[coulomb]

How come the coolant needs to be purged btw?

The charger is water cooled. To take the charger housing out, you have to disconnect the hoses, obviously. When you put the charger back in and reconnect the hoses, if you do nothing else, air will get into the hoses, and the air will circulate through the coolant loop. Air has a small fraction of the thermal capacity of water; it's pretty useless for doing the job of transporting heat out of the charger to the radiator. So until the air is purged from the system, the cooling system is ineffective, and the charger and other pieces of equipment on the same cooling loop would likely get damaged.

When I say water cooled, it's not just tap water, but some special mix of demineralised water and a chemical.

[walkingthedog]

Wow, thank you for explaining that. Very good to know

[nuggetgalore]

....
I also changed the fuse in the case to the right of the DCDC converter

Is it the 20 A fuse (Mitsubishi FUSE,MOTOR 9499A656) in the inverter you replaced?
Was it blown or did you just replace it to be sure?

Just to be sure

Just for interests sake, we checked the fuse: it was dead as most if not all are when the caps blow up.

[nuggetgalore]

80675



Hmm.. It was flashing when the vehicle was turned off though...

Maybe some further info can point to the cause of the problem.

When inserting the plug , everything starts with what appears to be the normal handshake, ie the led on the brick indicates charging and the charge indicator on the dash is blinking for about the time it usually takes for the actual charging to start, but then the charging light goes out instead of being lit continuously. In my opinion it is timing out for the handshake signal(s).
Now that can be a number of things, exhaust fan, PWM signal to control the current, charger not responding??
I doubt it would be the main positive or negative contactors as such as they do come on correctly when the car goes to ready and the DCDC converter is definitely ok.