"Fixing" the battery on my FREE Ford Focus Electric (Part 3)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video, I finish up the re-assembly on the lower battery pack for my 2013 Ford Focus Electric, though this process ends up coming with some trial and error... Eventually I get it figured out though, and I'm able to get this car back on the road, at least for awhile.
Thanks for watching, and make sure to stay tuned for more EV repair related content!
Hii Alex, another solution for the coolent system on Ford Focus would to create the loop out the stainless steal tube and the use the silicone tube to connect to the coolent maniford and the tubes on the battery cells. that would removel the flex that is pushing the maniford off the cell. I hope that makes sense. regrads Manny.
Liquids usually have higher heat capacities than gases. But if the choice is between good and none, I would consider using filtered air as
a coolant. Better than nothing and it has the benefit of being non corrosive as well.
nice
I like your idea.
Condensation my friend
If this car is almost a nigthmare for you as a semigod expert, imagine for the mortals what would be!!
Great video!!!
thanks for including everything, it's real life stuff, good job
Fun to learn about the future that I will not be here to see. If we could come up with a lighter battery pack with twice the power capacity these cars would rock. I'm sure our future generations will figure it out.
It's coming fast! This car is already pretty "ancient" from a tech perspective given how fast the technology has been progressing in such a short amount of time. A typical new EV (or even one from a few years ago) would have nearly double the energy density that this car has.
For reference, this car uses LG Chem 15Ah cells that have an energy density of about 150Wh/kg each. Compare that to the 2170 cells used in a Tesla model 3/Y, which have an energy density of almost 260Wh/kg. The cell chemistry is improving all the time, and I imagine that we'll continue to see leaps and bounds increases in capacity over the coming years, just like has happened over the last decade.
The idea of doing away with some or all of the cooling for batteries already assumed to be on their last legs dose not give me the warm fuzzies. You could be setting yourself up for an exothermic surprise.
It would be preferable to just bypass the pack entirely with the coolant and just connect the in/out coolant tubes together. Then there is no liquid in the pack at all.
I guess you didn’t watch the video.
@@kevinmills5293 I tend to post while I'm watching and forgot to amend my post at the end 🤣
...Great video....Terrific to see a quality video of someone pushing the 'system' and trying things. Nice Style. Agree it's super handy to have a cheap, knock around vehicle at hand.
...Had a thought when you mentioned (part 1?) that others had got more space in the packs by physically removing all the cooling plates between pouches / battery elements...
...Instead,
...Why not remove every second cooling element and keep the coolant flowing in remaining elements? .. Solves lots of problems...
...It would give space and allow some degree of cooling.
...Regardless I wouldn't park in/near the workshop unless your insurance specifically covers experimentation (insurers love their exemptions)
...Very happy to find your channel, keep up the good work.
...P.S. Not sure of your logic re other cars not having cooling thus it's not vital.... There's Air Cooled motors in some Internal Combustion cars VW Beetle etc. why not delete the radiator for a normal car if it leaks?....Ahhh..Big metal cooling fins and blowers....who would have thought... :)
...Just imagining all those pouch sized hotspots well away from any monitoring... Electroboom would love it.
Cells swelling is a sure sign they are on the way out can also cause an internal short
Why not measure the pack voltage before re-installing just in case of any bad connections? Great project very well presented1
Thought - could you have bent the metal tubes into a 'J' and used a short silicone tube to attach to metal stubs?
Very informative! Thank you.
Instead of totally eliminating the cooling lines I would have you send your silicone tubing and daisy chained the cooling plate lines and then made a connection to just one section of the original manifold. It would not be as good as original but at least there would be some kind of cooling.
Thanks for such a great miniseries of informative info! So if I were to buy one of these could the coolant bypass be accomplished without dropping the battery in my driveway?
Curious as well as I’d like to try this repair on my car
Your test is incomplete as you didn’t bring coolant to at least 140°F and down to 32°F to test your printed elbows.
In the aircraft industry most of the electronics are cooled by air which flows thru the black boxes holey cover and out the bottom by suction. Not being there, but noticing that there is a plastic manifold cover goes over the cooling tubes, if the upper and lower are separated why not use this air to pass thru one and out the other as an aid to keep the internal temp lower (leaks be dammed). It should improve the internal battery temp,NO Just a thought
...Has anyone experimented with numerous long gentle full charge / full discharge cycles to help the cells reabsorb the gasses making them swell?
...Have noticed this effect in some domestic pouch cells that began to swell after a few years of intermittent use. YMMV.
Imo it was a waste of time making those elbows, it would have been easier and no potential for leaks inside the battery pack to just bypass it externally and cap the ports on the pack.
what if you actually removed that complex battery pack used it as home storage and fitted the car with newer battery modules like from tesla or GM for example?
One day, that would be the plan. The tricky thing is that this battery is a very "strange" number of cells in series, which can't be divided into evenly sized modules, so it would almost certainly have to be a custom solution using individual cells rather than using other "off the shelf" modules.
Maybe a stupid comment but if you're going to mess up the cooling system anyways couldn't you try putting some stop leak in it
How many liters of antifreeze in a Ford Focus Electric?
First! Commenting as i start the video. Love your stuff
With no cooling loop for the battery now, do you limit the rate of charge and watch the battery temperature? Does the car still monitor the temperatures and limit charging and/or output power from the battery if it gets too hot. I would assume that no cooling/heating would be problematic here in Michigan with the cold winter temperatures? Thx for the great videos!
The BMS absolutely still monitors the cell temps with thermistor probes spread throughout the two packs. If the battery is too hot, it will not allow it to operate (drive or charge). If the pack got below freezing, it might not be able to charge, though it would still be able to drive to an extent. Where I'm at, the temperature extremes to cause those issues are not super common (though we do get below freezing temps at times in the winter).
👍😎👍
What sort of coolant do they use? Is it regular ICE vehicle stuff?
Yep, just regular DexCool for this car.
Can anyone tell me how the batteries are cooled now? Did I miss something?
nice!
I have a 2014 FFE with 87k on it and the lower pack leaked so I removed it and blew it out then hung it up for a couple of weeks with a heated fan on it. Then made a bypass loop in the tunnel like you ended up doing, and cleared all the faults. I drove it for about 10 miles at a time around my house. Eventually the SSN fault appeared and now it has 2 warnings P0A0A interlock & P2601 coolant pump A stuck off. I’ve pulled all of the connectors with interlocks checked and cleaned them then reconnected them making sure they are properly seated. Using Forscan I was able to test run all of the coolant pumps which are working normal.
Unfortunately I live in Southern California or I would bring my car into your shop. Would you have any suggestions of what I should be looking for now? Thanks
Hmmm... As far as the interlock circuit goes, it's entirely possible that there could be an open circuit *inside* of the battery caused by corrosion from the coolant.
I would say it could be an issue with the installation of one of the HV disconnects, which is a very common mistake for the type of disconnects used on these cars (same as RAV4 EV, 500e, and others), but since it worked for awhile, that may not be the case here... Worth double checking though to be sure. The lever/handle needs to be all the way upright at 90 deg when plugging it in, then once the disconnect is fully seated, swivel the lever down into place (which should suck the disconnect further into place). This is especially tricky for the lower pack on the FFE, as there's not really enough space to install it with the lever upright, so you kind of have to get it positioned with the lever partially closed, then open the lever all the way before pushing the disconnect all the way down.
If this procedure is not followed, it may *look* like the disconnect is installed all the way, when it actually isn't. I've worked on many a car with this style disconnect where the customer (or even a dealer tech) attempted to remove and re-install it, and didn't do so properly. The easiest way to tell if it's installed properly is to pull on the disconnect with the lever locked down, if you are able to pull it off, then it's not locked down all the way.
As far as the coolant pump issue goes, mine did the same after putting everything back together, and then after a short drive, the code went away on it's own. I think it had something to do with the system needing to bleed air out, or may have had to do with me running the pump with Forscan when I was doping testing.
Thanks for the input. I know what you mean about the hv bat. disconnect they put that thing in a terrible place. I haven’t had any time to work on it this last week but next I’ll try checking for continuity on the interlock connections.
I feel like itd be a burden to use this car as you have a perfectly drivable model s. Would you sell this car as-is to someone if the opportunity arose?
I might consider selling it at some point, but it's actually been a pretty useful runabout just to get around town running errands.
It's sort of turned into my default "shop car" for running to pick up parts and such.
@@AlexEVRepair I can def see that, turning radius probably super nice too
I don’t think I could sell it. With the battery cooling delete, I imagine the insurance would take a dim view and in the case of a battery fire, they wouldn’t pay out.
I'm glad I don't own one of these...
So just to be clear, the battery pack had a cooling system and you think it will be fun to bypass it? I hope you bring marshmallows!
I was honestly thinking the same thing that thing is going to explode
@@destruct61 🤣
Bypassing the cooling system definitely comes with drawbacks (the big one being reduced lifespan for the pack, which realistically is nearing EOL anyways in its current state). The car has safety measures built in to place to keep the pack from getting too hot, and will limit or shut down power if necessary. Some EVs (particularly the Nissan LEAF) don't have battery cooling at all, and the biggest issue is accelerated degradation. However, for most operation, the pack doesn't get appreciably hot enough to cause issues, unless it were a very hot day outside (>100 deg. F). If this car had fast charging capabilities (which it doesn't), that would be a totally different story, as then the cooling would be much more necessary.
This modification has been performed by numerous other FFE owners with general success, though some folks do have issues with power being limited on really hot days in places like Phoenix AZ. Being in the PNW, it's pretty unlikely that I will have those issues, except maybe on the hottest few days of the year (in which case, I will probably refrain from driving the car). Just today, I put about 50mi on it in 85-90deg weather without any issues.
Please tell us all where your EV Repair Shop is located, so we can avail ourselves of your service and expertise.
I would not drive this vehicle anywhere, still a fire 🔥 hazard 😮😮😮.
.. carry a big *ss Fire Extinguisher .. 🙄💯🔥🧯🚒
.. & Charge It Outside ..🔌⚡
Salut
Y aurait il un francophone pour me resumer la raison pour laquelle il supprime le refroidissement interne des batteries ? :)
Merci
A+elR