[Electric Tire Shredder]

The simple answer is "yes".

The buyer ended up getting a 2017, & the details are "hidden" on the "wrong" part of the forum, so I thought it might help other potential buyers to post the link here:

Should I buy a 2013 500e in 2023?

Hi everyone, I recently joined because I'm looking to buy a used Fiat 500e through California's Replace your Ride program. Before I get into the details of my search I want to give some more background about myself that is relevant to what I'm looking for in an EV. I'm currently low income and...

www.fiat500owners.com

 

[vwxyzero]

Guess I found it just snooping around, but yeah, this is a much better place for it!

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

I'll try to summarize the thread so far:

- $11k black 2017 with under 40k miles.

- Worked fine for a while but then failed to start due to all the coolant leaking out of the reservoir, so it's in the shop for a new one.

- Calculating home charging cost per mile from: Power bill dollars, divided by power bill kWh, divided by 0.89, divided by 4.3 (or whatever the trip gauge says for mi/kWh after tapping the wiper stalk tip a couple times):

- Theft-prevention of OEM charge cord in the driveway by tying a loose knot in it & locking that inside the hatch, closed just 1 click. The fob still locks it & arms the alarm:

- Deleting the useless, heat-trapping "motor" cover and installing an M8x1.25 wingnut for easy reboot, & a Bluetooth 12V alarm set to go off at 30% or 11.75V or so since the built-in alarm is useless:

- I think they're also going to leave the evil error causing humidity sensor unplugged:

- & I think they still need to go to Mopar.com & at the bottom under "Resources" click "Recalls" to enter the VIN & click "campaigns" to make sure U69 is done to protect the HV drive battery:
On phone:

On computer:

 

[Hotsun84]

I'll try to summarize the thread so far:

- $11k black 2017 with under 40k miles.

- Worked fine for a while but then failed to start due to all the coolant leaking out of the reservoir, so it's in the shop for a new one.

- Calculating home charging cost per mile from: Power bill dollars, divided by power bill kWh, divided by 0.89, divided by 4.3 (or whatever the trip gauge says for mi/kWh after tapping the wiper stalk tip a couple times):
View attachment 114591

- Theft-prevention of OEM charge cord in the driveway by tying a loose knot in it & locking that inside the hatch, closed just 1 click. The fob still locks it & arms the alarm:
View attachment 114589
- Deleting the useless, heat-trapping "motor" cover and installing an M8x1.25 wingnut for easy reboot, & a Bluetooth 12V alarm set to go off at 30% or 11.75V or so since the built-in alarm is useless:
View attachment 114592 View attachment 114593
- I think they're also going to leave the evil error causing humidity sensor unplugged:
View attachment 114594
- & I think they still need to go to Mopar.com & at the bottom under "Resources" click "Recalls" to enter the VIN & click "campaigns" to make sure U69 is done to protect the HV drive battery:
On phone:
View attachment 114596
On computer:
View attachment 114595

Just got it back and installed the battery monitor and got the konnweii. Checked the batteries and they look good (100%, 95.69% and 84.71%).

Do i leave the konnweii thing attached tho? Or do I take it off after each check?

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

Do you mean that it showed the SOC % as 100 max & 84.71 min?

If so, you may have a bit of an issue with one or more low cells. Please check & report back with the "Max/Min Status" for cell mV:

It's fine to leave the KW902 plugged in, as long as you don't leave it turned on for more than a few days.
Sorry but I didn't test to see how many days it takes to drain the 12V battery.

You could leave it on if you drive every few days so it doesn't have time to drain the 12V battery.

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

I meant that if you drive every few days it wouldn't matter if you never remembered to turn it off.

& maybe you mean SOH showed 100%, 95.69% and 84.71%. If so, it's a prime example of how those numbers are meaningless: After 30k+ miles, 100% of original capacity is impossible. Please check the Max/Min Status Cell Voltages, preferably when there's less than 50% showing at the lower left of the speedometer.

 

[Hotsun84]

 

[Hotsun84]

I meant that if you drive every few days it wouldn't matter if you never remembered to turn it off.

& maybe you mean SOH showed 100%, 95.69% and 84.71%. If so, it's a prime example of how those numbers are meaningless: After 30k+ miles, 100% of original capacity is impossible. Please check the Max/Min Status Cell Voltages, preferably when there's less than 50% showing at the lower left of the speedometer.

So when I have less than 50% charge?

I think I'm already under that right now since I've been driving all day. Might check it out tomorrow.

I'm also trying to figure out how to adjust the brightness of the screen. Not sure if its

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

Whew! Those are the meaningless numbers. 100% State Of Health is of course impossible, & you also likely have more than 84.7% of new capacity too, so there's really no point looking at those numbers.

Yes, preferably check Min/Max mV with less than 50% charge, but you don't need to wait until tomorrow. The app auto-saves the data logs. I never figured out how to use this Google Drive function:

But I just plugged my phone into my computer's USB & found the files there:

Load, & scroll down for this:

 

[Hotsun84]

Whew! Those are the meaningless numbers. 100% State Of Health is of course impossible, & you also likely have more than 84.7% of new capacity too, so there's really no point looking at those numbers.

Yes, preferably check Min/Max mV with less than 50% charge, but you don't need to wait until tomorrow. The app auto-saves the data logs. I never figured out how to use this Google Drive function:
View attachment 114649 View attachment 114648

But I just plugged my phone into my computer's USB & found the files there:
View attachment 114650

Load, & scroll down for this:
View attachment 114651

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

If you can figure out how to just load the pics as thumbnails it's a lot easier for us scroll through them.

Your 3852 minus 3825 is a 27mV imbalance, which is a bit high. Has it been fully charged to 100% recently, to balance the cells?

 

[Hotsun84]

I charged it to 95 and the dealership charged it to 90 i think. I read on here it's not good to charge it to 100?

I haven't charged it to 100 myself and I'm not sure what the owner charged it to before I had it.

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

Except for a 1st-gen Nissan Leaf, charging to 100 is fine. For the 500e it is required once in a while in order to balance the cells. If you don't do that every so often, you may end up with a big imbalance. Maybe even as big as 27mV .

 

[Hotsun84]

And what does that mean? What can I expect to happen with an imbalance?

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

With any multi-cell battery pack, when you use it the cells don't all discharge at exactly the same pace. So it ends up with some cells lower than others. Then when you plug in, the cells don't all recharge at the same pace. So that can increase the difference.

Repeat that every time you drive & the Max/Min imbalance continually increases.

Since the car stops when the lowest cell gets too low, it reduces your available range. It's also supposed to be not very good for the health of the pack, to let it get too imbalanced.

The 500e is only programmed to rebalance the cells when it's being charged above 99%. Apparently yours hasn't been balanced in a while, so I would do that as soon as possible. 27mV isn't all that bad, but the highest I ever saw mine was I think 21, & it's normally 9 or less, if I've done a full charge within the last thousand miles or so.

 

[Hotsun84]

Ok will do. I was avoiding charging it to 100 because of what I read on this forum.

So how often should that be done? Just when I see that there's a big disparity?

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

Yes, exactly!

I read on here it's not good to charge it to 100?

No EV allows charging to 100% of its true capacity. If it did, it would lose capacity rather quickly, like a cell phone or laptop that's charged to 100%. Or a 1st-gen Leaf that allows charging to 98%.

Tesla claims that because they limit their cars to 95% max, it DOUBLES the lifespan.

The 500e is limited to about 85-90%. In other words, when it says 100% & stops charging, it's really below 90%.

That said, the lower the better, especially when parked for days at a time. I try to keep it low, at least until shortly before driving, & then I check for imbalance every few months, since I've learned mine takes quite a while to get very far off.

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

But it's fine to just plug in when you get home & let it sit at 100.

That's almost certainly what most 500e owners do, & they still report such little range loss that it's undetectable compared to just driving a few mph faster, which might have been why they thought they had range loss in the first place:

My friend who leased a 500e definitely did both of the above:

• She plugged into a $500 L2 when she got home, so it was fully charged in 1.5 hours, sitting at 100% all night every night.
• At first she'd drive sensibly, getting home from her out-of-county sister's with 10 or 20% left. Then she learned exactly how fast she could drive in order to just barely make it back, pulling into the driveway as it hit 0%. So I guess you could say she had "detectable range loss", but it was only because she was driving faster .

 

[Electric Tire Shredder]

So try to charge to 100% soon, preferably shortly before driving, but do a scan at 100% & check the imbalance.

If it's not under 10mV, I'd plug it in again to restart the balancing process, since there might be a limit to how much imbalance it can correct in once shot.

 

[Hotsun84]

So I would plug it back in even if it's at 100? Or drive it and then plug it back in once I'm home?