Looks like I'm next for traction battery replacement. Car was gently used, 50K miles, no real issues until recently. It died while in motion and accelerating. Toyota has had the vehicle for 6 weeks, and have just notified me that both the motor and traction battery are being replaced. Unfortunately, they don't have an ETA for getting the parts from Tesla - anecdotally they say the last battery they ordered took 3 months. So I'm without a vehicle for 2-5 months :evil:
ALL POSTS - Replacement Traction Battery
- Thread starter TonyWilliams
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Jonathan_UK
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2017
- Messages
- 43
I might be next for a battery swap too.
I'm at 97K mileage, and the car lost all power on the freeway yesterday. After I pulled over, it would only go into neutral or park. Had both the Check EV warning and power steering warnings come up on the display. It's now at Carlsbad, awaiting diagnostics.
Update 2nd April 19: Not as lucky as I first thought. Confirmed motor failure.
I'm at 97K mileage, and the car lost all power on the freeway yesterday. After I pulled over, it would only go into neutral or park. Had both the Check EV warning and power steering warnings come up on the display. It's now at Carlsbad, awaiting diagnostics.
Update 2nd April 19: Not as lucky as I first thought. Confirmed motor failure.
teaguecl said:
I just got my car back - total of 5 months waiting for the motor, and 7 weeks for the battery. Has anyone else had a motor replacement? My car seems much more tame (sluggish acceleration) with the new motor. It is, however, a heck of a lot quieter than it was before!
miimura
Well-known member
My car felt exactly the same after I got it back from drive unit replacement for noise last year. It was just much quieter. I only waited 2 weeks for the motor to come in and it was installed within one day.teaguecl said:
TonyWilliams
Well-known member
If the motor is not making as much power as the previous ones, there’s some kind of problem.
Battery replacement time for mine.
73k miles. Has previously had these replaced over its lifetime:
Onboard-charger
DC-DC inverter
Heater
Drive Unit
Had to have it towed for the first time in my ownership, two weeks ago. I checked in every other day, all they would tell me is "needs a battery, waiting for fts". Now, I'm being told by Toyota of Seattle to arrange to have it shipped to California for battery replacement. I called Toy. Cust. Svc. and they are looking into that advice for confirmation; I suspect it will not have to be shipped south.
Driving my Sienna to commute -- ugh. I hate gas stations.
73k miles. Has previously had these replaced over its lifetime:
Onboard-charger
DC-DC inverter
Heater
Drive Unit
Had to have it towed for the first time in my ownership, two weeks ago. I checked in every other day, all they would tell me is "needs a battery, waiting for fts". Now, I'm being told by Toyota of Seattle to arrange to have it shipped to California for battery replacement. I called Toy. Cust. Svc. and they are looking into that advice for confirmation; I suspect it will not have to be shipped south.
Driving my Sienna to commute -- ugh. I hate gas stations.
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Yup, I have to ship it to Auburn in Calif., as nobody in Seattle has the battery lift equipment. That's the Toyota line. I pay to have it shipped to Auburn, Toyota will consider reimbursement of that portion.
Getting it back to Seattle is all on me, though.
Getting it back to Seattle is all on me, though.
davewill
Well-known member
There's only one thing to do...drive it to San Diego, put in a JDemo, then road trip back home. 
Well, I don't need a road trip right now. My RAV4 EV doesn't need a JDemo -- it's my commuter, and never goes anywhere I need to fast-charge; I have the Tesla for longer trips.
I thought about driving it back north from Auburn, but I burn more in lost wages than having it shipped, and like I said: I don't need a road trip right now.
The shipper, Global Auto Transportation, had to get an extra $50 to Auburn; Toyota said it was in Sacramento, but Auburn is NE of there. And there was a $100 surcharge to winch it onto the trailer. So, $795 one-way.
$1500 round-trip is a chunk of change, but it seems the best I can do right now. I do hope the parts failure ramps down a bit going forward.
[edit 13Sep2019 ALS]
Received VM from Toyota's Alex Green: replacement HV battery has arrived at Auburn Toyota. ETA for completion of replacement: early next week (16-18Sep).
[later]
Received a reimbursement check from Toyota today for $800, for what I paid up-front to have the car shipped from Seattle to Auburn Toyota. That was a lot faster than Alex Green led me to expect.
[19Sep]
Got four shipping estimates to bring the car back to Seattle, all were $800-$1000. Flew to Sacramento ($300), Lyft to Auburn ($55), picked up car.
[21Sep]
760 miles, (11) charge stops (most @ 4 hours each @ 6kw) and I'm back home. Slept in the car. Total about $100 plus above.
I thought about driving it back north from Auburn, but I burn more in lost wages than having it shipped, and like I said: I don't need a road trip right now.
The shipper, Global Auto Transportation, had to get an extra $50 to Auburn; Toyota said it was in Sacramento, but Auburn is NE of there. And there was a $100 surcharge to winch it onto the trailer. So, $795 one-way.
$1500 round-trip is a chunk of change, but it seems the best I can do right now. I do hope the parts failure ramps down a bit going forward.
[edit 13Sep2019 ALS]
Received VM from Toyota's Alex Green: replacement HV battery has arrived at Auburn Toyota. ETA for completion of replacement: early next week (16-18Sep).
[later]
Received a reimbursement check from Toyota today for $800, for what I paid up-front to have the car shipped from Seattle to Auburn Toyota. That was a lot faster than Alex Green led me to expect.
[19Sep]
Got four shipping estimates to bring the car back to Seattle, all were $800-$1000. Flew to Sacramento ($300), Lyft to Auburn ($55), picked up car.
[21Sep]
760 miles, (11) charge stops (most @ 4 hours each @ 6kw) and I'm back home. Slept in the car. Total about $100 plus above.
I've had the replacement HV battery assy. for a couple of weeks and about 1500 miles, and I have a new noise, one that was definitely not present the first 70k miles.
With battery charge above 1/3, and road speed above 30 MPH, if I floor the accel, after a one second pause I hear a continuous squeal. From the LR area of the car. It's fairly repeatable. I didn't really notice it for a long time, because my hearing is only fair (esp. high frequencies) and I run NPR fairly loud to compensate, but I heard it the third time yesterday afternoon and turned off the radio and did a few running tests; it was reproducible a dozen times.
ISTR this was related to battery contactors in early Model Ss?
[later]
Google was my friend: Tesla Tech Note TN-13-16-002 R1, 13 Sep2013
It's a bit disappointing to have a "normal" noise where once it was silent.
[Added 21Aug2022 -- three years later]
The contactor noise gradually faded away; I cannot reproduce it now. It was about a year of daily driving before it was completely silenced. Odd but true.
With battery charge above 1/3, and road speed above 30 MPH, if I floor the accel, after a one second pause I hear a continuous squeal. From the LR area of the car. It's fairly repeatable. I didn't really notice it for a long time, because my hearing is only fair (esp. high frequencies) and I run NPR fairly loud to compensate, but I heard it the third time yesterday afternoon and turned off the radio and did a few running tests; it was reproducible a dozen times.
ISTR this was related to battery contactors in early Model Ss?
[later]
Google was my friend: Tesla Tech Note TN-13-16-002 R1, 13 Sep2013
Telsa Tech Note TN-13-16-002 R1 said:
It's a bit disappointing to have a "normal" noise where once it was silent.
[Added 21Aug2022 -- three years later]
The contactor noise gradually faded away; I cannot reproduce it now. It was about a year of daily driving before it was completely silenced. Odd but true.
The bulletin is stating that it's not a motor noise, it's a battery contactor noise. As the contactor in the RAV4 is the same as the one in the Model S, it appears the bulletin applies.
And, the Model S has motors on both ends.
And, the Model S has motors on both ends.
kmcclellan45
Member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2017
- Messages
- 11
asavage you are my kind of masochist!
over 50 hours to get your car back home to save $400
Last January I Flew from San Diego To Boise to purchase a 2019 Chevy Bolt
The plane ticket I won at company Christmas party
For this trip of 960 miles I paid for 274 kwh of energy at a cost of $118.67 I averaged 3.5 miles per kwh, not bad considering there are lots of elevation changes.
and I got to visit friends in Carson City NV that I haven't seen in a while.
People still call me crazy/stupid for doing it.
over 50 hours to get your car back home to save $400
Last January I Flew from San Diego To Boise to purchase a 2019 Chevy Bolt
The plane ticket I won at company Christmas party
For this trip of 960 miles I paid for 274 kwh of energy at a cost of $118.67 I averaged 3.5 miles per kwh, not bad considering there are lots of elevation changes.
and I got to visit friends in Carson City NV that I haven't seen in a while.
People still call me crazy/stupid for doing it.
It's not like I needed to save the money, I was really PO'd about the lopsided shipping costs though. And I had the time. I was expecting that the public L2 chargers would supply at the rate I get at home (40A, 9.6kw) but none of the stops were provisioned at that level. I certainly wouldn't do that trip again, knowing what I do now.
DerekRiehl
Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2014
- Messages
- 8
Need a bit of help, please.....
2014, #2564, leased new, purchased at lease end - have loved it the whole time, currently 64K miles (her commuter car) - in Feb of this year we observed an annoyingly loud mid-pitch humm when charging. Toyota Sunnyvale kindly diagnosed that we needed a new battery, which they eventually obtained and installed under warranty in April.
Charging humm now gone, which is great
Couple weeks back planned a trip to the City, which requires Extended Charge. Set for Extended Charge and plugged in - came back the next morning and only 81 miles of range. ???
Tried a couple different times - same result. Took it into Toyota Sunnyvale - they are now saying that the replacement batteries from Tesla are now only good for 81 miles. This doesn't sound right, and had we known, we might have endured the humm in exchange for being able to have Extended Charge from time to time.
I am thinking there must be a battery capacity setting when installing a replacement battery and it needs to be properly set, or something along those lines, but Toyota Sunnyvale assures me there are no settings like this.
Anyone else with a similar experience? Any thoughts/suggestions?
2014, #2564, leased new, purchased at lease end - have loved it the whole time, currently 64K miles (her commuter car) - in Feb of this year we observed an annoyingly loud mid-pitch humm when charging. Toyota Sunnyvale kindly diagnosed that we needed a new battery, which they eventually obtained and installed under warranty in April.
Charging humm now gone, which is great
Couple weeks back planned a trip to the City, which requires Extended Charge. Set for Extended Charge and plugged in - came back the next morning and only 81 miles of range. ???
Tried a couple different times - same result. Took it into Toyota Sunnyvale - they are now saying that the replacement batteries from Tesla are now only good for 81 miles. This doesn't sound right, and had we known, we might have endured the humm in exchange for being able to have Extended Charge from time to time.
I am thinking there must be a battery capacity setting when installing a replacement battery and it needs to be properly set, or something along those lines, but Toyota Sunnyvale assures me there are no settings like this.
Anyone else with a similar experience? Any thoughts/suggestions?
My replacement battery dropped about 10 miles from my normal range. I've driven it for over 1.5 years on the replacement, and it hasn't "gotten better". It also had the annoying contactor whine under load for a few months; that noise did eventually disappeaer.
Extended charge hasn't done anything on mine since it hit around 60k miles. I get the same range whether I use it or not.
Extended charge hasn't done anything on mine since it hit around 60k miles. I get the same range whether I use it or not.
Your 81 miles range shown on the GOM is based on recent driving habits. If you consistently drive efficiently, you'll see that number improve. My summer range estimate is typically around 80-90 miles, and winter will drop to the 60's.
As for your 'new' battery replacement pack: since new packs don't exist, you've likely been given someone else's pack that was repaired (bad contactor, etc) and still demonstrated the ability to hold a full standard charge (~35 kWhr). Perhaps your previous 64k battery had a bit more capacity beyond this (ie extended charge). Many owners have seen their extended capacity reduce from nearly +7 kWhr when new to just 1-2 kWhr as these packs age, so your result isn't surprising; fortunately I've only heard of one person that's seen their standard charge capacity fall below the nominal rating.
As for your 'new' battery replacement pack: since new packs don't exist, you've likely been given someone else's pack that was repaired (bad contactor, etc) and still demonstrated the ability to hold a full standard charge (~35 kWhr). Perhaps your previous 64k battery had a bit more capacity beyond this (ie extended charge). Many owners have seen their extended capacity reduce from nearly +7 kWhr when new to just 1-2 kWhr as these packs age, so your result isn't surprising; fortunately I've only heard of one person that's seen their standard charge capacity fall below the nominal rating.
DerekRiehl
Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2014
- Messages
- 8
Thx hokiematt
Yeah, we've had this since new, so have experienced the winter/summer variation, the tire inflation tradeoffs, the "can we afford to use the climate control or not?" range anxiety, etc.
We were just initially surprised by the drop from the pack that we had - figured out after I posted that Tesla is just recycling other owner's "bad" batteries by minimally refurbishing them.
Them's the breaks.....we'll just use ICE for going out of town from now on, and save for our next EV.
Cheers!
Yeah, we've had this since new, so have experienced the winter/summer variation, the tire inflation tradeoffs, the "can we afford to use the climate control or not?" range anxiety, etc.
We were just initially surprised by the drop from the pack that we had - figured out after I posted that Tesla is just recycling other owner's "bad" batteries by minimally refurbishing them.
Them's the breaks.....we'll just use ICE for going out of town from now on, and save for our next EV.
Cheers!
TonyWilliams
Well-known member
Here is our latest video on how to check the speed sensor for leaking coolant in the Tesla Large Drive Unit in your 2012-2014 Toyota RAV4 EV. If your car is NOT on the Toyota Platinum extended warranty (VSA), this information is critical to your finances. If you do have the Toyota Platinum warranty, you will want to check that sensor before the end of your warranty, or if you prefer to not have the motor quit in the middle of a freeway.
Coolant into the motor and inverter assembly can (and has) destroyed the motor, so that it cannot be rebuilt. PERIOD. Don't be that guy or gal. Check it regularly.
https://youtu.be/XfncTZcsSHM
Coolant into the motor and inverter assembly can (and has) destroyed the motor, so that it cannot be rebuilt. PERIOD. Don't be that guy or gal. Check it regularly.
https://youtu.be/XfncTZcsSHM
DerekRiehl said:Need a bit of help, please.....
2014, #2564, leased new, purchased at lease end - have loved it the whole time, currently 64K miles (her commuter car) - in Feb of this year we observed an annoyingly loud mid-pitch humm when charging. Toyota Sunnyvale kindly diagnosed that we needed a new battery, which they eventually obtained and installed under warranty in April.
Charging humm now gone, which is great
Couple weeks back planned a trip to the City, which requires Extended Charge. Set for Extended Charge and plugged in - came back the next morning and only 81 miles of range. ???
Tried a couple different times - same result. Took it into Toyota Sunnyvale - they are now saying that the replacement batteries from Tesla are now only good for 81 miles. This doesn't sound right, and had we known, we might have endured the humm in exchange for being able to have Extended Charge from time to time.
I am thinking there must be a battery capacity setting when installing a replacement battery and it needs to be properly set, or something along those lines, but Toyota Sunnyvale assures me there are no settings like this.
Anyone else with a similar experience? Any thoughts/suggestions?
A few years ago I took my second RAV4 EV in due to a contractor failure. I had nursed it like a baby and had excellent range over 143 Tony Test miles. The replaced the battery with a "new" battery that only had 123 Tony miles! Seems that there are NO NEW batteries anywhere. They are a myth. I got someones old burned down battery. I got them to find, fix and repair my old battery (so they claimed) which got me up to 133 Tony miles then just turned it in at end of lease. I found a pristine 2014 just off lease in SD and got it for $21k with 11,000 miles and 146 Tony miles! So your 81 mile battery is just the junk they had left over and a POS if only 81 miles That is terrible degradation and I would not let them get away with that! BTW, the official contract between Tesla and Toyota requires replacement batteries of AT LEAST the same capacity yet Tesla and Elon are a vengeful bunch and screwing everyone.
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