Another DOA Rav, time to troubleshoot- seems OBC fuses are fine ;-(

Toyota Rav4 EV Forum

Help Support Toyota Rav4 EV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Note. The fact that some pseudo-specialists have neither knowledge, nor skills, nor equipment for rewinding the stator windings of induction motors is not proof of the impossibility of performing this repair properly (*1).
Photos of different stages of this process. is posted (https://alflash.com.ua/2019/to_rav4ev/report.pdf).

For the information of a very large specialist with supposedly "expert" knowledge :))).
The stator windings are impregnated with a compound with the addition of plasticizers. Only those who have not even heard of such a concept as the temperature coefficient of expansion can remember about epoxy resin in this application.
IMO. I do not exclude that such an alleged specialist has never even seen with his own eyes a device called a megohmmeter.
And I do not rule out that he does not know the design of the stator housing of this electric motor well... :(

For reference, Ukrainians are not zany!
It's just that technical capabilities, knowledge and skills allow us to perform high-quality work that for some people seems "zany".

(*1) Video of remote diagnostics of this Minsk vehicle by the teslas soft from Odessa during its movement two years and one day after the installation of three-skirt Teflon seals, ceramic bearings and rewinding of stator windings


Update. By the way, craftsmen who rewind the stator had a funny case when they rewound a Tesla stator for the first time. They made a mistake with the packaging of the windings and the car went in the opposite direction. This was the first and last case. All other rewound stators work properly on more than a dozen Tesla, Rav4ev, Mercedes.

p.s. Resume. There is no need to spread your personal inability or ignorance to others.
 
Last edited:
Well its about that time for our Rav to wig out now (and it has a beautiful factory Pearl White paint job too) but the wife was just 7 houses down the street at her parents, started it up, was pulling out of the driveway and it just wigged out with the dreaded EV error and take to stealership warning. Since we have the full Platimum / ext coverage... I called Toyota/ Hamer and they picked it up ASAP... then looked at it.. scratched their heads... said its the battery... and $17k and Bob's your Uncle and you'll be fine!! :D

But that won't fly.. knowing we've taken care of this car (custom BMS monitor, etc).. and the pack was in excellent condition and 125+ miles still of range.. I'm thinking or leaning towards the contactors but who knows.. so I had them bring it back up here and she sits.. I have the full Techstream SW and can reset the front panel or anything on the Toy side.. and have the TDP for checking on things...

So.. here we start.. as I've said or mentioned before... I've had (and was the OG tester/helper,etc) for the JaDEMO unit.. so 1st thing was I pulled it off (no one has this type of unit anymore but me, doubt even Tony still has this alpha unit still running)... but even after removal... and a full clear of codes.. nada.. still no READY..

So talking with asavage and looking at his pics.. I just went out and did a quick J-plug/OBC test to check fuses.... they all seem good :cry: DAMN!

So.. that leaves next steps then..
Fun times are ahead..
I'm in the same boat . Took to two Toyota dealers to install the fuses I purchased in Arizona and they both said " needs new battery not fuses . ,Tow it to California Toyota". Asavage said try a 208 volt professional charger but it won't let me charge . AAA and Good Sam have me on the do not call ( answer ) list . I was thinking if I pull the main discount and it might reboot and clear the error codes ? But you've cleared the tesla error codes and it still won't let you charge? What now?
 
I'm still undecided on non Tesla deletes. Tesla can definitely reprogram for heat soak. The rotors get very hot. Probably not an issue for the Rav4.
I'm installing a LDU rotor temp monitor, for data collection purposes. I don't have a good idea of how coolant delete Tesla firmware can make the rotor dissipate heat any faster; all it can do is limit the duration of certain power levels, and there's still no temperature sensing other than the stator (which has its own cooling).

Yeah, I'm hopeful that the lighter RAV4 combined with generally less aggressive driving I do, will keep me out of trouble. But somebody is going to push/test the limits. I assume that we will shortly hear tales of damaged rotors after coolant delete and spirited driving.
 
I hate to burst your bubble, but no one rewinds these stators. You need to cut multiple welds to get it out. You first need to remove the outer sheet that's wrapped around the inner aluminum coolant channels, only then can you cut the end off and try to press it out.
...
"Never Say Never Again"
https://alflash.com.ua/2019/to_rav4ev/04.jpg
04.jpg

Enjoy your meal, Sir!
 
Hey Team!
Wanted to give an update, we're back up and running YAY!!! :D

So suspicions were right and correct! It was the contactors and they were roasted! My bud Tony Tam who owns EVFixMe in Costa Mesa got it down there.. dropped the back.. and there we go!

Opens it up.. toasty toast...
1721513598698.jpeg

Yeah... one is completely DOA... I'm going to cut it open this weekend..
1721513649353.jpeg

So replaced with the new gen black units that are in the current Teslas/MS... nice and quiet!! and sealed the pack back up!
1721513727909.jpeg

Then he has his own custom MS / Rav4 coolant delete MOD.. so he did that for me! Thanks Tam!.... Success!! READY!!!

We went down.. hung out, saw his amazing classic S with killer sound system (mine is next! ;) )

Then we headed home.. happy wife.. happy life...dirty RAV...
1721513984263.jpeg

That Toyota pearl is soo much better than Tesla's...
1721514140202.jpeg

Just wanted to say thanks to the team / members here for all the help and troubleshooting! If i had a lift I would have tried!!!! LOL

Now I have to tackle this ABS glitch / warning but that's another story!
 
Yea for new contactors. @hokiematt's predictions percentage is good.

I pointed you to Doug's tale of how we were able to resolve a C1345 on the top of Page 3, and Vlad posted some things from the FSM.

I didn't read where you removed the existing coolant from at least the stator end of your LDU. Your coolant-pooled pic from earlier:

1721515166133.png

Any blue coolant in your LDU will not magically evaporate; there is no airflow. Any coolant left in the LDU will continue to degrade the stator windings' insulation isolation resistance ("iso") and when it falls low enough, the BMS will not allow your new contactors to close.

Good news: you have no vent hole in your reluctor chamber. With and without vent holes:

1721515337971.png1721515351582.png

Without a reluctor chamber vent hole, you have a better chance of coolant not being immediately aerosolized by the spinning reluctor and migrating quickly to the stator cavity; instead, it has to move through the outer rotor bearing in order to travel to the dry areas, so damage might be limited to just a lot of rust forming on your reluctor wheel and rotor end. Tony Tam should have dried all that up (rinsed and dried, actually) when he had the manifold off to do a coolant delete mod . . . IF he did one of the type of modifications that requires pulling off the manifold.

If he did the Kevin-style "cut off bottom of manifold, replace coolant inlet port with custom hose barb, plug flyover tube" type of coolant delete, then the reluctor cavity wasn't dried out and you still have reason to worry. The rotor bearings are not sealed for water-exposed service and coolant will and does work its way through the bearing (which doesn't like that) to the stator cavity. We've seen that hundreds of times.
 
He does pull the manifold off and then does some custom cutting/ welding stuff / capping off, etc. I didn't see it on mine since we were there to pick it up but it was pretty dry and they left it open and made sure it was also dried out. I guess they do this mod alot..
This was mine...
1721587182548.png

Anyways, what was strange or odd is, I brought my laptop setup down there with me because he had another RAV with the same ABS warning so i figured we'd try to play with both these things and let traffic die down before we head home...

On mine..the options are still greyed out no matter what we do, so we decided, let's jump into this other Silver 2012 and see....

Same ABS warning when I power it on.. except the only thing I do is "clear all the MIL/ codes" and boom!

perfect... everything is gone! :oops:
power cycle it.. drive it fwd, back... perfect...

Mine however... i cannot reset... still trying
 
With a non-vented reluctor chamber and minimal blue coolant, if he rinsed (with water) and dried, then as long as the rotor bearing didn't get too contaminated, you should be in good territory. Other than rotor bearings failures (esp. on original steel bearings instead of the reman-up hybrid ceramics), the only trouble spot on the LDUs is water intrusion (and corrosion) via the HV cable glands, which seems to be a more prevalent problem in areas that use melt-accelerating agents ("salt") on frozen roads or snow.

1721587935371.png
(ref. this post)

Possibly removing and re-greasing the glands could cut down on that. Possibly other measures. I haven't read up on how people are coping, but the glands are not a part you can buy, and the cable assemblies they're attached to are . . . expensive.

---

The Toyota C1345 isn't a code that can be reset; it indicates that the ABS module has lost its (pedal stroke? I forget) calibration, which is why you have that elaborate hoops/wait cycle to go through for it to clear permanently: it needs that calibration value stored or reestablished.

If you cleared an ABS code, and it stayed cleared, pretty sure it wasn't a C1345.
 
GM team.. quick update then I'll leave this thread and start another one later for my ABS issue.. I cut the bad contactor open, figured everyone here would like to see what's up and caused this whole journey...

Only one worked or clicked ( imagine which one! :D ) so here's the pics and enjoy...
1722354558941.png

Each one has a unique serial number.. and they are hand built (or were) in Mexico..
1722354627572.png

Cut around the top circumference...
1722354681293.png

First time I've done this or into a "potted" relay like this.. going good so far..
1722354740669.png
The insides look not too bad...
1722354785466.png
1722354812182.png
1722354834412.png

pretty clean so far...
1722354864276.png

1722354883107.png

And that's about it.. the other one is perfectly fine. I'll startup an ABS thread later but the car runs and drives awesome!
 
Replace the old Tyco contactor with Gigavac contactor much more robust, better quality. Its an upgrade.
 
Replace the old Tyco contactor with Gigavac contactor much more robust, better quality. Its an upgrade.
Gigavac contactor's coil resistance is approx. 3.1-3.2 Ohm? Not.
Have you compared the datasheet of the contactors of both brands?
 
Last edited:
Following up, I located two reputable sources that state that the Tesla contactors are not economized. The replacement contactors are apparently Gigavac GV200 series, as this supplier shows one with Tesla Part No. 1064696-00-B and a Gigavac number of GV200-026-B, which is apparently an OEM number, as GV's datasheet doesn't show that format:

1722733881871.png

I'm guessing this is, or could be replaced by a GV200PA(-1 ?), where
P = 12/24 Vdc (for use with external economizer)
A = Flying leads 38 cm (15 in)
-1 = High Voltage Contacts [this isn't really defined anywhere I could find]

Gigavac makes a lot of HV contactors, and it looks like they also OEM them for Tesla (after the first few years of disaster with the Tyco/TE Connectivity & Kilovac ones).

Jason, can you share a picture of the data label on your replacement contactors?
 
Here's the info, he orders and replaces with the exact Tesla part#..
1722958893845.png

And FYI, anyone with a Tesla (or knows a VIN) can walk up to a Tesla service center, give them that part# and order a set of contactors.. They are prob $110 to 150 for the set.. just FYI..
 
Back
Top