Car now won’t charge

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eoak23

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2024
Messages
7
Location
Richmond CA
Hi everyone. My 2012 RAV4 EV has been sitting dead on the street for months as I am unable to fix it further. Back when I was trying to diagnose it, my best guess was that it was needing new contactors. I had started Tony’s recommended list of things to do to assess, and I had just replaced the 12V battery with his recommended model. Directly after that the car charged normally but there was no change to its symptoms (can’t shift out of park, EV system warning message).
Now a few months later, I tried to charge the car again, but it does not charge at all. There is no light at the charger terminal indicating any juice is getting to the car.
This is frustrating because now I can’t even move it a few feet down the street for my neighbor, much less use it or sell it.
Anybody know what might be the issue now?
Anybody want by to take this car off my hands?? I don’t have the money to fix it and it stopped working 2 months after I bought it for $11,000. So it’s a complete loss for me.
 
The fuses were all checked.
I doubt that. This car has hidden fuses that hardly anyone knows about. Tesla buried two HV fuses inside the DC-DC Converter, which is glued together. And two more AC input fuses inside the onboard (AC) charger. If you have a really good, well-informed EV shop say they checked "all" the fuses, and if they know about those special hidden Tesla fuses, maybe . . .

Usually, when a shop says they checked the fuses, they mean the fuse boxes. And those aren't the ones that are problems on this car. Maybe they checked the pyro fuse in the Service Disconnect under the passenger seat, but if that one goes, you've got bigger problems.

Aside from that, if you don't hear the double-cluck of the HV contactors cycling in, use TPD (free version: 1.1.46) and take screenshots, and post them for review. The software isn't very good, but at least there's a free version we can use now. Contact me using directions from the links Matt provided, if you want a pre-assembled and tested cable. I've shipped about 22 of them, and have none assembled right now, but I have parts to make five more sitting here. I always test them before shipping. You absolutely must have a custom cable to use TPD, nothing you can buy off-the-shelf will work.
 
Since you started a new thread for diagnostics, I'll leave my comments here:

What state of charge is shown on the instrument cluster (eg how many bars on the gauge)? Did anything change on the car for the few months it sat, where it went from charging correctly to not charging/not showing READY? Is it outside where rodents may have attacked the wiring harnesses?

As Al notes, the next best step for diagnostics is getting the software and interface cable, then post screenshots to the forum.
 
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