Hello to the Remaining Rav4 EV Owners Out There

[califteacher]

My wife and I are still enjoying our Rav4 EV at 76K miles, after going through the typical early cycle of replacing the drive motor, etc. The car has been trouble-free for 20K miles or more.

I am sad to see that there are few postings being made, as the number of Rav4EV owners dwindles. I miss the excitement we all had in the 2012-2014 period when we were all so excited about owning such a unique and exciting vehicle.

We recently moved to San Diego County, where I thought I would see many more Rav4 EV's than in Riverside County, but I haven't seen one in our six months here at the coast. My Toyota service manager said that he sees about one or two a month come in for service.

I continue to have fun explaining the history of our vehicle when I see people trying to figure out what it is. I even see people in my rear-view mirror at a traffic light excitedly talking about it. I added some very nice Tesla stickers to the side door panels, which confuses people even more. Many a time, I have had to open the small door on the side panel of the cargo compartment to show the components that are labeled "Tesla" to prove my point.

In any case, for those few of us that are left, continue to have fun with our amazing vehicle.

Brian

 

[n3ckf]

Well hello there!

Original Rav4 owner here, mine visited the shop in San Diego for a motor rebuild recently and runs like a top! (actually it sounds kinda like a top i suppose too...) Love the car.

If you want to see a large # of Rav4EVs, try Tony's shop (which is right near you). He always has 4 or 5 in the parking lot and 1 or 2 inside.

Great vehicle. I'm down to about 75-80 indicated miles on the guess-o-meter when charged now (at about 98K miles on the clock, all of them driven by me, this car was my daily driver for 4 years until i got my Tesla Model 3). Now its the "get groceries and visit Lowes" car, plus i use it when i drive to the airport and have to leave a car there for a week. (i do have to ChaDemo charge it once to do that, so i still use the JDEMO kit that i got installed on it (was one of the first 50 with one of those).

People often ask about it, *especially* if they see me charging it with JDEMO. They're like "what"? you charge under your hood?

I dont know how long i will keep the vehicle, probably until whenever i move out of California (which is a few more years probably)

 

[asavage]

In my 2014, I commuted for four years, from Aug2017 to Oct2021, at 56 mi./day, from 49k to 101k. It was perfect for that commute, with my only gripe being that the ride is busy, even with tires deflated to "only" 35 PSI. For a regular route like that, just perfect.

I sorta semi-retired last Fall, and now almost all my driving is ad-hoc, and my plan is to move (back) to Whidbey Island soon, which is ~60 mi. long and has NO DCFC stations, none of any type, not CCS/CHAdeMO/Tesla proprietary, nothing. And Plugshare says only nine J-1772 public. Sigh. I will have a two-hour commute to my mother's place on the south end; fortunately I installed another EVSE at her place a couple of years ago, making trips there a lot more comfortable; in winter, I'd have to drape a blanket over my thighs and legs and barely run defrost to make a round-trip to her place and back, what with wipers and headlights etc. Now, I plug in while there, and can afford to run the heater to comfort level.

---

The nearest CHAdeMO station to where I'll be moving, near the Costco that I'd be using (if I had JDemo installed), is in Burlington, and Plugshare feedback says it's frequently down. Nationwide, where the most people are or are travelling, charging infrastructure is getting better, fast. Just not where I've going to be for my next phase.

I had a HV contactor failure a couple of years ago; Toyota swapped out the HV pack for a "refurb" Tesla-supplied one, which promptly cut my range by ~10 miles (grrr) but it's still giving me ~85 mi. in winter (with heat) and ~105-110 in summer (with A/C). It it were to burn down or be totalled today, I'd just go buy another one: I like it that much.

 

[ravitup]

Still driving my 2012 everyday. 76K miles with motor swapped at 42K. GOM show >110 miles since I use local back roads mostly.

Recently moved from CA to Seattle area. Saw another Rav4EV (pearl white) in Redmond and Woodinville. Assuming same car since there's so few around outside of CA. I lived in San Jose area, and I used to see at least one every week.

 

[asavage]

Weird sightings:

Two years ago, a white one parked at my former employer's block in Seattle a couple of times; it has aftermarket black seat covers. I left my card and contact info under the wiper, but never heard back.

About four years ago, I was commuting and less than a mile from my home (rural Duvall, NE of Redmond) was met by another blue one coming downhill past me. I was non-plussed, as there can't be all that many in the Puget Sound area, and Duvall is far away from a metro area.

I doubt I'll see one where I'm living now, but I've been surprised before (like the time I passed another Hillman Husky in north Seattle on Hwy 99, in the 80s. Sure, they sold a lot of them around here back around 1960, but they weren't long-lived like a VW and most were parked/scrapped in the first decade.

 

[JDP]

Just drove 110mi to a CHAdeMO and charging. It seems I only have about 35-36 of the original 41kwH left. I plan on buying the extended warranty again when mine runs out. So far only had to replace the motor (twice). Clearwater Toyota had it done in just a couple weeks the last time. They “lose money” on the warranty service because there’s only one qualified tech that roams the region fixing these types. I was really close to selling it after the second motor but changed my mind because of the inflated car prices this summer. It’s a fun car but it’s unreliable and limited in range especially if it’s cold. This car isn’t for just anyone. It’s great for a commuter but must have a backup plan when it fails. You have to like the car to put up with it but I still haven’t seen anything else out there that has the cargo capacity. So I’ll keep it until something at least as good comes along or my motor fails again and I can’t wait for another one to be installed.

 

[davewill]

The last rounds of motor replacements had changes that have made them more reliable. It's also a good idea to periodically check for water intrusion into the moter by pulling the speed sensor:

https://youtu.be/XfncTZcsSHM

If you can catch it soon enough, it's possible to save the motor.

Good luck on getting another extended warranty. I was unable to do so after trying every dealer I could get ahold of.

 

[miimura]

I am an original owner and I still see them regularly in Silicon Valley. In fact, I saw one "in the wild" today.

 

[SolarDaveGreen]

Hi There!

I have almost 130,000 miles on mine. I am not the original owner. I bought it in April 2021 with 94,854 miles.

Recently I had the onboard charger blow a fuse, and I followed one of the excellent write-ups on this board to replace it. 6 months later, it unfortunately blew again. Thanks to the JdeMO I can still charge, but not as conveniently.

I'm currently in Santa Barbara but I take the car to San Jose once a moth or so. Blizzard Perl (white, with patches of paint coming off.)

I love the car even though it's fragile.

 

[hokiematt]

Recently I had the onboard charger blow a fuse, and I followed one of the excellent write-ups on this board to replace it. 6 months later, it unfortunately blew again. Thanks to the JdeMO I can still charge, but not as conveniently.

Curious: what brand/model fuses did you use for replacements the first time?

 

[SolarDaveGreen]

I followed the suggestions here: https://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=29155#p29155 so I had 500V and 50AMP Eaton (Bussman series) PN: FWH-50B in the charger when it blew the fuse(s) the second time. I moved my test procedures to the Technical DIscussions section.

I expected more people to say "hi" in this thread. Where are all the owners?

 

[james]

Hi

I purchased my Rev4-EV September of 2014 and it's been a great car. The only thing I had to replaced was the onboard charger at 3 years still under warranty. My extended Platinum warrantee ends soon so I took the Rav in for a quick checkup as the motor was making more noise. Toyota and Tesla agreed to replace the motor and fortunately it will be covered. I only have ~44500 on the odometer.

I'll be getting new (rather remanufactured) motor. Does anyone know what the remanufacturing process entails? I assume new bearings, seals and I believe a grounding fix to the motor but not sure. I was told that the replacement motor will take between 6 weeks to 6 months to get. Guess Il be driving with a noisy motor for a while.

 

[asavage]

Six weeks is rather a long time for the short end of the estimate.

It appears that, rather then adding a rotor ground, the later versions removed the Aegis ground brush ring instead. Rotor bearings went to non-conductive "ceramic" balls and nylon cages. The reluctor chamber removed a 5mm vent hole to the rotor cavity that early versions had. Triple-lip seal went to single lip. Probably another dozen or two things.

 

[james]

Just got a call and the motor / drive unit just arrived at my Toyota dealer. Less than a week after it was ordered. So much for the 6 week to 6 month estimate. Hopefully this motor has all the latest fixes. For all you folks in the Sacramento area, Folsom Toyota seems to have in house expertise on Rav4-EVs. I saw two other Rav4-EVs there as well.

 

[Alex 2013 rav]

James,
Can you tell us more about your experience obtaining that drive unit?
Last I checked, they were backordered with 4 people waiting.

Your story is very encouraging, as it means they are still supporting this car!

Thanks,
-Alex

 

[james]

I got my car back pretty quickly and the drive unit install went well. It took the dealer several days to do the work. The remanufactured drive unit is very quiet. The Rev4-EV drives / sounds like new. I also had the battery coolant replaced. The overall experience with Folsom Toyota was very positive. The Platinum extended warranty covered everything, including a rental car.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised by Folsom Toyota's level of Rav4-EV knowledge and ability. I also had a good service person to work with and he was on the phone with Tesla a lot to get everything hashed out. It sounded like they can repair all the usual REV4-EV failures.

One issue the Toyota dealer cushioned me about is a battery pack contact failure. Toyota can only replace the entire battery pack $34K. Hopefully, if that is ever needed we'll be able to find a source that could drop the batter pack and just replace with new contacts

 

[Alex 2013 rav]

James,

The good news about the battery is that the modules are the same as Tesla, and the contactors are a widely available and inexpensive part.

Unfortunately, the Drive unit/ Traction motor is absurdly different, even though they look identical to the Tesla ones.

Can you tell me how much the traction motor cost?

I'm still waiting for the dealership to receive the diagnostic tool :roll:
Pretty sure it's the drive unit though.

 

[asavage]

The good news about the battery is that the modules are the same as Tesla

Are you certain that the RAV4EV modules are the same form factor as the early Model S?

 

[alflash]

...

I'm still waiting for the dealership to receive the diagnostic tool :roll:
Pretty sure it's the drive unit though.

Remote diagnostics of Tesla systems is possible, as, for example, it is described in the links in
https://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2530 and/or https://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2537
This will speed up the diagnosis and possibly the repair process.

Has such a check been made
https://youtu.be/XfncTZcsSHM ?

Is the HV battery charging working?
Ready mode available?

 

[hokiematt]

The good news about the battery is that the modules are the same as Tesla

Are you certain that the RAV4EV modules are the same form factor as the early Model S?

The RAV4 battery pack is made up of bespoke modules that are a different configuration than those in any other Tesla vehicle.