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There isn't just one or two weak areas with the RAV4 EV. On the LDU, once the original steel ball bearings on the rotor are replaced, and you get rid of the rotor liquid cooling, these things are stout units. The original axle seals always leak, but my replacements at 70k are dry (I replaced them anyway). But the rotor seal leak issue makes them a very risky used EV, unless you've definitely got a dry one and can do the coolant delete mod without dropping the LDU out. If you have to pay someone to dry/clean/reseal, it's too much of an investment for many folks to take on, and still too few shops that do a good job of it (lots of profiteers and horror stories).The OBC fuse issue: changing them once isn't proof against a future failure.The battery contactors issue. Fix once, done.The Denso GEN1 heater issue, taking out the fuse in the DC-DC Converter issue. Fix once, done.I expect the navigation system HDDs to start crapping out soon en masse. I haven't found anybody's write-up on how to clone a working one to an SSD yet . . .Still, if mine were totaled tomorrow, I'd go buy another. For my needs, it works well (except the lack of DCFC via CCS, which I am working on, and Ricky has working already). I also appreciate that it can't phone home and make my insurance rates go up. Until data privacy in automobiles is fixed, I'm quite reluctant to buy anything newer, on principle.
There isn't just one or two weak areas with the RAV4 EV.
On the LDU, once the original steel ball bearings on the rotor are replaced, and you get rid of the rotor liquid cooling, these things are stout units. The original axle seals always leak, but my replacements at 70k are dry (I replaced them anyway). But the rotor seal leak issue makes them a very risky used EV, unless you've definitely got a dry one and can do the coolant delete mod without dropping the LDU out. If you have to pay someone to dry/clean/reseal, it's too much of an investment for many folks to take on, and still too few shops that do a good job of it (lots of profiteers and horror stories).
I expect the navigation system HDDs to start crapping out soon en masse. I haven't found anybody's write-up on how to clone a working one to an SSD yet . . .
Still, if mine were totaled tomorrow, I'd go buy another. For my needs, it works well (except the lack of DCFC via CCS, which I am working on, and Ricky has working already). I also appreciate that it can't phone home and make my insurance rates go up. Until data privacy in automobiles is fixed, I'm quite reluctant to buy anything newer, on principle.
