Who still owns a RAV4 EV?

[jfletter]

Who all here still has their RAV4 EV?

I drive my 2014 every day. I'm creeping up on 100K, so I am expecting the electric motor oil leak and eventual requirement to replace or rebuild the motor. Other than a loud motor whine and having to swap out the on-board charger, it has been running flawlessly. I still get a 90+/- mile charge depending on the temperature.

 

[robertmorgan3135]

Who all here still has their RAV4 EV?

2014. Replaced bearings in the motor 1 yr ago. Excellent SF EV garage. Otherwise all same and good. My interest would be to increase batter size and install FC in the future.

 

[mkzane]

2014, 100k miles, get about 100 mi on the guessometer with A/C turned off. Driving is a little loud and we might have to rebuild the motor next year.

All in all, the car works great (handed down to one of the kids) but the infotainment system is nearly obsolete. Can't seem to change the radio presets anymore and the maps are pretty out of date. That said, it wouldn't hurt us to put a phone mount right on top of the screen. Any suggestions for a phone mount that doesn't go in a vent?

 

[pw228hb]

I have a 2014 bought a couple of years ago for my kids to use commuting to the high school. Has about 50k on it and we're not really adding much. Only ever charge it at night with 110v 12a as it only needs a few miles each day. It shows between 65 to 75 range every morning. It has performed flawlessly for the job it needs to do. Only problem is the white paint is peeling off the roof. Toyota inspected it for some sort of possible defect recall repaint job. We're waiting to hear what they're willing to do but if they don't do something soon we'll just get it painted ourselves.

That white peeling paint is a recall. Take it to your nearest Toyota dealer immediately. The recall ends 10 years after date of first use. I had my 2014 repainted this year at Toyota's expense. It looks great!

 

[miimura]

2014, 100k miles, get about 100 mi on the guessometer with A/C turned off. Driving is a little loud and we might have to rebuild the motor next year.

All in all, the car works great (handed down to one of the kids) but the infotainment system is nearly obsolete. Can't seem to change the radio presets anymore and the maps are pretty out of date. That said, it wouldn't hurt us to put a phone mount right on top of the screen. Any suggestions for a phone mount that doesn't go in a vent?

I am thinking about getting a Car Play Box 4k and putting it directly above the factory screen. I have some more due diligence before I buy - mostly things like finding an independent review. It seems a little odd that they don't have the installation guide online.

 

[davebb]

I still have a 2014 and it gets used daily. GOM is guessing strangely.

 

[chrisspy]

still awesome, 90K. 'twas my 1st V2L (powering Sunjoe lawnmower). you always remember the 1st.

 

[pcspilot]

Just got ours back from 11 months of waiting for on board charger repair. Under warranty, but they couldn’t get parts.

The heater parts are still on order.

Still a great size, layout and range for around town use.

 

[ph2]

Still have mine... onboard charger has been down for a year and finally had the time to remove and replace the fuses over the holiday weekend. >114k miles and counting. Battery is out of balance but looks like it will get to about 31kWh once it has time to work itself out. >46MWh discharged over the life of the pack.

 

[Danoby2]

I'm actually selling mine, is there a thread to share?

2013 RavEV, 105k miles. In Vegas!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3053222331...mt8ZMLYTZq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[Jonathan_UK]

My 2013 is still going at 120K miles, but will live an isolated remainder of it's life, being driven in the Welsh countryside. I use it only for the four weeks a year I spend in the UK. Based on my difficult import experience, I'm fairly sure it's the only one in the UK.

Ultimately, I'm looking to get hold of a spare motor which I can service myself.

Nearer-term, the battery is my main worry, and I'm hoping someone can offer new packs or replacement modules and a process to install them.

 

[EVster]

In Los Angeles - 2014 shoreline blue purchased in September 2014 - 104k miles, original owner, replaced drive motor under warranty due to whining noise, (100k mile service overdue - will cost well over $1k! at dealer) third set of tires - Costco Michelin X Tour A/S 2, original brakes still lasting!

I just got back on this forum after the switch to new software and many years of not seeing any new posts

 

[Wheels10]

Original owner of a 2013 with 149,500 miles. Third motor is after quiet after 50K miles. Nominal issues other than the motor replacements.

 

[Lido]

I'm in my fifth year of owning a 2014. It's been great. Range meter reads 86-95 depending on the temp and who knows what other factors. My commute is short so I only drive about 20 miles/day, but I can fit hundreds of boxes in it which I haul to the shipping depot daily for work. We charge it with the 110v charger it came with on the 12amp setting and haven't really had a range issue, though I do look forward to the day when a similarly capable car with decent range becomes available. The Hyundai Ionic 5 and Rivian SUV are the closest to being interesting but they're too small and big respectively.

Motor whines loud, and even though I bought the Xcare EV warranty, they won't honor the repair.

Does anyone know if there's a way to change the 12v battery on my own without having the Check EV System warning turn on? That was expensive to get turned off at the dealer.

 

[Allen]

2014 Pearl with Tony Williams Jademo. 55K miles. Reads about 85 miles on 80% charge, however I have Michelin Defenders on it so maybe not the most efficient tires.
New motor at about 5 years. Super quiet now.
I'm hoping at some point someone makes a longer range battery pack of some kind.
No problems other than the whine in the motor before replacement and a few dead 12Vs.

 

[user 8041]

Just got ours back from 11 months of waiting for on board charger repair. Under warranty, but they couldn’t get parts.

The heater parts are still on order.

Still a great size, layout and range for around town use.

Just got my heater replaced with parts from QC Charge out of San Diego. Took about 2 weeks. Toyota Financial Services, owner of the Platinum warranty, paid for the parts and install, since Toyota Parts Department told me the wait was 10 months through their sources and driving heater-less in Colorado for a year is a no-go. Ask for Tony Williams @ QC Charge and have him connect with the Parts Department Manager at your dealership to get it sorted.

 

[user 8041]

2014 with < 55k miles that is my daily driver, though I don't drive much. Received new battery at 45k miles. Still getting around 100 miles with no Sports Mode, babying the acceleration and no heat/AC. Considering letting Toyota buy it back from me, depending on their offer though, since I'm getting nervous that the next needed repair will take a lot longer to source parts and leave me high and dry. I love this car, but it's weird to have a warranty and still know it might not get fixed quickly.

 

[asavage]

Does anyone know if there's a way to change the 12v battery on my own without having the Check EV System warning turn on? That was expensive to get turned off at the dealer.

I've had my battery out twice, and I don't recall having to reset anything after disconnecting/reconnecting it. In fact, Tony's "reset" for when JDemo would FUBAR was to explicitly do that, and he furnished a wing nut with the kit to easily do a disconnect :/

I'm on year 6 of an Odyssey 34R-PC1500T AGM in my RAV4 EV. They like the higher charge voltage of the Tesla DC-DC, and unlike the Bosch AGM, they actually last. It's expensive ($400 today; $300 when I bought it). I have three Toyotas and run the same battery model in all of them. I mistakenly thought I had a bad one that was four years old in one of the Siennas, and they somewhat cheerfully replaced it, didn't even pro-rate it. Recommended, esp. if you're tired of replacing batteries every three years.

It does require a bottom spacer to fit our battery compartment correctly; I believe they charged me an extra $5 for it:

Just got my heater replaced with parts from QC Charge out of San Diego.

I haven't done this job myself, but a local who has a dead heater on his 2013 RAV4 EV asked me to look into this about a month agao, and it appears that you can obtain a Leaf heater from an early Leaf (say, from eBay), get a harness fragment from the Leaf as well, splice the HV harness from the RAV4 to the Leaf's harness, then replace the fuse inside the DC-DC (a fairly easy job, not like changing the fuses in the OBC!), and DIY this for about $500 and an afternoon of work. Again, I haven't done it, but it looks straightforward. Is there a thread on this forum about DIY the heater repair?

 

[miimura]

I haven't done this job myself, but a local who has a dead heater on his 2013 RAV4 EV asked me to look into this about a month agao, and it appears that you can obtain a Leaf heater from an early Leaf (say, from eBay), get a harness fragment from the Leaf as well, splice the HV harness from the RAV4 to the Leaf's harness, then replace the fuse inside the DC-DC (a fairly easy job, not like changing the fuses in the OBC!), and DIY this for about $500 and an afternoon of work. Again, I haven't done it, but it looks straightforward. Is there a thread on this forum about DIY the heater repair?

Don't you have that backwards?? I thought the DC-DC was glued shut and you had to cut through the glue to get to the fuses inside. Sealing it again to survive the under-hood environment is also an issue. I thought the charger was the easier fuse repair. The charger may be buried under more components, but getting to the fuses inside is substantially easier.

 

[asavage]

The OBC is hairy to R&R, esp. the HV junction box that is not very well constructed and is hung off the passenger side of the OBC.

The DC-DC has a glued cover but it's easily removed and replaced (for a glued cover, anyway) and requires no special tools. Plus, it's right on top! Much, much easier to get on and off the vehicle. And RTV is easy to use Re-gluing is not anything special.

Here's a markup I made for the friend whose RAV4 has a dead heater. Outlined in blue is the heater w/integrated HV harness, and the DC-DC is what it's plugged into. It's all right under the big plastic cover, which is decoration, serves no function, and I've left it off mine for years:




Here's the heater off the car (mine, from when I had all this removed for my OBC fuses replacement):



Early Leaf water heater:





With harness fragment (via eBay):



There are lots of guides to replacing the DC-DC accessory fuses, because the early Model S that uses the hardware-identical unit frequently had failed fuses for A/C and cabin heater as well. Notwithstanding Tony calling a fuse a diode.