Pfffft. Gaps are only an issue if you're going to space.
Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?
- Thread starter PrivatePilot
- Start date
Pfffft. Gaps are only an issue if you're going to space.
I don't know why people allow these junky looking things to be put on their cars to begin with, much less continue to drive around with them and offer free advertising, also technically making their plate illegal.
I have a few of them hanging up in my garage dating back to an old Pontiac transport minivan we bought, they all came off as soon as the car got home. When I bought my current volt I actually preemptively remembered to tell them to not put one on to begin with. The salesman looked at me funny like I had asked for $1000 discount or something.
He can put on one if he gives me a $1000 discount for advertising for him.
Exactly the same thing that happens to a (let's say) 2015-model combustion-engine vehicle that blows up its V6 DOHC-VVT direct-injection engine which the EV doesn't have. Costs more to fix than the car is worth? Off to the boneyard to be picked apart for bits and pieces for other cars.
Exactly the same thing that happens to a (let's say) 2015-model combustion-engine vehicle that blows up its 9 speed automatic transmission that the EV doesn't have. Same deal.
"But I could get a used engine/transmission from the junkyard and put that in" - yes, if it is a popular model and the failure isn't a "pattern failure" such that they ALL have that failure (*cough* Hyundai 2.4 litre petrol engines, for example), and if an EV is a popular model such that there are wrecked models available with good batteries still in them, you could do EXACTLY the same thing. It is NO different.
Book time for battery swap on the Bolt (recall replacement) was about 5 hours. Basically ... Up on the hoist ... drain coolant ... disconnect several cables ... place battery lift underneath ... undo a bunch of bolts ... drop it out ... stick the new one up in there ... fasten bolts ... reconnect cables ... refill and bleed coolant ... hook up the computer and fiddle with the electronics so that the car knows what happened ... done.
N.B. If the vehicle is one with Tesla's "structural battery pack" then all bets are off. Good luck. You have to tear apart the interior so as to remove the floor, because that's also the battery, and then re-assemble the interior afterward. I think those cars go to the shredder if the battery craps out and it's past warranty.
ALL cars contain parts inside them whose cost exceeds what the car is worth a few years down the road. Every. Single. One. And you know what? If you never have to replace those parts ... it doesn't matter.
Relax
Well-known member
Yeah, but the double-edged sword is that fewer parts means those individual parts are catastrophic when they fail. With combustion, you have a chance of only needing to repair a small/cheap part of the engine like, say, a starter motor.
Oh, by the way.....2011 Volt, checking in. 205,000km. Still on my original battery, bumpers still attached, all body panels still fitting together correctly.
I did have a check engine light come on a few weeks ago that I couldn't address myself, so it had to go to a shop to get smoke tested for a leak on the EVAP system. It was a devastating $178 repair. I'll never financially recover from this.
I did have a check engine light come on a few weeks ago that I couldn't address myself, so it had to go to a shop to get smoke tested for a leak on the EVAP system. It was a devastating $178 repair. I'll never financially recover from this.
... and that particular failure cannot happen on mine 
42,3xx km, original battery, bumpers still attached, panel gaps are all good.
The BS emission control gadgets, sensors, switches, wiring, valves, controllers, etc that every combustion-engine vehicle has, won't be missed.
42,3xx km, original battery, bumpers still attached, panel gaps are all good.
The BS emission control gadgets, sensors, switches, wiring, valves, controllers, etc that every combustion-engine vehicle has, won't be missed.
Relax
Well-known member
You know that EV's are, comparatively, insanely simple to an ICE vehicle, right?
Electric Vehicle Drivetrains Only Have 20 Moving Parts Compared to Over 200 in Conventional Automobiles
Yes, that's my point. Like the post that got me started, what do you do when the battery pack fails? Or what about the electric motor? Are you going to try rewinding it in your garage?
Relax
Well-known member
Oh, by the way.....2011 Volt, checking in. 205,000km. Still on my original battery, bumpers still attached, all body panels still fitting together correctly.
I did have a check engine light come on a few weeks ago that I couldn't address myself, so it had to go to a shop to get smoke tested for a leak on the EVAP system. It was a devastating $178 repair. I'll never financially recover from this.
Wait, you have a Volt? So then you not only have everything that can go wrong in an ICE car, but also the electrical on top of that plus GM's proprietary coupling system that isn't well-documented (at least not enough for people to actually understand how it all works - specifically whether the ICE engine only provides charging for the batteries, or if it's actually connected to the driveline).
If out of warranty, you either track down used parts and replace, or if the cost is too high, the car is done. But the probability of any of that failing is lower than the cost of a petrol engine blowing up or becoming uneconomic to repair because of intake valve clogging, timing chain guides wearing out, belt tensioners grenading, VVT actuators taking a dump, valve lifters collapsing, cam follower bearings seizing, piston rings sticking, injectors clogging or sticking, catalysts clogging, oxygen sensors reporting "low catalyst efficiency" for no apparent reason, belts breaking, water pump bearings grenading, OR transmission internal clutches wearing out, valve bodies sticking, torque converter shuddering, and on and on and ON...
I know this is a really, really long thread, but seriously, some searching may be in order.
I can pickup a used but perfectly serviceable pack for my Volt for typically around a thousand bucks and replace it myself, in my driveway, in a day. Even if I had to pay a shop for the job it would be about 5 hours labour for someone who knows what they're doing and are effecient.
And the electric motors? These are seriously not failure items. Electric motors are the most simple and insanely reliable things out there - I just replaced my furnace this summer because the thing was original to the house in 1987, and that blower motor was still ticking away perfectly. Don't equate the electric motor in EV's to things like the ****** electric motors in cheap room fans or whatever, it's apples to oranges.
Anyhow, again, if those things fail, you go to a scrapyard and pull a replacement. For example, I just did a search on a battery for a 2017 Hyundai Ioniq EV (which we owned previously), and boom, here ya go, all sorts of them for $3500.
Part of all the misconteptions with EV's and their repair costs is the FUD that's spread online, the stereotypical stories about people getting $50,000 quotes from dealerships for repairs that can in reality be done for 1/5'th of that if the dealership wasn't staffed with a bunch of button-pushing dolts who can't think outside the box and look at alternatives vs "just have the manufacturer send us a brand new battery for a 6-8 year old car".
Relax
Well-known member
Sorry, but how much mileage was on that Hyundai when the pack failed? Meanwhile all of my cars have over 300,000 kms with no major problems (well, except for my nightmare Acura MDX which everyone keeps telling me is an anomaly).
Again, you're really late to the thread here, but again, this stuff has been covered umpteen million times.
We have three volts now, a 2012 with close to 300,000km on it, mine with 205K, and my wife's Gen2 2017 with 140K on it.
Hands down the best cars we have ever owned.
Relax
Well-known member
OK, now that's more like it. So basically the same as it cost me to get my MDX motor replaced by a third party.
Who said the pack failed? These packs end up in scrapyards because the cars they're attached to were in major wrecks.
I don't think I've ever heard of an Ioniq pack failing, for that matter. That car was a Timex as well for the time we owned it.
Relax
Well-known member
I was just going by the quote from Hyundai that the pack needed to be replaced.
Another quick search....$900 for a 2014 Volt battery that will fit in my 2011 just fine, and actually has a newer chemistry that provides extra range vs what mine originally came with.
Not that I need a battery or anything, but again, just saying - I don't doubt there are people who would take their 10 year old Volt to a GM dealer and get a "You should piss off we'd rather not deal with this" quote for $20,000 for a brand new battery from GM, but that's like putting a brand new factory crate engine in a 2012 Ford Focus...you just don't do that ****, you get one from a scrapyard instead that's perfectly heatlhy and drop that in at a tiny fraction of the cost. The difference is "the dealership said it needed this really expensive part" vs going to an independent shop and getting **** fixed for 1/4 that cost or less.
So you liked the Ioniq? Can’t remember why you got rid of it.
Here I got rid of my Volt with 126k on it, making myself feel like a dolt! LoL
Here it is…
Saw this 2018 Chevrolet Volt on AutoTrader's iPhone app
Surprised they haven’t sold it yet. One $700 price drop since they posted it.
Relax
Well-known member
Well, keep in mind the Volt battery is tiny compared to a full EV.
Let me just add this - I do almost all work on my own vehicles, and the only reason I sent my MDX to a shop for the motor transplant was because I was in a hurry and they offered me a loaner. I COULD have done it myself in my fully equipped garage if I really wanted, but with an EV I feel like I wouldn't have a choice.
