Been reading the forums on and off for about 6 month now finally had an question I haven’t found an answer to yet.
I have a 2018 eLXD that I was given to see if it can be brought back from the dead after sitting for 4 years. We found that the master contactor was bad and bypassed it for testing till we can get a new one. We installed a 48v Lithium Iron battery in it because we had an extra on in the office and have a low battery message pop up. Where does the car get its battery voltage info from?
For reference: We have a 2018 e4 that we did a battery swap with the same Cloud Energy battery in November and have had no issues so far. I found a set of smaller gauge wires on the e4 cart at the battery terminal that I so far haven’t seen on the eLXD. Is that the point were it takes the battery measurment?
First off, mc can’t be bypassed for testing.
Battery sense is a terminal at bmc.
If you mean the extra red wire in battery compartment. Don’t connect it. It’s for 12v only. Big problems if connected to 48v.
Test contactor “OUT” of circuit. Connect 48v to small, coil, wires. Should click and connect between the two big terminals.
Replace with any standard 48v coil contactor. An “economizer coil” will not work. They don’t always say.
Ask @grantwest !
Yes I burnt a coil. I ordered a standard replacement. Turns out the Resistance was way to High for my cars Electronics to open and close it. I needed the coil that Dave recommended.
I guess this is the first place i went wrong. I assumed the ASM contactor had a 12v coil, I will need to test it again with the proper voltage when i get back to the office tomorrow.
Got into the office this morning and started putting it back together.
Swapped the ASM Contactor from the E4 to the eLXD and the the E4 is still working, the E4 contactor is now in the eLXD.
Connected the external charger to the battery and charged it to full while still hooked to the Gem car, turned the cart on after it finished.
The Cloud Energy onboard BMS went into standby after it finished charging, Batt Low is still flashing on the Gem car display.
Unplugged the 12v battery, let it sit for 5 min to reset the ECM, hooked it back up Batt low still flashing.
Checked the Fault Codes:
- Started with (6) down to (2)
- 520545:4
- 520546:4
Items of note:
- Turn signals out, Hazards work
- High Beams out, Low Beams out
- F/N/R switch and display is working
- Orange triangle is lit
- Parking break alarm is working.
There are still a couple of relays I haven’t tried swapping between the cars, I am going to try that next.
Update: after swapping relays in the fuse box I found the far right one was installed backwards. I turned it around and the error codes went away and the car drives now.
Electrical Problems left:
Batt Low indicator Flashing
- I am going to run the battery down a bit and try plug the DeltaQ charger back in.
Relays are ambidextrous. There is no backwards.
Far right is used to charge 12v aux battery. I don’t know the effect of out and in, but it seems to have done something. I’m skeptical, more than likely the bmc/vcm was reset by something you did.
If it runs, I’m happy!
I never worked on lights. But wag. All functions are controlled by vcm inputs and outputs. Maybe power down both battery systems. Plug on frame gusset in front of driver’s side under hood, does this. Reseat vcm plug.
As touchy as your car is, don’t be surprised if things change.
