Main pack connectors not closing fully

iridium · Dec 17, 2014

I recently went through an issue with my 12v battery (see Stranded at Snowbowl). While the car was at the service center they pulled out the main pack because the connectors were not opening and closing fully. This was explained to me that the main current carry connectors open and close when the car is on/off and they can get so hot they don't operate correctly.

The service center fixed the issue and all is well, but can anyone explain these more, how they work, etc? I'm just curious.

Interestingly, after the repair my car has several more miles of rated range at full charge.

randompersonx · Dec 17, 2014

iridium said:
I recently went through an issue with my 12v battery (see Stranded at Snowbowl). While the car was at the service center they pulled out the main pack because the connectors were not opening and closing fully. This was explained to me that the main current carry connectors open and close when the car is on/off and they can get so hot they don't operate correctly.

The service center fixed the issue and all is well, but can anyone explain these more, how they work, etc? I'm just curious.

Interestingly, after the repair my car has several more miles of rated range at full charge.

The contactors are like a giant relay that connects the high voltage only when the car is in operation, or charging, for safety reasons.

Most likely, the extra rated range is because the battery was disconnected and reconnected, so the car is back in a recalibration phase, so the actual capacity likely stayed the same, so it may have either been reading too low before, or it may be too high now.

Was this repair done entirely at the SC? You kept your same battery pack, it was just serviced?

tezco · Dec 17, 2014

This is interesting. I thought that the SC's always sent packs that had contactor issues back to the factory. Looking at Inside the Battery Pack, it looks like one has to peel off the metal cover to get to them. I wonder if newer packs have an easier pathway for access?

iridium · Dec 17, 2014

My pack was serviced at the service center (Scottsdale). They told me not all SCs are certified for this work, and other ones would need to send the pack back to the factory.

The car definitely feels peppier.. probably just my imagination though.

tezco said:
This is interesting. I thought that the SC's always sent packs that had contactor issues back to the factory. Looking at Inside the Battery Pack, it looks like one has to peel off the metal cover to get to them. I wonder if newer packs have an easier pathway for access?

yobigd20 · Dec 17, 2014

this was discussed in another thread somewhere but yes, service centers are being trained/upgraded and now opening packs and repairing them on site instead of sending them back to the factory.

apacheguy · Dec 17, 2014

@iridium - How many miles does your MS have?

tezco · Dec 18, 2014

yobigd20 said:
this was discussed in another thread somewhere but yes, service centers are being trained/upgraded and now opening packs and repairing them on site instead of sending them back to the factory.

Yes, here. Too many threads, too little time... I wonder if they will recall any of the Sig A packs since those have had some issues, if I recall correctly.

apacheguy · Dec 18, 2014

tezco said:
Yes, here. Too many threads, too little time... I wonder if they will recall any of the Sig A packs since those have had some issues, if I recall correctly.

Indeed. I count 14 issues with TMC Sigs:

Main Battery Replacement

Seems fairly high considering that most Sigs are not active members of TMC or don't post their pack failures here.

iridium · Dec 19, 2014

@apacheguy about 26k miles

Search

Main pack connectors not closing fully

iridium

Member

randompersonx

Member

tezco

Sig P85

iridium

Member

yobigd20

Well-Known Member

apacheguy

S Sig #255

tezco

Sig P85

apacheguy

S Sig #255

iridium

Member

Similar threads