[alanl]

Hi.. put away my 2013 E with 4300 miles on it for the winter back in December. This past week tried to start and of course it was dead. Then tried to charge the 12v and determined that it was not taking a charge - since 8 year old batter that seemed reasonable. Replaced the 12 V batter and then tried to charge with my 110 v charger. Normally when I plug it in I can hear the charger from outside of the vehicle at the plug in location. Now, cannot hear anything that sounds like the normal charging sound unless I am inside the car.

So it appears there is either a problem with the charger ? or the main battery system. Located in Massachusetts and there seems to be only one place - a major car dealer- that can work on the vehicle - if anyone is in MA and knows of someone that I can have car towed to for diagnostic would appreciate it. Also if anyone has had this issue before, please chime in. Had no idea I would have this issue when I put the vehicle away for winter was covered and stored in a semi protected car port (sides and top). Any assistance would greatly be appreciated.

 

[jwight]

Some background reading: Read this warning to prevent hv battery failure!!

 

[alanl]

Some background reading: Read this warning to prevent hv battery failure!!

Unfortunately did not join the Forum or review the owners manual for long term storage prior to taking vehicle off the road for the winter. Do you know off hand if the Warranty is based on mileage or years or combination of both. I purchased vehicle from an estate - first owner only drove it 500 miles a year and had less than 4,000 miles upon purchase. I did buy this vehicle at well below the retail market value ...thanks

 

[Jo e Lefors]

Allow me to actually welcome you to
SCoA forum.
From everything I have read on this forum your high voltage traction battery has "Bricked" it's self. Sadly for the average owner there is no EASY reversal for a bricked traction battery.
There is a very specific sequence that you needed to follow to adequately store electric smart. Sadly If not followed, the high voltage battery Bricks itself, as a safety mechanism for Auto dismantlers unfortunately the car doesn't know if it is being salvaged or just stored.
Most warranties are mileage or time whichever comes first.
Sorry

 

[Jeb Baker]

alanh, you might want to do a post seach w/ keyword "bricked" in this smart-fortwo-electric-drive subforum. Some people in Europe claim to have a fix, but I'v been confused by their wording enough to not be sure. sorry.

 

[sokoloff]

Car is well out of warranty - four years or 50K miles. I'm hoping for a good solution for you, but I'm not optimistic.

Len

 

[alanl]

Thanks... well I was very lucky once about three years ago.. had a Nissan Murano bought used with 130k that had an extended warranty (CVT transmission) that I still missed by 5k but was within the extended year period. They replaced the transmission free of charge.

 

[Yinzer]

Allow me to actually welcome you to
SCoA forum.
From everything I have read on this forum your high voltage traction battery has "Bricked" it's self. Sadly for the average owner there is no EASY reversal for a bricked traction battery.
There is a very specific sequence that you needed to follow to adequately store electric smart. Sadly If not followed, the high voltage battery Bricks itself, as a safety mechanism for Auto dismantlers unfortunately the car doesn't know if it is being salvaged or just stored.
Most warranties are mileage or time whichever comes first.
Sorry

To be clear, the stuff about the bricking upon draining of the 12V battery being deliberate design as a safety feature, and not a bug, was speculation on my part. I think that the more accepted hypothesis now is that it is a design bug.

That original "Read this warning to prevent HV battery failure" is in need of revision. We now know that that the HV battery discharging itself (bricking) can also be prevented by disconnecting the 12V battery (negative terminal) before storage. Initially, there was one case of a forum member posting that he removed the 12V battery for the winter and the car was bricked in the spring, which led me to believe that removing the 12V battery could casue a bricking too. But now I think that something else was going on - like the 12V battery had already run down before he removed it.

 

[sokoloff]

How do you figure the computer update from early 2016 fits into all of this? At one time there was speculation that the computer update helped to avoid the bricking of the HV battery?

Len