Lead acid battery replacement advice

As there is no indication about a degrading 12 volt battery like a struggling starter motor in an ICE, it’s condition that can bite you, and I am sure that is the reason for Renault advising replacement after 3 years. A bad 12 volt battery leads to the “Check Electrical System” dash message, talked about earlier here. It’s both a somewhat confusing message, and it seems to be not exclusively for a bad 12 volt system.

Today I noticed there is a field the EVC called “Battery 14v to be changed display”, with possible values “-“, “Soon”, or “Now”. That seemed to be a fine candidate to add to the 12 volt screen. It’s already on the development branch on github and will make it in the next release. It’s the 4th line called “Replacement advice”.

Feedback is appreciated! We’re interested to know if there is a CanZE “soon” message before the dreaded dash message, if the dash message corresponds to this CanZE message, and if so, whether the “12 volt battery symbol” (rectangle with two knobs on top) was also lit on the dash.

8 Comments on “Lead acid battery replacement advice

  1. Beside displaying this info in “12V battery” section, this warning (everything other than ‘-‘) could be displayed as a warning immediately upon starting CanZE?

    • Could yes, but first we need to establish if it’s anything good to be honest. My battery is fine, so no way (yet) to know. Feedback appreciated.

  2. I had the message “Système ELEC à contrôler” 4 times since end of december (when my traction battery was upgraded to 41 kWh).
    (there is the -orange- maintenance icon + the battery with exclamation mark icon, but not the red little battery with “+ -” an)

    I checked with canZE, also this morning while I had the warning, but the Replacement advice is still at “none”.
    (my 12V battery is 2 years old)
    Voltage of 12V battery reported by CanZE was 13.2V/13.3V while on, then with car off, went down to about 12.2V (which looks OK I guess).

    How the 12V current measurements can be interpreted ?
    “Courant batterie 12 volts” (I had ~ 60 and down to about 5-10 with heater off)
    “Charge DCDC %” (varying, values a bit lower than “Courant batterie 12V”. With car off, around 5, and the 12 V current went close to 0)
    => is the 12 V current (in Amperes ?)the global output of both the Charging 400V->12V converter, and 12V battery? (i.e. some of the converter output may or may not be charging the battery, but it is not be shown here?)
    => what is “Charge DCDC %” is it the current from AC-AC converter to 12V battery ? Is it Amperes? (why is there a %?)

    • Current is in amps yes. DCDC % is to be read as “DCDC converter load”. AFAIK the converter is capable of delivering 1kW (= 80 amps = 100%). Sorry for the late reply.

  3. Follow up: I have not yet seen anyone report anything but a – for the replacement advice. I have my doubts about it giving out helpful information.

    In the development version of CanZE, I have added two more fields I found which seem to indicate voltage and current under extreme load/charging conditions. If I am correct, it is the result of the pulsebox tests. I am talking > 100 A currents. These number require more interpretation but should give a more insight in the condition of the 12 volt battery.

    • Excellent!
      Just when I was thinking of trying to mesure it by directly plugging an analyser on my battery…
      As I indicated before, I had the “Système ELEC à contrôler” warning, which later did not go away even after resting.
      Renault then updated my EVC ( http://renault-zoe.forumpro.fr/t12422p25-problemes-apres-upgrade-22-41-kwh#266370 ) which version installed during 41 kWh battery upgrade was buggy.
      They also changed the water pump.
      But I still the “Système ELEC à contrôler” message still came back later, and it is now quite often (maybe because of winter), especially after a charge when I did not charge the day before.
      My 12 V battery voltage after rest looked quite OK (last time I measured it directly it was about 12,4 V)
      “Replacement advice” always showed None …

      I checked this morning with CanZE development version (the car had finished a long charge and was at 100%, still plugged in):
      – without touching anything, car still closed (the dongle was already plugged in):
      – Voltage: 12,5
      – Voltage under load: 16,0
      – Current under load: 151,0
      – just after opening the car:
      – Voltage: 13,4
      – Voltage under load: 11,6
      – Current under load: -80,0

  4. Same here, i’ve had the check electric system message throughout the winter (At the time the car and 12 V battery was 2.5 years old). The message stopped appearing when temperatures increased. I haven’t seen this message until yesterday paired with another message (Hill assist failed). Checked again with CanZe, and the replacement advice always has been, and still is, “none”. iirc, max voltage (probably during charging) 14.1 V, After car goes to sleep (waited 10 minutes) is approximately 12.3 V. Max current under load i’ve seen numbers of upwards 110 A (i assume) and max voltage under load i haven’t seen below 11.6 V

    • Probably during charging as in: charging of the 12v battery by the alternator. Not charging the traction battery.