This post is more for reference. In the R models there is no BCB and no PEB. These functions (power distribution, inverters, motor controller) are all integrated in one huge box called the PEC. Inside are several modules doing the hard work. Here are a few pictures of the PEC,the R240 motor, and the complete assembly.
Zoe’s error messages to the driver are not always crystal clear. This one usually points to a failure in the 12 volt system.
There are basically two reasons why the 12 volt system can be compromised (barring real faults somewhere in the electrical system):
Let me start by saying the 12 volt system feeds anything and everything that is not traction or the air conditioning compressor. For the non-Nordic version, it also feeds a few rheostats for fast wind shield defrosting. It’s all pretty beefy but still it can drain fast. Remember that all 16 computers are powered from the 12 volt system. If this bus runs bad, literally nothing will work as expected, if at all really.
Renault has the lead-acid battery replacement in their schedule set for after 3 years. This does seem pretty short indeed, but given the above, I wouldn’t dismiss the dealers suggestion for replacement flat out. If you are in doubt, at least have it tested. Lead acid batteries are loosing a notoriously amount of capacity when it gets cold, and you don’t want to get stranded with a full traction battery, but a dead 12 volt system. And if it’s dead, the computers are dead, and there will be no way to bootstrap charging it without hooking it up to an external 12 volt battery charger. Been there, read on.
Unexpected drain is pretty hard to do. The auxiliary power shuts off when the car goes in sleep mode, so even leaving on some sort of accessory through the lighter plug should shut down.
There is one scenario however, which I am pretty sure happened to me. The charger plug was not seated properly, or at least the car thought so. You can actually detect this when the motor lock retries every 2-3 seconds. This retrying continues forever and while this is going on, the car is fully awake, all computers are on, the lock motor is being fired continuously and of course no charging is happening while there is a serious load on the 12 volt system. Now one could think the 12 volt system is being replenished by the traction battery, but it isn’t. The lead acid battery was drained down to 5 volt in a few hours at which point the car went completely dead. 5 volt is devastating to a lead acid battery if not quickly charged. Luckily, I found out and diagnosed this within a few hours of it happening.
I couldn’t bootstrap the car “in situ”, because as soon as I connected my small 12 volt car charger to the battery, the car woke up, started to initialize all it’s systems and while doing so overwhelmed the charger. I removed the mass cable from the battery and charged it for an hour. After that, the battery had enough juice to pull the car through it’s initialisation. I then was able to remove the charger cable, hooked it up again and charged the car normally. The error went away after one cycle.
See this post for details. Yesterday I was charging at a Fastned station to test out an issue with harmonics. That went fine. Fastned here is a provider doing only high power charging and only at stations along the highways. Their equipment is supplied by ABB. What never happened before, I was bitten by this issue. One can argue (and I am one who does!) that the pin lock mechanism, and especially the micro-switch is a flimsy design. However, the plugs at those Fastned designs are simply insane. The thing is so long and the cable is so heavy that even my never-had-this-problem-in-three-years ZOE not only had a hard time locking the plug until I supported it while it tried, but the force pried the switch open after it was locked, already charging and I slowly let go. Immediate interruption of the charging process, BCI level 1 (just retry) and after three tree times red nose and BCI level 2, rain dance ™ required. What a pain in the behind! In the end I repositioned the car and “draped” the cable in a way it sort of supported itself more or less and then all was dandy, see picture.
This is two rather lousy designs conspiring together to not make things work. What on earth were they thinking?
Dutch forum member, Q210 driver and multifuntion charger builder “fivari”, posted this table today, stating charging behavior of the Q210 on a single phase line under chargepoint power conditions. Measurements were done in this order, so charginging definately starts at 8A. Three phase table will follow on a later date. Great info, thank you!
Pilot chargepoint (A) - Pilot CanZE (A) - Current (A) - Power (kW) - cos phi ===================== =============== =========== ========== ======= 6 no charging, pinkish dash 8 7 7,7 1213 0,66 10 9 9,6 1808 0,80 12 11 11,2 2281 0,87 14 13 13,1 2763 0,91 16 16 15,7 3374 0,94 18 18 17,3 3750 0,95 20 20 19,5 4271 0,96
Here is more data. Also Q210, now on a 3 phase settable charger. Unfortunately no real AC power data
Pilot chargepoint (A) - Pilot CanZE (A) - Available CanZE (kW) - DC CanZE (kW) ===================== =============== ==================== - ============= 10 0, not charging 3,0 -0.2 12 11 4,2 4.0 13 12 5,1 5,1 14 13 6,0 5.6
R240, now on a 3 phase settable charger.
Pilot chargepoint (A) - Pilot CanZE (A) - Available CanZE (kW) - DC CanZE (kW) ===================== =============== ==================== - ============= 6 6 2,4 1,2 7 6 2,4 1,8 8 7 3,0 2,7 9 8 3,9 3,4 10 9 4,5 4,0 11 10 5,1 4,7 12 11 6,6 6,1 13 12 7,5 7,0 14 13 8,1 7,5 15 14 8,7 8,0 16 15 9,6 9,1 17 16 10,2 9,5 18 17 11,1 10,4 19 18 11,7 10,9 20 19 12,3 11,5 21 20 12,9 12,0 22 20 12,9 12,0
Edit: We now have much more technical background, see this post and a few before that.
Truth to be told, the DTC READOUT screen never worked very well. Codes did not always appear and when they did, well, it was just codes. Not anymore in the next release! We’re adding the actual meaning of the Diagnostic Trouble Codes for every computer we have them for. Here’s a little teaser screen, showing the result of querying the Uncoupled Brake Pedal computer of my ZOE:
Let’s dissect the second one. 405155 can be split in three parts. The first one (4) means it is usually displayed on diagnostic tools as “C0”, meaning it is a SAE standardised chassis trouble code. The next 3 (051) define what hard- or software component of this computer is causing this DTC. Here it is the Steering wheel angle sensor, which is interesting as it is part of the Power steering (EPS), not the UBP. The last two hexadecimal numbers indicate what test triggered this DTC to be fired. Here (55) it is “Not configured”. Finally, zero or more flags can be sent with the DTC. In this case the “testNotCompletedThisOperationCycle” flag.
This particular DTC is completely benign. If a flag called “warningIndicatorRequested” is included, we’re in different territory. It means the orange spot light in the dash comes on.
I read quite a few complaints about the heater system. Not that it’s a bit underpowered, but really off, as in just blowing cold air when heat is requested. I am more or less trying to compile a list of user-fixable, or -detectable causes, from what I read on forums. Please comment if any of what’s listed here is wrong by your experience, or right!
Some people have reported heating the outside temperature sensor to roughly 50 degrees using a hair dryer or a hot towel (it’s the dimple under the right hand side wing mirror) also seems to kick the computer’s logic.
Edit: see this post for a follow up.
With mentioned gateway now in place, and the car happily charging (therefor awake) in my front yard, and what seems to be a fairly good description of all diagnostic fields, it is SO much easier to peek into the car’s diagnostics. So, on my laptop I made a little program plowing through the database of diagnostic commands of the EVC (motor controller), the LBC (battery controller) and the CLIM (heater / airco computer), request every known diagnostic frame, pull out the values of each frame and write that back into the database. We are talking over 3000 values for these 3 computers only.
I can see the pressure in the Airco circuit, which is not fairly low as it was not running, but laso things like the positions of every airflow valve.
Here some data from the LBC.
Sandy posted an insane hack on speakev to put the heater in auto mode but A/C forced off.
Through a friendly forum poster we got our hands on some important CANbus message definitions that should enable us to massively expand on the diagnostics side of CanZE. Getting more information from the LBC (the controller within the battery enclosure) seems within reach. We will also try again to get to the BCB (charger) through the CANbus and if we can work that out, we might be able to get a lot of information from it. We still like to know WHY a charging sessions fails and the BCB is the computer that has that information. Stay tuned.
Andy Fras found and posted this video about replacing the pollen filter. For the DIY types, a new filter can be had for just a few euros on eBay. The last one on my Renault dealership invoice was 27 euros including taxes. Not earth shattering saving, but still.
Thank you Andy, we’re always interested in things “ZOE inner workings”, be it drawing, pictures, videos, descriptions.
