Toyota Sunnyvale Quoted $5600 to fix Charging Malfunction

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Altan

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Hayward, CA
My 2013 Toyota Rav4 EV stop charging yesterday. It was showing "Charging Malfunction" on the dashboard.
I tried with several different charging stations: Blink, ChargePoint and Leviton at home. It was consistently having the same error message.

Eventually, I pulled it off Toyota Sunnyvale (where I bought this car) before the battery depleted. They were silent for a day and I received a phone call today. Toyota Sunnyvale is asking for $5600 for the replacement of entire charging system. They mentioned that it's out of warranty at this point (85,000 miles). The service advisor said they 'would' understand if I'd rather give up on the car and use that money for down payment for a new one.

I am in a total shock. I need some advice and talking points about this. I am going to call them again and I want to make sure that I have all information available.

I feel like Toyota is asking the unreasonable amount of money to force owners to give up on their cars.
Did anyone else go through a similar experience before? Is there any other way to fix this car using OEM parts? Or this is pretty much end of the story?

Toyota Sunnyvale sold about most of Rav4 EVs in North Cal, I am surprised that this is the level of support we got at the end.

Update 1:
The service advisor says the parts will have only 1 year warranty. Hence I may end up paying another $5000 down the road if same malfunction happens again. I feel there is a subtle pressure to make me abandon the car. He gave me 24 hours to decide or tow the car somewhere else.

Update 2:
It's Tesla Error code CHG_f078. Tesla component is failed. In stock. Estimated: 3 days for delivery + 1 more day to install.
 
How much is the part and how much is the labor? I would try to get a used charger. I would also ask if they will give you the old charger if you buy the new one. It is possible there's just a fuse blown inside the charger. The hardest part is opening the cover and then re-sealing it because it's glued on, not screwed and gasketed.
 
You might also talk to some independent EV guys. In the end, a charger is a charger, and they could probably install either a used one or a third party one. Also, Tony Williams at QuickChargePower.com might be able to locate a used one. He could also sell you CHAdeMO, but I would understand if you didn't want to invest right now.
 
If you sent the car to us, here in beautiful San Diego county, we could replace the onboard vehicle charger with a used one for much less money.

Let me pause to reiterate an ongoing crusade:

1) Drive the RAV4 EV without a warranty at your own peril.

2) Drive with the original 12 volt battery at your own peril.

Yes, we can install JdeMO and quickly charge the RAV4 EV in 30-45 minutes at 18,000 CHAdeMO fast charge stations worldwide:

https://shop.quickchargepower.com/JdeMO-for-2012-2014-Toyota-RAV4-EV-JdeMORav4.htm
 
Hey Tony, I thought you might be able to help. After reading the most recent threads, I am so happy I sprung for the 8 year, 125K extended warranty. I'm not on the original battery, but I think I'l be putting in your recommended Bosch well before this one has a chance to bite me.

I wanted to let you know that my new JdeMO really is a game changer. It saved me from having to borrow my son's car when my wife forgot to plug the RAV in Friday night.
 
There are few updates with my Rav4 EV saga.

The good news that I realized that I had a breakdown insurance from Mercury when I bought the vehicle on lease-end. I financed it through a credit union and paid $800 extra for a mechanical breakdown insurance from Mercury, covering up to 24 months or 100,000 miles. I made a claim to Mercury and they processed the claim fairly quickly. Kudos to Mercury!

Now,Toyota Sunnyvale called and told me that the parts has arrived. They are refusing to give me the old parts, because, they need to be send to Toyota by policy.
I smell something fishy here. It's private property. How come can they refuse to give me the parts I own?

While technician pulled the car to install charger, he noticed louder than usual noise from engine. The service advisor suggested me to replace the engine. He told me that a lot of Rav4 EV coming back nowadays due to engine noise and get engine replaced? I didn't even asked how much. He said it probably not covered by my Mercury insurance since it's not broke down yet. The engine is not covered by warranty anymore (conflicting what he said earlier), the only part covered at this point is battery.

I personally don't notice any noise louder than I used to her. Maybe I should drive some other Rav4 EV to tell the difference. Is this engine noise a pre-cursor of engine failure?
 
It's just a noise. If it doesn't bother you, then don't bother to fix it. It's not going to "break" any faster if you don't fix it. I just had mine replaced before the Powertrain Warranty ran out because it was getting louder and it was my last chance for a freebie. I have the Platinum Extended Warranty, but I didn't want to use up its payout limits later for something that could be covered by the factory warranty.
 
Before you do anything I say call your insurance company and ask what your options are in terms of the SHOPS you can take your RAV4 EV to. If the insurance company says you can take it to TONY'S REPAIR SHOP I say take it to tony. He will be able to install a new? or used? charger with the covered warranty money maybe? And also give you the old one back.

Also the way I saw it if you had to do it the old way I'd say get JDEMO instead of reinstalling the old charger. There's a bunch of CHADEMO stations for JDEMO and it charges so fast it would just be the better option. You'd just have to be sure you stay on top of your battery charge, but with JDEMO and RAV4 EV range it shouldn't be an issue.

So 5600 to fix the charger system and 5800 for the navigation unit. I believe the new motor is something like 20,000 to replace and the battery is worse I think 35,000

Yes do keep the car but try to get an extended warranty if you can even if it is one with limited miles? I don't know what your options for that are at this point.

I highly reccomend the tony route if yourt insurance OKs it. That way you might be able to get the old part and check it out then resell it. Unless tony can give you some sort of deal. It might be worth checking it out.
 
davewill said:
Hey Tony, I thought you might be able to help. After reading the most recent threads, I am so happy I sprung for the 8 year, 125K extended warranty. I'm not on the original battery, but I think I'l be putting in your recommended Bosch well before this one has a chance to bite me.

I wanted to let you know that my new JdeMO really is a game changer. It saved me from having to borrow my son's car when my wife forgot to plug the RAV in Friday night.

I’m not aware of a single person who has bought our JdeMO kit to want to subsequently sell it and keep the RAV4 EV.

It truly does change the use of the car, particularly in areas with widespread CHAdeMO chargers, like SoCal, San Francisco Bay, western Oregon and Washington state, northeast US, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, etc.
 
the JDEMO is also effectively a "backup charging system" for the car as well. (so if you cant charge with the regular charger for any reason, you can still charge with JDEMO). I've used that once or twice. Love my JDEMO...
 
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