Check EV System warning message

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TonyWilliams said:
2) TW: The noisy motors (like the rental at South Coast Toyota in Orange County) should be proactively fixed. They do know the exact problem (and SB explained it to me), so hopefully folks won't rent that car in the future and say, "gosh, these Toyota electric cars sure are noisy compared to LEAF, et al". Also, it will prevent going to dealers and wondering if your car is bad or not. SB did physically drive my car at the dealer before they replaced the motor.

Could you tell us what the exact problem is?
 
TonyWilliams said:
qwk said:
TonyWilliams said:
2) TW: The noisy motors (like the rental at South Coast Toyota in Orange County) should be proactively fixed. They do know the exact problem (and SB explained it to me)...

Could you tell us what the exact problem is?

I would butcher it, so I'm not going to try. I didn't take notes.
Is it a problem with the motor or gearbox or inverter?
 
TonyWilliams said:
qwk said:
Is it a problem with the motor or gearbox or inverter?

He described it as NOT a gear box problem, which frankly I find hard to believe.
The reason I ask, is because I own a Model S, and have driven an Rav4 EV that was "quiet", kind of like my model S, but had a different noise at 60-70mph as my model S does.

My car has what I would call an inverter squeal, while the Rav4 made more of a motor bearings/gearbox noise. The noise was in the same mph range, but definately of a different frequency. I know that both vehicles share the same drivetrain except for battery and maybe inverter. I'm guessing that these are both inverter noises, just different because of a different inverter setup?
 
update:

It has been a month since charger unit was replaced (Check EV System diag). So far no issues. May not mean much.
 
After 2 days at the dealer, I got it back in working condition. They told me my auxiliary battery was low which caused the error to display and prevented the car from shifting into gear. Once they recharged it, everything passed testing.
 
Update! I finally got a new Rav4 today. They took my old one back as promised and hooked me up with a brand new one. My old VIN was 1774 (I think) and my new one is 1971.

Hopefully the later VIN will prove to be a better thing. We'll see.
 
I also frequently get the Check EV System warning message. I didn't border to send it to dealer for the last 2 months until yesterday.

Has the dealer/Tesla able to fix it?

When I used to use the 120v charger portable charger (Leviton EVB40-5PT hadn't been installed), the warning message also came up from time to time.

I suspect it may be due to using AC, may be the water condensation from AC is causing something to go wrong. Let's see if anyone agree or disagree.
 
I visited the other thread and left a message there.

The problem totally goes away if I don't use the AC for more then 2 days. Therefore I suspect it may be related to water condensation from using the AC. The water condensation affect some internal hardware, causing it to temporarily malfunction. The hardware may be protected from external water (rain), but not from the water coming from condensation of using AC.

Now, why this is so difficult to diagnose, because when I put the car to the dealer, the dealer delays it for a day before giving it to Tesla engineer to diagnose. By the time Tesla engineer gets the car, all the water condensation already gone, the hardware is back to working again. Therefore they can't find anything wrong.

For the above reason, I am asking car owners who have this problem, to check if they agree with this: the problem only comes out when AC is used in the last 24 hrs.
 
I seldom use the AC (and only for short drives) but there was a problem with the connector on my high voltage water pump which is somewhat similar (faulty connector kept coming loose and causing errors). It seems reasonable that any internal condensation combined with a loose connector somewhere could cause a similar problem. I ended up also having my Gateway ECU replaced which seems to have really solved the problem but time will tell. Hopefully they'll be able to find an easy solution to your problem.
 
Went to pick up my brand new Rav4 EV yesterday from Toyota Palo Alto. Test drive was fine, got leather installed & they put it on the charging station for an extended charge before I left. Couldn't drive it off of the lot-- Check EV System came on followed by check power steering when I tried to put it in drive. And yes, really! We tried about 10 times to start the car, but no luck--could not get out of neutral. The salesperson said that this light was not present when he drove it to the charging bay, before placing on extended charge. Does this sound like a problem from the gateway ecu?

This was after service had closed. So... I'm driving the anti-EV (loaner Avalon) & they will check it out today. If it isn't something that they can resolve quickly, we will ask them to give us a different car. :cry:

2013, vin 1917
 
Ntd said:
Went to pick up my brand new Rav4 EV yesterday from Toyota Palo Alto. Test drive was fine, got leather installed & they put it on the charging station for an extended charge before I left. Couldn't drive it off of the lot-- Check EV System came on followed by check power steering when I tried to put it in drive. And yes, really! We tried about 10 times to start the car, but no luck--could not get out of neutral. The salesperson said that this light was not present when he drove it to the charging bay, before placing on extended charge. Does this sound like a problem from the gateway ecu?

This was after service had closed. So... I'm driving the anti-EV (loaner Avalon) & they will check it out today. If it isn't something that they can resolve quickly, we will ask them to give us a different car. :cry:

2013, vin 1917
OMG! Well, you didn't drive it off the lot yet, so technically it's not your car yet.
 
Wow Ntd, you beat my record. I got mine a block away from the dealer before that happened to me. It sucks that you had already put leather in it before seeing the problem. Will make it more difficult to switch out cars. I was lucky and got a new car a few weeks after taking delivery of the original one. Good luck!
 
I was quite disheartened as I was so excited to pick up the car. They did a software update, which was just released yesterday, per the service manager and everything was "back to normal." Miracle of all miracles. It was an update to solve "charging problems." I don't understand why Toyota does not have the foresight to update the software right before handing over the car, instead of waiting for problems to occur and taking much more time to deal with them. That would be too easy. The drive home was fine. We shall see...
 
Glad to hear you got it back already.

On a lighter note, I'm stoked I made it to Palm Springs today from Orange County. I made it with 46 miles remaining! I come out here a lot so was very pleased.
 
duggie said:
Glad to hear you got it back already.

On a lighter note, I'm stoked I made it to Palm Springs today from Orange County. I made it with 46 miles remaining! I come out here a lot so was very pleased.

Sorry for off topic...whereabouts from OC? How far did you go? How's the charging infrastructures in Palms Springs? I'd like to visit in the rav4ev, but concern about getting back, esp if charging is still difficult there.
 
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