Check EV System warning message

[gary2020]

Miimura, yes we have documented and printed it out for them.
I even mentioned the gateway ECU the first time.
But of course they do the minimum before escalating, hoping it was a fluke and the error will not reappear.

The car got taken to dealer on a flatbed today for safety reason, though it was driveable.
Starting the car today showed the error message so hopefully they will see it at the dealer.

Stay tuned.

 

[Joe_EV]

I've learned that mine was one of three (3) RAV4 EVs undergoing diagnostics for similar problems at Stevens Creek Toyota in San Jose today. One of their service guys spent the entire day on this, including communications with the factory, and will be back in tomorrow (Saturday) to continue.

 

[miimura]

I've learned that mine was one of three (3) RAV4 EVs undergoing diagnostics for similar problems at Stevens Creek Toyota in San Jose today. One of their service guys spent the entire day on this, including communications with the factory, and will be back in tomorrow (Saturday) to continue.

Well, that ought to get SOMEBODY'S attention. We knew that there are a steady stream of these errors happening based on input from the forum, but I had no idea that it was so serious that there could be three at one dealer all at the same time! My fingers are firmly crossed that it won't happen to me. Eh, who am I kidding? It sounds so serious that it is probably just a matter of time. Hopefully, it was just a bad batch of chips or something.

 

[cwerdna]

I've learned that mine was one of three (3) RAV4 EVs undergoing diagnostics for similar problems at Stevens Creek Toyota in San Jose today. One of their service guys spent the entire day on this, including communications with the factory, and will be back in tomorrow (Saturday) to continue.

Yowza. Considering how few of these vehicles are in the wild, that's not a good sign. The good part is that at least Tesla is not that far from the above dealer.

Not sure where the Toyota folks involved are. (Michigan? Torrance, CA? Ontario, Canada?)

Hope Tony's car holds up for his BC2BC trip. I'd imagine he'd be quite embarrassed if he were stranded on his own trip due to this or some other breakdown. His former Leaf made it fine in both directions.

 

[Krystal]

This thread is disturbing and making me feel like I shouldn't get the car...

How many vehicles will Toyota have to replace this "ECU" on before they consider the cars recallable?

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Recalls are generally only for safety defects and FMVSS non-conformance. However, if there are cases where the car loses power unexpectedly (not due to user error), there will most likely be a recall. That'd be a classic example of a safety defect.

 

[AvLegends]

I think most of the cases are instances where the car wont start parked (as was mine) or the message is shown with drivability. Not sure how many were left dead with message out in the field.

Was fiddling with a stuck charge connector door the other day and opened the cover inside directly behind the connector. Low and behold, right under the cover was the notorious Gateway ECU. With it so easy to get to Toyota should at least have a couple of these sitting in each EV certified dealership parts department to swap out for troubleshooting purposes. Three screws and two electrical connectors and I could have the thing sitting on the bench in 5 min. max! They don't even have to remove the unit to plug in a new one. Maybe there is more to it than swapping one out for diagnosis and I don't know the whole story but I am an A&P mechanic and have been working on GA aircraft for 30+ years. Swapping out for a known good part this easy to get to would be the first thing I would try. Seems that the Gateway ECU is the weak link in the system with several of us reporting having it replaced. Oh well...

 

[TonyWilliams]

I think most of the cases are instances where the car wont start parked (as was mine) or the message is shown with drivability. Not sure how many were left dead with message out in the field.

Was fiddling with a stuck charge connector door the other day and opened the cover inside directly behind the connector. Low and behold, right under the cover was the notorious Gateway ECU.

More pics of the internals:

http://myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=619#p619

 

[AvLegends]

I think most of the cases are instances where the car wont start parked (as was mine) or the message is shown with drivability. Not sure how many were left dead with message out in the field.

Was fiddling with a stuck charge connector door the other day and opened the cover inside directly behind the connector. Low and behold, right under the cover was the notorious Gateway ECU.

More pics of the internals:

http://myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=619#p619

Is that the Gateway ECU that you opened up or one of the other computers?

 

[evbuddy]

Got the car back after almost 3 weeks in the service shop.

Problem: Check EV, car drivable.

What was done:
- Faulty Charger Assembly (Tesla Part), replaced.
- Firmware updated line-by-line (Toyota had to get Tesla to do it for them)

Tired of Toyota-Tesla-Toyota response times. It took them 10 days to get the part from Tesla. Another 3 days to get Tesla to get the firmware updated.

Out of 20 days car was sitting for nothing for 17 days.

I am on the the record with this whole thing with Toyota Corporate. They need to be better prepared with parts and faster turn around times with Tesla.

 

[Krystal]

Hmm, that would definitely be a safety concern.

Would a company ever recall a car simply because warranty concerns were costing them too much money?

Out of 20 days car was sitting for nothing for 17 days.

I am on the the record with this whole thing with Toyota Corporate. They need to be better prepared with parts and faster turn around times with Tesla.

Holy cow! That's a lot of days sitting and doing nothing. You are very close to the "lemonable" days already? Or am I wrong?

 

[evbuddy]

>You are very close to the "lemonable" days already? Or am I wrong?
Another 10 days, lemon qualified.

I like this car. I have driven Tesla Model S, it is a nicer car. Engine wise rav4ev and tesla have the same feel. I like the SUVness of RAV4.
I am more concerned about the lack of preparation on Toyota to get things fixed in a reasonable (any thing > 3 days is not reasonable for me) and tesla-toyota coordination.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I think most of the cases are instances where the car wont start parked (as was mine) or the message is shown with drivability. Not sure how many were left dead with message out in the field.

Was fiddling with a stuck charge connector door the other day and opened the cover inside directly behind the connector. Low and behold, right under the cover was the notorious Gateway ECU.

More pics of the internals:

http://myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=619#p619

Is that the Gateway ECU that you opened up or one of the other computers?

They call it the Gateway ECU, but it looks like a communications module.

 

[Joe_EV]

I've learned that mine was one of three (3) RAV4 EVs undergoing diagnostics for similar problems at Stevens Creek Toyota in San Jose today. One of their service guys spent the entire day on this, including communications with the factory, and will be back in tomorrow (Saturday) to continue.

Update: got a call this morning (Sunday) with the news that my RAV is ready for pickup. They applied a firmware update, cleared all error codes (apparently several Toyota codes and one Tesla code - I have no further details), road tested it with no further problems, and called me.

One of the two other RAV4 EVs in for service there had a similar problem; the other did not. This work apparently took longer than expected because several scan tools refused to flash in the update, but eventually one cooperated. Now they know which one to try first.

Based on other posts here, I don't have full confidence in this update, but hopefully they've made progress as more of these problems have surfaced. Wish me luck. I'll post again on this after driving it for awhile.

 

[cwerdna]

Hmm, that would definitely be a safety concern.

Would a company ever recall a car simply because warranty concerns were costing them too much money?

Toyota has definitely done "limited service campaigns" (LSC) and they've done "special service campaigns" (SSC). The LSCs I remember seeing on Priuses were not safety related and not recalls. It seems that many (most?) SSCs were actually safety recalls.

If you are curious about them Google for siteriuschat.com ssc OR siteriuschat.com lsc.

 

[cwerdna]

BMW has been reimbursing folks for gas on their ActiveE.

It's as bad or worse than Rav4 EV for dependability. Lot's of motor and battery replacements.

Yep. Heard of many cases, including lots of downtime for someone w/both know (surfingslovak on MNL).

I sure hope BMW is learning lessons and is incorporating whatever they learn into the i3, as the i3 is supposed to use the same motor as the ActiveE. If they don't find the root cause of all of the probs they've hit so far and incorporate improvements for most/all of them, they'll have a turd on their hands.

 

[gary2020]

So we brought our car back last Friday to the dealer on a flatbed since my wife did not feel like dying while driving to the dealer should it loses power while driving along with power steering loss. Monday our service rep said Tesla had a few questions...
1. did we charge alot of electronics while driving
2.do we run the radio or other electronics while charging.

no to both but obviously they are wondering about excessive power draws.

tesla told my dealer to see if message reproducible. but we already took pics for them.
i don';t see the point. what, like i want to bring it in just for the hell of it so i can get your prius loaner?

i can tell by the emails i get they have been charging it..so they have been running it.
i told them not to put miles on it but they are trying to reproduce the error message.
lame. what if it pops up? how will that enlighten them?
so random...and day we brought it in on flatbed, there was the error message.

not happy and pretty disappointed in this car...i have had other toyotas with good experience but so far, this one has left a pretty bad taste. i should tell this redwood city dealer to call the stevens creek dealer with 3 cars with same problem.
by this coming friday, it would be a week and counting.

just change the damn part...

 

[AvLegends]

So we brought our car back last Friday to the dealer on a flatbed since my wife did not feel like dying while driving to the dealer should it loses power while driving along with power steering loss. Monday our service rep said Tesla had a few questions...
1. did we charge alot of electronics while driving
2.do we run the radio or other electronics while charging.

no to both but obviously they are wondering about excessive power draws.

tesla told my dealer to see if message reproducible. but we already took pics for them.
i don';t see the point. what, like i want to bring it in just for the hell of it so i can get your prius loaner?

i can tell by the emails i get they have been charging it..so they have been running it.
i told them not to put miles on it but they are trying to reproduce the error message.
lame. what if it pops up? how will that enlighten them?
so random...and day we brought it in on flatbed, there was the error message.

not happy and pretty disappointed in this car...i have had other toyotas with good experience but so far, this one has left a pretty bad taste. i should tell this redwood city dealer to call the stevens creek dealer with 3 cars with same problem.
by this coming friday, it would be a week and counting.

just change the damn part...

Mine was in the shop for 10 days before Tesla arrived. The next day it was fixed. I share your frustration as do many others here. I would start chewing on the General Manager. What got my attention was when the EV service tech said I was "being too nice" :shock: Chit rolls down hill and sometimes you have to start at the top, with the dealership that is! Did you buy the car there? Sometimes that might get the ear of management a little better. Anyway as the saying goes... the squeaky wheel gets the grease! Start squeaking!

 

[cjp767]

Since the Rav4 EV is really a computer on wheels, has anyone with a Check EV System error message tried doing a full reboot of the system? And by that, I mean disconnecting the 12v battery for a while. If nothing else, it would remove power from everything and restart all communications protocols between all the ECU's and start everything with a clean boot. Maybe. Error codes would likely be stored and not cleared away for Dealer troubleshooting later, but might this work to get rolling again?

Of course it is not an Owner's responsibility to attempt troubleshooting an in-warranty vehicle, but it might be worth a try. Or then again, it could be a ridiculous suggestion. Thoughts?

 

[gssman526]

Since the Rav4 EV is really a computer on wheels, has anyone with a Check EV System error message tried doing a full reboot of the system? And by that, I mean disconnecting the 12v battery for a while. If nothing else, it would remove power from everything and restart all communications protocols between all the ECU's and start everything with a clean boot. Maybe. Error codes would likely be stored and not cleared away for Dealer troubleshooting later, but might this work to get rolling again?

Of course it is not an Owner's responsibility to attempt troubleshooting an in-warranty vehicle, but it might be worth a try. Or then again, it could be a ridiculous suggestion. Thoughts?

Someone in an early post on this tread tried it but it didn't fix the issue as far as I could tell. Someone also suggest that might wipe the error code history which could impede diagnosis