RAV4 EV end

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Noco24me

Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2018
Messages
8
My 2012 RAV4 EV has reached end of service at 115,000 miles. An EV Fault warning lead to a 14.5k$ estimate from Toyota for a motor replacement. The dealership has offered 500$ for the car. I loved that car but there is no justifying spending on the motor replacement with a 6 yr old battery.
 
Don't give it away for $500. The battery itself must be worth 10x that. Talk to Tony at QuickChargePower.com
 
Car has been fantastic. Check EV System warning came on while on highway. Took car immediately to dealership. Put in new front suspension this year (bushings,control arms). Car has been used as a commute vehicle 43 miles one way every day. Awesome until now.
 
A sad end to a “frankencar” and a cautionary tale to all RAV 4 EV owners. Wisdom gained? Sale ASAP if you are outside of extended warranty or you will by in the situation I am in with you realizing 0 - blue book value.
 
I picked it up from Toyota this evening and of course there was no fault/system indication. I guess it sounds louder but that may be because all I have been talking with people about is motor faults/bearing issues etc.
 
I used to regularly get the “EV sytem fault have your car checked by a dealership immediately” warning. After many trips to the dealer, they never found an issue. I realized the fault in my case was caused by 2 things:

1 Pressing the break and the accelerator at the same time on accident. I have big feet so this is easy to do. Car faults, won’t go into ready/drive.

2 Using the aftermarket CHAdeMO port to quick charge followed by ending the session by tapping the car break. Never do this, stop the charge on the charger. This will sometimes cause a fault on both the chargers as well as the car, especially the new orange colored ChargePoint dual standard fast chargers. To continue charging, both the Rav 4 ev has to be unplugged at the 12volt battery, Black terminal, and the charger will have to likely be reset to clear the errors on both the car and the charger. This allows me to start charging again. However, it may not completely resolve it, and it still won’t clear the error code on the car dash, it will usually allow you to put the car in drive/ready so now when this happens, I turn the car off and on several times, maybe 6, and ev system fault on the dash will eventually clear and if I was unable to put the car in drive, after cycling on and off and the battery reset, back to normal.

This sounds like maybe a different problem than the above 2 that I experienced dozens of times over the years on my to ravs. I have 55,000 miles on one and 61,000 miles on the other. I tell you what though, it was super scarey when it first happened and sometimes the car wouldn’t go into drive until I unplugged the 12 volt battery and cycled the car on and off a 6 times. Sometimes I would be stranded in the middle of the street with an immobilized car until I went through the 12 volt battery reset procedure and the cycling the car on and off. Now I’m fast at it and avoid those 2 issues that cause it. It helps that Tony put a wingnut on the black battery terminal, even if you don’t have the aftermarket CHAdeMO, the wingnut quick release release on the black terminal is a must for this car.

When my car was making painfully loud motor noises, the dealership said I should keep driving it the month the new motor was on order. They said there was no danger in doing so and Toyota wouldn’t pay for a rental car. Obviously if the car won’t go into drive/ready, that’s not safe.

This is a sometimes quirky car. I plan to drive mine until I can’t drive it anymore and it’s too much money to fix.
 
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