Wet Speed Sensor and what it means to me?

[fred_dot_u]

This just in, photo taken Christmas Eve 2023. Despite my physical infirmities, I was pleased to discover how easily this component was removed and examined. I had no banana for scale, but I suspect that aspect is unimportant.

Not so pleasant is the discovery of moisture/coolant on the body. This explains the gradual depletion of the G48 coolant in the reservoir.

Based on my research here and elsewhere, it's likely related to the turbine-like whine heard from the motor when applying power at any speed, rather than the noise maker for pedestrians heard at slower rates of travel.

This particular photo resembles rather precisely the others I've discovered on the forum and internet resources, but not quite as bad as the severely rust-encrusted versions.

The question at hand is this:

For how many miles can I expect to use this vehicle without performing any service or repair? As a corollary, in what form will impending doom appear? Will the motor seize up and lock the wheels or will it begin to sound like a Cuisinart™ far enough in advance to get it home safely?

I ask this because our fleet of two 2013 Rav4EVs, each with a tad more than forty thousand miles / sixty-four thousand kilometers will by necessity become a fleet of one in six months time. My wife will no longer need to use this vehicle and the plan was to sell it. The amended plan is to drive it as long as possible, ideally up to the six month break point. The last twelve months of this heavier-used vehicle encompassed 3200 miles / 5100 kilometers. One can extrapolate that we therefore require half that for the next six months as the use is consistent and uniform.

It is realistic to expect that the motor will continue to (figuratively) grind away for that long? Is it time or distance or both? Velocity equals time multiplied by distance, but I don't think that formula applies here.

I'm self-(un)employed and can schedule clients around vehicular emergencies as needed, which means that a system failure during my wife's trip to or from work is of minimal impact, other than to marital harmony. You should have seen the smoke from her ears when her 2002 Rav4EV gave up the turtle and stranded her on the side of the road. I've convinced her that she won't be left in the dust this time around, but I'd prefer to have the communal backing on that possible-bluff. If the worst happens, I become chauffeur service up to the six month calendar break. That would double the two thousand mile / three thousand kilometer tally on my vehicle for at least half a year, but we'd still be saving on motor vehicle insurance and a partial registration rebate.

As you can see from the above diatribe, we have decided that the expense of a motor rebuild can't be justified in relation to the desired future use. I'm not sure where to ship a Florida based Rav4EV for such a repair, but the round trip expenses for shipping alone disqualifies the concept.

 

[asavage]

Inverter failure from moisture ingress (migrating from the motor side, where the sensor you removed lives, to the other end, where the power electronics live) is when the repair becomes both extremely expensive and leaves your wife stranded.

If you address the issue before that, it's a lot cheaper to fix. If you've noticed a reduced G48 coolant level in the reservoir, your time is short; it doesn't take very much coolant leaking on the motor end before there's a pool of it on the inverter end, then "poof".

 

[fred_dot_u]

The east coast of the US is lacking in out-of-warranty service facilities for our type of vehicle. There's an independent Tesla service operation about 75 miles away, but he's expressed lack of interest to assist. The expense of shipping this vehicle to a qualified center, round trip, plus the cost of the repair begins to be a substantial loss, unlikely to be recovered by selling the vehicle at the six month mark. This is an opinion, however and if there are corrections to be applied, I'm receptive.

 

[asavage]

The same lack-of-qualified-service problem afflicts pretty much all used EV owners everywhere in the US (unless you're in the SW and are willing to deal with Tony). Everyone from Volt owners to Tesla owners have the same issue: having to use the very expensive dealer network (if your EV isn't an orphan) or begging someone who might be willing to work on your EV to take a shot at it.

This situation should resolve reasonably quickly over the next few years, just as the public charging infrastructure will grow to fill the void -- this type of situation is where Capitalism shines -- but right now, yeah, we're the early adopters with arrows in our backs, and we have to find our own solutions.

I've got a local shop that's willing to perform a battery drop/lift for me, so when I get 'round to having to/wanting to do that, I can. But won't it be nice when we can (somewhat) reliably hire this out?

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Just before I bought my RAV4 EV in 2017, I was searching for a shop to replace the engine in my AWD Aerostar; everything worked but was very long in the tooth, I liked the van and was willing to spend to keep it in the family. In the end, I couldn't get anyone to take on installing a rebuilt long block, and instead I bought an AWD Sienna instead, and sold the Aero (the last of five I'd owned over the years) to an enthusiast in Oregon. The problem isn't only with EV owners: sometimes you just cannot trade dollars for qualified labor, and as we Boomers age out of the workforce, this is only going to get worse.