Ev system service required after 100 mile drive - stranded

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Forum

Help Support Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

justinspiteri

Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2022
Messages
19
This morning we were left stranded in the middle of Sicily when, after driving around 100 miles, we stopped for a short break, and the car never started again.

Started getting "ev system service required", with the car not going into ready mode. A booster and jump leads didn't help, tried both to the fuse box under the hood and directly to the aux battery in the booth.

Disconnected the battery and reconnected it, however the error was still there.

Any experiences with issues similar to this?

Rest of the electrics work fine, tailgate, windows, radio, and the battery reads 12.5v.

Best,
Justin
 
You will need an ODB reader and check for error codes, it can be all kind of problems in the EV system unfortunately.
 
You will need an ODB reader and check for error codes, it can be all kind of problems in the EV system unfortunately.
Towed it all the way back to Malta... Going in to the dealers tomorrow, totally not fun. Not sure about this car's reliability at this point.
 
Towed it all the way back to Malta... Going in to the dealers tomorrow, totally not fun. Not sure about this car's reliability at this point.
I hope it wasn't actually towed on its wheels, as that is likely to have done serious damage (see manual). It should always be put on to a flat-bed for recovery!
 
I hope it wasn't actually towed on its wheels, as that is likely to have done serious damage (see manual). It should always be put on to a flat-bed for recovery!
They were actually going to tow it on its wheels, thankfully i had read through this forum and knew it would damage the car. Thankfully they lifted the rear wheels up on a dolly.

UPDATE:

It's now at the dealership. Second day with no feedback, i'm starting to fear they have no clue of what happened.
 
Last edited:
They were actually going to tow it on its wheels, thankfully i had read through this forum and knew it would damage the car. Thankfully they lifted the rear wheels up on a dolly.

UPDATE:

It's now at the dealership. Second day with no feedback, i'm starting to fear they have no clue of what happened.
Not sure that will helped much, as there is also an electric motor to power the front wheels and the consensus here is that regen currents may cause some damage! Although, I don't remember anyone showing that regen works going backwards! 🤣
 
If the drive battery was "weak" wouldn't you have some indication of that? Like no range as an EV, or very little?
Also nobody said it was towed backwards, but I had pondered this and it seems regeneration does not occcur in reverse, then on the other hand you could not tow the car without powering it on since it would be in PARK mode otherwise. So, Ready and Neutral, Drive/B5, And tow, where is the problem?

If you can get into Ready state, I don't think the car will care if it is being towed or running down a hill and charging via regeneration. Just be sure that it is powered on first, Am i missing something ?
 
I thing the drive battery is weak. I had the same problem and after I changed the drive battery pack it is okey
According to
If the drive battery was "weak" wouldn't you have some indication of that? Like no range as an EV, or very little?
Also nobody said it was towed backwards, but I had pondered this and it seems regeneration does not occcur in reverse, then on the other hand you could not tow the car without powering it on since it would be in PARK mode otherwise. So, Ready and Neutral, Drive/B5, And tow, where is the problem?

If you can get into Ready state, I don't think the car will care if it is being towed or running down a hill and charging via regeneration. Just be sure that it is powered on first, Am i missing something ?
In fact it was towed with the front wheels on the tow truck's specs and the back wheels on a four wheeler dolly, thus no car wheels were turning. Car is not going into ready mode and the main contactor cannot be heard switching, therefore no ready mode. Fifth day at the dealer, radio silence.

The battery is "weak", but surely not weak enough to fail completely, it was at 69.8% SOH, giving me 30km or so on a trip. Was planning to bring it down to 62 percent and then claim a new battery under warranty, but this happened !
 
If the drive battery was "weak" wouldn't you have some indication of that? Like no range as an EV, or very little?
Also nobody said it was towed backwards, but I had pondered this and it seems regeneration does not occcur in reverse, then on the other hand you could not tow the car without powering it on since it would be in PARK mode otherwise. So, Ready and Neutral, Drive/B5, And tow, where is the problem?

If you can get into Ready state, I don't think the car will care if it is being towed or running down a hill and charging via regeneration. Just be sure that it is powered on first, Am i missing something ?
Well, as the OP only referred to a dolly under the rear wheels, it was a reasonable assumption. As regards Park , I seem to recall from the forum that this physically puts a pin into the transmission but not whether it would prevent the car being moved if one set of wheels was off the ground.

One of the problems with posts such as this is the "drip feed" of info - so posters are left guessing.

[Personal slight removed by moderator]

I can't see that we have been told what year it is and the mileage - so he may be out of luck anyway. My 2014 car also gives about 30km (just under 19 miles) and, although, I've never been interested in what the SoH is but how far I can travel, mine is well out of warranty (8 years for battery in UK) anyway! 😎
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, as the OP only referred to a dolly under the rear wheels, it was a reasonable assumption. As regards Park , I seem to recall from the forum that this physically puts a pin into the transmission but not whether it would prevent the car being moved if one set of wheels was off the ground.

One of the problems with posts such as this is the "drip feed" of info - so posters are left guessing.


I can't see that we have been told what year it is and the mileage - so he may be out of luck anyway. My 2014 car also gives about 30km (just under 19 miles) and, although, I've never been interested in what the SoH is but how far I can travel, mine is well out of warranty (8 years for battery in UK) anyway! 😎
Not sure how i would be planning to defraud Mitsubishi by having a battery match the prerequisites for an in warranty replacement. This is defamatory and as such I will consider my legal options in terms of this user and the group.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, as the OP only referred to a dolly under the rear wheels, it was a reasonable assumption. As regards Park , I seem to recall from the forum that this physically puts a pin into the transmission but not whether it would prevent the car being moved if one set of wheels was off the ground.

One of the problems with posts such as this is the "drip feed" of info - so posters are left guessing. We now learn that the OP was planning to try to defraud(?) Mitsu by waiting for the SoH to drop to the point where he could claim against the warranty but I can't see that we have been told what year it is and the mileage - so he may be out of luck anyway. My 2014 car also gives about 30km (just under 19 miles) and, although, I've never been interested in what the SoH is but how far I can travel, mine is well out of warranty (8 years for battery in UK) anyway! 😎
How is that defrauding Mitsubishi? If you think they would entertain a warranty claim for a battery without being satisfied that it meets the requirements you are somewhat unrealistic with your expectations. What the OP said is perfectly reasonable for someone that understands the battery warranty and the current state of their vehicle’s battery. Why waste time trying to proceed with a battery claim knowing it will not be successful (after DBCAM it is unlikely to satisfy the requirements for a replacement battery in its current condition). Just wait and see if it drops to a level likely to obtain a warranty replacement within the limits of age and mileage of their car.

If it was towed with no wheels turning on the vehicle, there is no issue.
 
This morning we were left stranded in the middle of Sicily when, after driving around 100 miles, we stopped for a short break, and the car never started again.

Started getting "ev system service required", with the car not going into ready mode. A booster and jump leads didn't help, tried both to the fuse box under the hood and directly to the aux battery in the booth.

Disconnected the battery and reconnected it, however the error was still there.

Any experiences with issues similar to this?

Rest of the electrics work fine, tailgate, windows, radio, and the battery reads 12.5v.

Best,
Justin
Unfortunately the EV service is very generic and without having an appropriate diagnostic tool to interrogate the vehicle systems for stored fault codes , doesn’t tell you anything useful.
The fact it doesn’t go into ready mode can also be caused by a multitude of factors, again without diagnostics it’s impossible to say what.

Have the garage given you any information yet?
 
Unfortunately the EV service is very generic and without having an appropriate diagnostic tool to interrogate the vehicle systems for stored fault codes , doesn’t tell you anything useful.
The fact it doesn’t go into ready mode can also be caused by a multitude of factors, again without diagnostics it’s impossible to say what.

Have the garage given you any information yet?
I have recently had a similar problem with my outlander in that two warnings appeared up on starting and again i could not get in gear so stuck so i reset the two trips and the service trip this appeared to sort the problem out but i took it to my local garage where he connected it to a scanner where he found two faults which were old so these were cleared then he turned the engine off and on again this time the two errors namely EV and ASC appeared preventing the vehicle being put in gear so we checked the system and found nothing wrong so these were cleared and all has been ok since
 
Not sure how i would be planning to defraud Mitsubishi by having a battery match the prerequisites for an in warranty replacement. This is defamatory and as such I will consider my legal options in terms of this user and the group.
Good luck with that one! 🤣
 
I have recently had a similar problem with my outlander in that two warnings appeared up on starting and again i could not get in gear so stuck so i reset the two trips and the service trip this appeared to sort the problem out but i took it to my local garage where he connected it to a scanner where he found two faults which were old so these were cleared then he turned the engine off and on again this time the two errors namely EV and ASC appeared preventing the vehicle being put in gear so we checked the system and found nothing wrong so these were cleared and all has been ok since
No they did a complete scan and health check and the only thing we could put it down to was we had an extended stay abroad and the small battery in the rear became flat so i had to charge it up and all seemed ok ive completed trips to north wales and use the car daily with no problems so if it happens again i will replace the small battery
 
Car is not going into ready mode and the main contactor cannot be heard switching, therefore no ready mode. Fifth day at the dealer, radio silence.

When I had a similar problem on my car it was at least two weeks a the dealership before I could get a diagnosis. It turns out following Mitsubishi's checklist to diagnose a problem doesn't cover all possibilities and they couldn't pin point the problem. They had several days of discussions with Mitsubishi headquarters before they could understand what was happening.
And then several days before they could determine if it would be covered by the 8 year drive battery warranty or not.
 
This has happened to me twice. Both times it was a relay in the engine compartment fuse boxes that had contacts appearing burnt and measuring high resistance across the contacts when active. It took some finding. They are ordinary 12v 4 pin relays. It was possible to open the relay and run a piece of sandpaper through the contacts. The car then ran as normal and all reported errors disappeared. I replaced the relay. A couple of years later it happened again with a different bunch of errors. It was an identical relay in the other fuse box. Same fix. Sorted. I have pictures of the location of the offending relays somewhere. I'll see if I can find them and post them. I don't have the car where I am now.

Edit.

Found the pictures. There is one relay of this type in both main fuse boxes in engine compartment.
The relay has been removed in the second photo but as it's the only one of the type in that box it should be easy to spot. It goes on the top left of the photo.
 

Attachments

  • 1697882058126.JPEG
    1697882058126.JPEG
    201.2 KB
  • 1703941989838.JPEG
    1703941989838.JPEG
    85.1 KB
  • 1703938636032.JPEG
    1703938636032.JPEG
    193.9 KB
Last edited:
This has happened to me twice. Both times it was a relay in the engine compartment fuse boxes that had contacts appearing burnt and measuring high resistance across the contacts when active. It took some finding. They are ordinary 12v 4 pin relays. It was possible to open the relay and run a piece of sandpaper through the contacts. The car then ran as normal and all reported errors disappeared. I replaced the relay. A couple of years later it happened again with a different bunch of errors. It was an identical relay in the other fuse box. Same fix. Sorted. I have pictures of the location of the offending relays somewhere. I'll see if I can find them and post them. I don't have the car where I am now.

Edit.

Found the pictures. There is one relay of this type in both main fuse boxes in engine compartment.
The relay has been removed in the second photo but as it's the only one of the type in that box it should be easy to spot. It goes on the top left of the photo.
And like that guys by accident you discovered the pure EV hack mode. LOL!
And yes there won't be any warranty issues (like everybody is asking me) since relays malfunction from time to time.
 
I just read your post on disabling the relay. That's cool if you are in control. It's a big problem when you are presented with a dashboard full of errors and nothing in the traction battery. The first time (2016) it prevented the ICE from starting - as your hack does. It took me a week to sort it. OBD was no help. The local dealer was no help either. The second time (Last year), the other relay totally disabled the car. No ready status and no EV driving possible. That happened at the M40 services near Oxford. Not a good place to break down. Fortunately I had a spare relay and was on my way within 15 minutes as I knew what to look for. I still carry a spare relay. These relays caused the only breakdowns I have had in 10 years ownership.
 
Back
Top