running the oulander phev without the battery

[thundercat]

hi all,

I have a 2015 phev, and the battery has died / getting multiple errors with the "electrical system", the battery swap costs £7500 . Not interested in spending that amount of money, I was wondering if I can disable/remove the battery/cables and just run the car in petrol only , has anyone done this before?

thanks,

 

[AndyInOz]

My first thought is that you should check/replace the 12V battery before you do anything else.
(Faulty 12V battery causes a lot of errors)

If that's not the issue, you may be able to find a third party battery reconditioner to repair your drive battery at a lower cost.

Running the car without a battery is probably very complex, (I'm thinking that you may need to consult an automotive electrical engineer).

The whole car appears to be designed around the drive battery.

If the battery had been a retrofit, I'd be wondering if the ECU could be modified/replaced so that the car is not expecting the battery but in the case of the PHEV the engine, ECU and battery appear to be a matched set (i.e. not individually removable).

You'd need a PHEV ECU to communicate with the drive motors to make the car go, so the engineering question would be:

Does the battery (and associated electronics) only act to store power, or is it part of a mandatory power conditioning/reticulation system.

My instinct is that the car wouldn't be able to do anything without sophisticated electronics to lie about the presence of the battery.

Hence: you probably need an engineer.
(NB an engineer or battery re-conditioner may be able to identify and replace individual components that have failed too.)

Good luck, and please let us know what you find out.

 

[kpetrov]

It is simply not possible to run the car without a battery. Any battery, 12V or traction one.

The engine can not be started without main traction battery.

 

[DaveL59]

Sounds like you are in the UK, so there's a guy that advertises (or used to) on ebay that does repairs and battery rebuilds that may be able to help you. He's N London somewhere so the issue may be getting the car to him, of course. Downside is I can't find any listings from him at the moment but he may be on other forums. He used to advertise replacement timing chain services etc and if I recall his ebay user was preikryti.

 

[AndyInOz]

It is simply not possible to run the car without a battery. Any battery, 12V or traction one.

The engine can not be started without main traction battery.

Oho!

I didn't think of that one.

Does the main traction battery start the engine by providing power to the generator?

(i.e. By using the generator in reverse in place of a starter motor.)

 

[littlescrote]

Yes. There is no 12V starter motor as the current draw would be too much for the small Aux battery and DC/DC converter. The engine starts with the generator in reverse.