My "new" Fluence

[jmbpinto73]

Turns out there are few Fluence available for donating parts...The replacement part arrived yesterday, from an online seller, for half the quote Renault gave me. The part is apparently new, no marks of use, great deal. Will be giving the Fluence a polish and detail wash, to match the new lights.
Also considering a backup camera connected to my Carminat. The Fluence has an enormous blind spot in the rear.

[klwinkel]

Also considering a backup camera connected to my Carminat. The Fluence has an enormous blind spot in the rear.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=18116&p=375773#p375773

[jmbpinto73]

It finally happened. I was so happy with the car...
Today as i was driving home, there were all kinds of lights in the dash, charge gauge droped to zero instantly, and no power on the pedal. Also it does not accept any more charge. Will let it sit overnight, and test it again tomorrow morning. If everything fails, have it towed to renault.
I fear for it, as the factory warranty is expired by now, and they will take advantage of that to rip me off of my money.

[Andi42]

Hi José,

what lights were lit? It it quite unlikely that the car fails during normal drive.
I would first check if any cables were possibly destroyed by an animal or if you could see any obvious damage under the hood.

Cheers
Andreas

[jmbpinto73]

Hi José,

what lights were lit? It it quite unlikely that the car fails during normal drive.
I would first check if any cables were possibly destroyed by an animal or if you could see any obvious damage under the hood.

Cheers
Andreas

It was like this, it was hot, AC was on, and I was driving home. as I was decelerating, the lights came on, the ! sign, red "stop" and the yellow spanner, the low battery light, the charge level dropped from the middle to zero instantly, the chime was sounding like when there is no battery, and a written message.engine failure, danger, and some others. The gear selector was blinking the N, except for when it was in N. AC and infotainment went off. The car never pulled again. Power steering no more. Towed home (I was near), it never restarted. It never accepted new charge. Called the local technician, he came and scanned a bunch of errors but couldn't help much. Nothing was apparently damaged or misplaced, there was no collision.
Had it towed to Renault, not the nearest but one large center, that was recommended as the best equipped to work on ZE cars. They say the technician is out for a training, or whatever and as I write this, there are no more news.I believe no one looked into the car by now. I am glad I kept the oil burner operational, or i would be stranded. My trusty old Mercedes Benz w124 is immortal.

[Andi42]

OK, Renault will read the error codes but...

I guess you might get this result when you have a CAN-Bus problem. I was "playing" with my Main Battery connection and I disconnected it while the car was on (that's like you suddenly loose the battery pack ). The appearing fault looks similar to yours. Red Exclamation Mark, Stop, Danger , electical system etc...
And even when I switched the car off and on again it won't change.
The only way to revive it was to clear all DTC errors (I have the iCarSoft i907 for that). So possibly it's only a loose wire or a broken harness.

The car has three CAN busses: Main (1) and Multimedia (2) are accesible via ODB. The third (3) is between charger, battery pack, main computer and motor-driver.
The error's I provoked were on this third bus...

Cheers
Andreas

[jmbpinto73]

Hi Andreas, thanks for your input.
The OBD scan was reading battery status, so there was data connection to the 3 buses.
Is there some main circuit breaker or something that could have tripped or something?
I mad a quick acceleration with AC at maximum, and then I was decelerating with regen... Perhaps it couldn't take the heat or something.
Was there anything one could do with the proper scan tool?
We checked the connection below the car near the rear right wheel and al plugs at the engine bay, and all looked undisturbed like new.
Of course I didn't touched the orange HV cables, I had no clue what to look for.
I disconnected the 12V battery, left for a while and the connected it again hoping it would "reset" something but no joy.
I believe Renault will take their time with my case, and charge accordingly.
Is there any documentation or schematics about this car I could get my eyes on?
I have service books of every car I owned, except the Fluence is a big black box.

Thanks!

[Andi42]

Hi José,

I have no documentation about that car. I tried to find the information by trail and error.
With the stardard scan tool you will not see the third bus altough you can access error codes for the devices on it.
So, what you did was OK. Looking at the connections at the rear right wheel. You may look under the bonnet as well. in the middle of the top module (power distribution an charger module) there's a connector for this bus as well. You might look for any symptoms on that cable. (it's the gray connector on the photo)



I inserted some additional connectors in that cable which you will not find in your car.

Cheers
Andreas

[Cliffideo]

Is there a possibility for you to replace the 12V-battery with another good one? Perhaps the old battery is between good and bad status and undervoltage or to low amperes out of it causes problems to several electronic units in your car with the written problems?

[jmbpinto73]

Is there a possibility for you to replace the 12V-battery with another good one? Perhaps the old battery is between good and bad status and undervoltage or to low amperes out of it causes problems to several electronic units in your car with the written problems?

The 12V battery looked fine, I just disconnected to see if something could reset or restart or anything. Idea taken from the ZOE forum.
Now the car is in Renault service, the technician only comes next 5th August, all there is to do is wait.