Battery watering blockage - should I panic?

[gwing]

This weekend, armed with lots of distilled water and Evan's magic device, I set about doing my first maintenance charge and watering on the Blingo.

I must say I was impressed at how easy it was, for the first three battery packs at least. On the fourth (lower front pack) the water flowed through *much* more slowly and then eventually poured out not through a drain tube like the others but all over the bottom of the pack

Any idea what this mean? Duff cell? Blocked drain or filler pipe? Easy to fix?

As a bit of background we did notice a small patch of water behind the front offside wheel the day before in the car park. Dry day, dry car, no apparent source of water from the vehicle so it may not be relevant. The batteries are performing fine in normal use and giving good range. No faults reported by the magic box.

[Grumpy-b]

Un plug the feed to the battery pack from the top up tube on the battery back end and check that water is flowing OK. Its is possible that the tube is caught under the top battery box, the feed tube goes under it, and it can get caught under when replacing the Top battery pack. Also check the overflow tube is connected it might just be dribbling down the case. its just a push on tube.

If all eles fails you will need to drop the pack. Do it now. If the Battery has been out and the tubes have got kinked or trapped you will have a problem. Its not that bad a job getting them out, there are previous threads on how to do this. It takes me about 2 hrs start to finish to get the lower pack out cells changed and re-installed.

Good luck, but really dont leave it and hope all is OK , check it out.

Grumpy-b

[ChrisB]

I hope it is just a kinked damaged hose, but be prepared for the worst i.e split battery top.

Have you got any coolent issues ??

ChrisB

[gwing]

I hope it is just a kinked damaged hose, but be prepared for the worst i.e split battery top.

Have you got any coolent issues ??

ChrisB

I'll have a quick look at it tonight when I get home and see if I can trace a kinked or trapped hose. I have no warning lights or error codes and the radiator is if anything a bit overfull - to me that implies no coolant issues - but is there something else I should check?

[EVan]

This weekend, armed with lots of distilled water and Evan's magic device, I set about doing my first maintenance charge and watering on the Blingo.

I must say I was impressed at how easy it was, for the first three battery packs at least. On the fourth (lower front pack) the water flowed through *much* more slowly and then eventually poured out not through a drain tube like the others but all over the bottom of the pack

Any idea what this mean? Duff cell? Blocked drain or filler pipe? Easy to fix?

I recommend removing that box and having a look. It's probably a melted module, unfortunately. Perhaps if you are lucky, just a trapped / damaged hose.

The real problem is that the cells on the far side of the leak won't have received any water, and will be permanently damaged as well if you continue to drive it like that, I have seen that happen before.

Good luck!

[gwing]

Thanks guys.

I had a quick look and, no surprise, there isn'y anything visibly amiss from what you can easily see.

Time to have a look at the posts about removing packs I guess. It'll be a bit of a problem for me though as this weekend I'm away (not in the Blingo fortunately) and I'm pretty short of equipment or space to do the work as well. Still, lets see what is involved first.

[ChrisB]

As EVan says sounds more like a melted modual and depending on how long its been like it will depend on how much damage has been done to the others in the string after that one (wateringwise)

The front lower pack is pretty easy to pull, worst things being the horrible plastic clip things that hold the inner wheel arch covers and then watching out for the coolent pumps as you lower the pack.

Only basic tools needed really, trolly jack, set of torx and a container to catch the coolent and I think thats about it.

My battery change thread is here

http://www.batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk ... c&start=10

ChrisB

[gwing]

Thanks for the help and encouragement guys. Armed with the info above and in http://www.batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk ... e&start=20 I set about dropping the front battery pack to have a look - and found it easier than I feared.

The hardest bit I found was getting at those little wire clips holding on the pipes between front of battery pack and the radiator, not sure quite how I'll get them back on afterwards.

A (very) small tip for anyone else doing the same job for the first time is to use a bit of string to tie pipes in position when doing the draining bits. This both holds them in the position to drain effectively and subsequently stops you flicking them and spraying coolant all over you when working underneath

I was concerned about balancing the battery pack on a trolley jack without having it topple off. Having a few stacked wood blocks under each side works well as you can remove these one at a time as it comes down so there is no danger of toppling. Maybe I'm too paranoid but I have learned not to underestimate my stupidity or clumsiness & I'm no mechanic.

Now the battery pack is down I've had a quick look at the contents and visually they all seem nice and clean with no obvious evidence of explosions or meltdowns. I had intended to now just try adding some water while I can see what is happening and hence find the blockage - but thinking a bit I shouldn't actually do that as I can't give the isolated pack a maintenance charge first. I was also hoping to be able to see the level of electrolyte in each cell - but can't as the coolant jacket gets in the way.

I guess I'm going to have to dismantle the pack and try shining a light through each cell individually. If I can see a difference in electrolyte levels that should tell me where in the string the blockage is. Out of interest does anyone know if the raised bit on the top of the cells can be removed for direct inspection of the plates, or is it a sealed moulding as it appears?

[Grumpy-b]

You cant take the top of the individual battery units, its part of the moulding,
Pull each pipe of the cascade off in turn and check that you can pass water through each pipe or blow through them. If you blow be mindful that the contents of the pipe could be caustic and not too nice to get in your mouth, or spray around if you use an airline.
Check none of the pipe runs have been squashed, its often happens when the top case is put on.
Having discionnected the filler pipe does this flow water when you connect it to the top up bottle.
Since all the filler circuit also acts as a vent system, you can blow through the system / each battery unit to see if it flow air. Be careful and use a clean ipe to blow down. If there is a major blockage this will show up.

Good luck, be careful if blowing through pipework.

Grumpy-b

[ChrisB]

Yep I'd go down the gentle blow route to with a clean bit of pipe on each of the strings, at least you should be able to find which string is blocked or if theres an issue with one of the manifolds ?

ChrisB