A momentary laps of power

I had a similar problem shortly after I got my Vectrix. For a couple weeks I would have periodic power reductions for 30 seconds to a minute at a time, and then full power would return. This would happen several times during a ride. I couldn't correlate it to anything (low battery, ambient temp, wetness, etc). It sounds very similar to what you are experiencing.

After about 3 weeks of this, I was going uphill with a passenger and the bike just totally died. It shut down, started to do a reboot sequence, and then died in the middle of that (while I was riding down the road).

I thought it was perhaps a blown fuse, but once I got it opened up and started testing, I determined the fuse was fine. I just happened to notice some blackening at the vent on one of the cells on the top of the battery. Testing with the voltmeter determined that the cell was completely shot. Ultimately, I just shunted the cell across the terminals with a piece of copper, hooked everything back up, and the bike has worked great ever since. No more periods of reduced power.

Thank you VERY much for this VERY interesting return of experience. It is so interesting that I've printed your message to show it to my dealer ...

My hope now, is that the dodgy cell (if this hypothesis is appropriate) will die before the end of my two years warranty. I noticed that yours died on a heavy load : I'll try to tow my Hummer (I mean my Prius, of course ...) on a slope to accentuate the phenomenon !

BTW, I'm still checking very often my battery temperatures, and the point is that the module 2 4D does not heat more anymore than the rest of the modules since the last EQ charge. Maybe it was just an out of balance cell ...

Rah3a : was sometimes your power reductions as short as just a hickup or two when you accelerated full throttle, or was it more constant ? Now, I never know by advance what power I will have when I rotate the throttle : sometimes it's the good old "kick in the ass", sometimes it's as soft as a marshmallow ... And when it's soft, if I insist (passing on the highway, etc.), I get finally the battery telltale, whatever is the gauge level. I think too there is a correlation between the lack of power and the high temperature of 2 4D sensor : it's always hot when I ride briskly, highlighting the random lack of power. All this reinforce the dodgy cell hypothesis, but I still have a good range (as Rah3a, however ...). Now I'm used to ride more briskly, hoping that will definitely kill the weak cell ... What bothers me, is that if the battery is in a good shape and the culprit is finally the ICM, I will have maltreat my battery uselessly ...

sometimes it's the good old "kick in the ass", sometimes it's as soft as a marshmallow ... And when it's soft, if I insist (passing on the highway, etc.), I get finally the battery telltale, whatever is the gauge level. I think too there is a correlation between the lack of power and the high temperature of 2 4D sensor : it's always hot when I ride briskly, highlighting the random lack of power. All this reinforce the dodgy cell hypothesis, but I still have a good range (as Rah3a, however ...).

that would suggest a bad connection.
the good thing is, now you know where it is :)

a bad connection rarely breaks completely in a traction environment.
the current is too high, and any gap too small.
unless it is indeed the ICM.

as stated before, a dodgy connection wont affect range significantly.

it is a bit of work to open it all up to check that connection, but it is a cheap thing to check. at least relative to the ICM.

Matt

Matt, don't you think that could be a chemicaly dodgy cell ? Rah3a had still a good range, before his weak cell totally died ... Anyway, I won't "open the hood", I don't want to void the warranty, despite the fact that I would love to do it ! What I would like to do is to have a behavior that will aggravate the problem (without damaging anything else ...), for my dealer to be able to "put the finger on it" more easely. I really don't know what to do to aggravate a dodgy cell connection, except shaking the scoot ! And there is still the faulty ICM hypothesis ...

My unfortunate V passed away on Tuesday ... After 15 days of deserved holidays (for me ...), I rode it on Tuesday morning, and it did a severe loss of power (crawling at 30 kph, red light, etc.) after a few kilometers. As usual, full power came back after a few minutes, but it was a warning for what will happen a few hours later ... On the next trip, it finally died after a few hiccups. The dashboard was on, but nothing happened when I turned the throttle. The voltage was going down when I checked it. If I try to charge my V, the fans turn on, the charger tries to start (the tachometer goes up a little bit), but the charger stops and everything turns off after a second or two, as if the charger detects an abnormal resistance on the batteries.

I think that the dodgy connection is now definitely out of service. If I'm lucky, the failure is on a power cable somewhere and that could be fixed by replacing the failing part, if I'm not lucky the failure is on a connection between two cells, and I'll have to wait for a new battery (two months of delay at least !) because dealers in here are not allowed to open a battery pack.

Back to public transportation ...

Thank you for your comforting, Andrej. I was so unhappy when the towing guy put my V in his truck, that I didn't even think about taking a picture of this shipwreck ... I know my V will take the dust for a while, because my dealer and the parisian importer are both out for holidays for two weeks. You may add a week or two for the memory dump to be analysed by the polish ingeneer, a week or two for the spare part to be sent in France (if the battery is not involved : in this case you may add a month or two, at least !), so I hope, in the best case, that my V will be back on the road on october ...

The good news is that the failure is now permanent, and will be much easier to find than when it was sporadic (I hope ...).

Thanks guys ! A miracle has happened : my V has resurrected on monday, when I checked it a last time before carrying it to my dealer (back from holidays), so I was able to DRIVE it to the dealer ! Of course, I rode it veeeery gently to do not stress the dodgy connection. My first hope is the failing part will be obvious to find, because it must be "fried" by the electric sparks it must have suffer, and my second hope is that part is not one of the 104 inter-cells plates because that would have imply a battery replacement (and a looong delivery delay).

Anyway, my babe is now to the doctor ("I'm not a doctor, I'm a mechanic !"), and I started counting the days ...

The last news : the bad one is that my dealer has checked unsuccessfuly for any obvious dodgy connection (except inside the battery pack, of course). The good one is that the Technical Director of Vectrix PL (someone called 'Pavel') was visiting Vectrix Paris today, has read a mail that I've send to him describing my problem, has watched a video and a picture joined showing it, and has concluded that my V needs a new battery pack. The second good news is that he's got fortunately two battery packs for spare in his truck ! Of course, he let one for me to Vectrix Paris, so my bike will probably be fixed at the end of the week. Sometimes I think I'm a lucky guy ...

You know what ? I'm happy ! (Droopy is one of my masters ...). You guess easely why I'm saying that ! I'll write some more details this week-end, but all I can tell you right now is that the polish Vectrix team is fantastic !

My battery pack has been replaced by Vectrix Paris on Friday (there was a gap in his workshop planning), and now my Vectrix is running as well as the first day (and I’ve got a brand new battery) ! I’ve got plenty of power, no hiccup anymore, no red light, and the charging process is fine (the equalization charge heated the battery up to 39 C°, I think it’s within the standard specification).

So, the dodgy connection was in the battery pack, but I'll never know if the culprit was a cell or a connection plate ...

Anyway, I've learned from this misadventure that a direct link with the guy who decide the action to take to fix your bike, with a very precise message (with pictures and/or movie), is the best way to gain time and efficiency in your repairing procedure.

Now, I've got mosquitoes on my teeth again !