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Opel Ampera: Exciting troubleshooting
A six-year-old OPEL AMPERA always sounds a fault alarm when driving uphill. Since the electric-petrol hybrid is part of the ÖAMTC's fleet, the motorists' club's high-voltage experts are looking for the mysterious cause.
Opel Ampera: Exciting troubleshooting
High-voltage system faulty" - the message appears on the dashboard display of the Opel Ampera, built in 2012, as soon as the journey goes uphill. "The car drove without any problems, but to be on the safe side we started looking for the hidden defect," says Christian Klejna, who is stationed as a technical instructor at the ÖAMTC headquarters in Vienna-Erdberg. Klejna is one of four technical trainers who keep the Yellow Angels up to date with the latest automotive technology through continuing education courses. Although he is trained as a high-voltage expert himself, he has not yet had much opportunity to gain concrete experience with defects in electric cars. The error message from the Ampera, which is available to ÖAMTC employees for business trips and already has 105,000 kilometers on the clock, is therefore not entirely inconvenient for him.
● First the Ampera is connected to a diagnostic device. The Bosch KTS 890 issues several error messages, including problems with the high-voltage system, the electric motor and the high-pressure pump, but also insulation errors and a defective isolating relay.
▶ Using the special high-voltage test device HV Safety 2000 from AVL Ditest, the ÖAMTC technicians are now trying to isolate the error more precisely. The measuring device is used to check, among other things, the insulation strength and the onboard insulation monitor.
▶ After repeated checks, the high-pressure oil pump housed in the transmission came into the focus of the investigators with a particularly high frequency of error messages.
▶ The values of the inverter are then checked, as this controls the oil pump.
▶ The values turn out to be correct, but a visual inspection shows that the plug of the pump on the inverter is unusually contaminated with oil.
▶ Since the Ampera's eight-year manufacturer's warranty doesn't expire for another two years, Klejna takes the car to the Ebner car dealership in Brunn am Gebirge, where electrified Opel vehicles are serviced and repaired.
▶ Opel high-voltage specialist Peter Pinter from the Ebner car dealership opens the inverter housing and finds that it is already filled with oil. A closer inspection shows that the seal on the cable from the oil pump to the inverter is leaking. This allowed the oil to be pressed out of the housing of the high-pressure pump into the inverter. The cable served as a line; the pressure was sufficient for the rise from the lower pump to the inverter.
▶ The explanation for the error message that appears when driving uphill: When the car tilted, the oil spilled over the circuit board and caused a false contact - case solved.
PETER SEIPEL EXPERIENCES WITH ELECTRICAL DEFECTS
Electric carsare still extremely rare guests in independent car workshops today. This is due, on the one hand, to their low distribution and, on the other hand, to their long durationWarranty periods. Manufacturers prefer to repair defects in electric drive systems in the brand's own competence centers, as the findings from this are incorporated into theDevelopmentadditional models should be incorporated. Thanks to their technically comparatively simple drive system, electric cars are significantly less prone to errors than petrol or diesel engines. However, manufacturers still lack experience with themdurabilityof the components. The inverter in the Opel Ampera was therefore simply replaced as part of the repair. With the increasing spread of electric vehicles, manufacturers are also becoming more profitableRepair businesspay more attention. Then hopefully you will be able to replace a defective cable seal in independent workshops instead of one that costs several thousand euroscomponenthaving to be completely replaced.