New Member Just Bought a Vtrux

scraejtp · August 27, 2022

On 8/8/2022 at 10:20 AM, Christian Bracamonte said:

Update: I spoke with Travis, (nice dude) he said the for what I told him it could be the APP Module@ $70 so and pretty easy to replace or option (2) rent diagnostic equipment to see what else can it be.
i’m going to roll the dice and go for the module first..

Did this fix your truck? With a couple out there for sale now do you mind sharing what you got yours for at auction?

Had mine for ~30k miles now and has not given me too much trouble at least. Only 250 of these out there I guess, mine is still the only non-white truck I have seen in the wild though I think I would prefer the white in the hot Texas sun.

Slimsalabim · August 27, 2022

1 minute ago, scraejtp said:

Did this fix your truck? With a couple out there for sale now do you mind sharing what you got yours for at auction?

Had mine for ~30k miles now and has not given me too much trouble at least. Only 250 of these out there I guess, mine is still the only non-white truck I have seen in the wild though I think I would prefer the white in the hot Texas sun.

I followed that auction. It was either 9 or 11 grand before fees. Super awesome price honestly.

scraejtp · August 27, 2022

Just now, Slimsalabim said:

I followed that auction. It was either 9 or 11 grand before fees. Super awesome price honestly.

Where was this? I would sometimes search ProxyBid but would like to keep a better eye out.

Slimsalabim · August 27, 2022

Just now, scraejtp said:

Where was this? I would sometimes search ProxyBid but would like to keep a better eye out.

He can confirm, but it was govdeals or something like that.

Christian Bracamonte · August 27, 2022

1 hour ago, scraejtp said:

Did this fix your truck? With a couple out there for sale now do you mind sharing what you got yours for at auction?

Had mine for ~30k miles now and has not given me too much trouble at least. Only 250 of these out there I guess, mine is still the only non-white truck I have seen in the wild though I think I would prefer the white in the hot Texas sun.

Nope, apparently I have a hydraulic pump issue, I didn’t have time to work on it but supposed to be really easy to remove and clean or take apart and make it work again otherwise I got a buy a brand new pump from them which is around $600. And I bought my truck from JJ Kane auction. $ $10.500 with taxes.

Christian Bracamonte · August 27, 2022

1 hour ago, Slimsalabim said:

He can confirm, but it was govdeals or something like that.

Yeap proxibid.

scraejtp · August 27, 2022

22 hours ago, Christian Bracamonte said:

Nope, apparently I have a hydraulic pump issue, I didn’t have time to work on it but supposed to be really easy to remove and clean or take apart and make it work again otherwise I got a buy a brand new pump from them which is around $600. And I bought my truck from JJ Kane auction. $ $10.500 with taxes.

Good deal, think it is the second cheapest I have seen at auction.

Was honestly considering picking up a second as a parts truck considering how terrible the market has gotten recently, and what happened with the EV truck availability and pricing. No problems with mine, but long term I know this will become an issue.

Edited August 28, 2022 by scraejtp

Racerx944 · August 31, 2022

On 8/27/2022 at 1:32 PM, Christian Bracamonte said:

Nope, apparently I have a hydraulic pump issue, I didn’t have time to work on it but supposed to be really easy to remove and clean or take apart and make it work again otherwise I got a buy a brand new pump from them which is around $600. And I bought my truck from JJ Kane auction. $ $10.500 with taxes.

So far, I believe this is the best thread on the internet about these trucks. I have both the truck and van version of VIA motors conversion.

The pump you are talking about is likely not cleanable to make it work again easily. This is my pump I just replaced and it was burnt to a crisp. It is a Meziere wpx702 and they still make it though it costs $1000+ typically. VIA sold me mine for $540 and shipping which cost $570 total shipped to my door 3 days later. It is the best deal going and Travis is a great guy.

It has 4 hoses with automatic transmission fluid going to it. Be ready to take a swim in ATF if you are replacing this unit. You will need a crimping type of pliar for one of the hose clamps as it is a crimp on type or you can buy a screw on one to replace it.

When this pump is not working, no coolant goes to the traction motor or the generator and my guess from reading the motor document, it "demagnetizes" at a certain temperature probably for self protection so the ICE engine has no load and revs to redline and not able to charge the battery pack.

I want to find a way to attach an external lithium ion battery pack to add to the capacity of the factory pack and maybe even eliminate the ICE motor altogether. If anybody have suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Based on the information I believe, the truck uses A123 Lithium Iron Phosphate type of battery that has 3.3V nominal voltage per cell and they are 120 in series (3.3V x 102) to make 396V nominal battery packs. I figure an equivalent voltage of 3.7V lithium ion batteries will take 107 in series x 3.7V to get 395.9V nominal voltage.

I believe these trucks are good for gearheads with a good mixture of "nerd" in them to own but not for everybody. I have been working on ICE vehicles for decades and taken apart a few EVs and hybrids (Prius, Volts, and these VIA converts) while repairing some that were worthy.

Racerx944 · August 31, 2022

On 8/11/2022 at 3:24 PM, Slimsalabim said:

Hope you have luck with this. My truck had a charging fault this week. This has been resolved in the past by cleaning the leads on the plug or blowing out my charging cable since my truck sits outside year round. While checking some fuses and relays in the hybrid fuse panel, I managed to disable the driver mode of the truck. Travis sent me document to troubleshoot the charging fault and that appears to be a resistor on the charging plug has gone bad. He hasn't been able to provide guidance on the drive enabler issue yet.

Are you charging level 1 @120V or level 2 @ 240V? I have found that the grounding to neutral on the 120V has to be good or it won't charge. If you don't have a proper ground on your EVSE cable (example: using a 2 wire extension cable without the 3rd wire for ground or the neutral for your wall socket is not bonded to ground in your breaker panel of the house, it won't charge).

I believe the 240V on a typical level 2 charger has to have a L1 to L2 voltage of 240V and L1 OR L2 to neutral has to be 102V.

This type of conditions can cause intermittent charging problems.

Slimsalabim · August 31, 2022

On 8/31/2022 at 2:32 PM, Racerx944 said:

Are you charging level 1 @120V or level 2 @ 240V? I have found that the grounding to neutral on the 120V has to be good or it won't charge. If you don't have a proper ground on your EVSE cable (example: using a 2 wire extension cable without the 3rd wire for ground or the neutral for your wall socket is not bonded to ground in your breaker panel of the house, it won't charge).

I believe the 240V on a typical level 2 charger has to have a L1 to L2 voltage of 240V and L1 OR L2 to neutral has to be 102V.

This type of conditions can cause intermittent charging problems.

Thanks, but I wish that was the issue. I had them send me a data logger and we found a contactor in the battery pack is bad. They wanted me to ship the truck to Utah to have it fixed, then layer said just the battery. I've finally convinced them to let me bring it to the dealer and have their EV tech do it. It's not a terrible repair that both Volts and Fisker Karma owners deal with. I don't have a lift to drop my battery (plus I've lowered my truck 5 inches), so a dealer it is. It's taken forever for them to allow me to get the information to drop the battery. I'm still waiting on a liability release form to allow 3rd party repairs which had been maddening, but I'm happy to get the help I'm getting.

Slim

Edited November 15, 2022 by Slimsalabim

Racerx944 · August 31, 2022

1 minute ago, Slimsalabim said:

Thanks, but I wish that was the issue. I had them send me a data logger and we found a contactor in the battery pack is bad. They wanted me to ship the truck to Utah to have it fixed, then layer said just the battery. I've finally convinced them to let me bring it to the dealer and have their EV tech do it. It's not a terrible repair that both Volts and Fisker Karma owners deal with. I don't have a lift to drop my battery (plus I've lowered my truck 5 inches), so a dealer it is. It's taken forever for them to allow me to get the information to drop the battery. I'm still waiting on a liability reuse firm to allow 3rd party repairs which had been maddening, but I'm happy to get the help I'm getting.

Slim

I will need to likely drop the battery pack in the van as it seems to be completely dead. If it is anything like the Chevy Volt, it probably wouldn't be too bad.

Someone replaced the 100A contactor with a 200A one from what I have read. It is dangerous though as live wires are involved.

If you get any info on the internals of the battery pack, please post them as I would love to decipher with certainty instead of extrapolating information.

Slimsalabim · August 31, 2022

25 minutes ago, Racerx944 said:

I will need to likely drop the battery pack in the van as it seems to be completely dead. If it is anything like the Chevy Volt, it probably wouldn't be too bad.

Someone replaced the 100A contactor with a 200A one from what I have read. It is dangerous though as live wires are involved.

If you get any info on the internals of the battery pack, please post them as I would love to decipher with certainty instead of extrapolating information.

There was a guy in a diy electric forum that replaced his 100 amp contactor with a 200 amp one. Wonder if you got his truck?

Slimsalabim · August 31, 2022

I found this pdf written by A123 in 2013. This showed me where the contactors were and that it should be easily (carefully) done.

Slim

A123 battery Info.pdf

Slimsalabim · August 31, 2022

Charge System Inspection (Truck).pdf

This is the procedure Via Motors sent me to troubleshoot the charging fault at first. When everything looked good according to this, the rented me their data logger. This plugs into the white ODB2 plug (this is under the gm ODB2 plug).

Racerx944 · August 31, 2022

1 hour ago, Slimsalabim said:

There was a guy in a diy electric forum that replaced his 100 amp contactor with a 200 amp one. Wonder if you got his truck?

I didn't end up with his truck. I read his post and how he fixed his problem which he indicated was "common" for our trucks.

The contactors are likely not difficult to replace other than lowering the battery pack and opening the pack without shocking yourself. If I had to replace mine, I would do it myself.

The document you provided about the A123 battery pack shows an Electrical Distribution Module (EDM) and this is what a contactor looks like (round with posts on top).