Inverter coolant changed - now ABS failed.

I measured it earlier with IG_OFF, and it was at 12.48V. Have to do it again in READY mode.

Come to think about it, a couple weeks ago my wife was driving, and I was following, and I noticed that the tail lights looked very dim. So that would support your theory.

Not just within the realm of possibility; I know of a few other problems. Those just didn't seem related, but maybe they are. Maybe the inverter coolant change just aggravated the problem to the point where it affected the ABS.

The first problem is that one of my brakelights is near-dead (sometimes dark, sometimes just extremely dim). It actually died about three years ago, and I replaced the taillight assembly. The light went dead again fairly quickly. Checked the voltages on the tail light, and I saw 11.8V, I think. So replacing the taillight assembly a second time went on my to-do list.

The next problem I know of is that the traction battery is discharging quickly, and charging very slowly - it spends a lot of time at a single bar. I attribute that to old age, and was going to have it rebuilt or replaced (haven't made up my mind about that yet).

There also is an exhaust issue; when the engine is running, there is a strong exhaust smell in the engine compartment.

I think the catalytic converter is also plugged.

And the engine was burning quite a bit of oil, but oddly enough stopped doing that a few months ago.

So, yes, the car has more than one problem. I'm not complaining, though; after 300k miles, that's not surprising.

Regardless, on Saturday I'll try your bleeding suggestion and also measure the voltage with IG-ON. That should give me more information.

 

Will do, thanks. All the other lights in the tail light assembly are working fine, though, but you may still be right - possibly, the LED is more sensitive to a poor ground connection.

 

There goes another theory. The voltage across the 12V battery is normal - around 12.4V in IG-OFF, about 13.8V in IG-ON. I won't rule out that the voltage drops during my uphill mountain climbs due to the bad traction battery, but the ABS reports failing even with the normal voltages.

I haven't been able to bleed the inverter coolant yet; the vinyl tubing I have turned out to be too big.

 

No, it's the diameter; the tubing I have doesn't fit onto the bleed valve itself. I'm thinking about simply using a straw for that purpose, but it wouldn't allow me to see the air coming back in.

Agreed. That's why I'm trying to work it out.

 

I think with the inverter coolant pump, I may have been chasing a goose. I had seen some waves in the reservoir and assumed that they were simply from the vibrations from the ICE. Turns out that these waves were still there even after the ICE shut off, so it was my lack of experience that failed to see the turbulence.

I also did try the bleeding valve with a simple straw. Worked fine. The result is that there were a few tiny air bubbles, but very few of them (I think I only counted two larger than a millimeter, and one that was a fraction of a millimeter, during four or five iterations). Interestingly, the bleed valve was solidly seized up; I don't think the shop bled the system - they probably instead used one of the vaccum devices I read about. Regardless of how they did it, it looks like they did get the air out of the system just fine.

Also, I don't hear anything that looks like air in the coolant pump. When I go IG-ON, I do hear a whirring sound (the same one I always heard, nothing that sounds abnormal). In the past I had always assumed that it was some fan, but it might actually be the coolant pump. I also added a tiny bit of coolant so it is now at the full line slightly above the seam in the reservoir, and a little easier to see the level. I still don't see the level rising towards the front, but it looks like the inverter cooling system is in fact working as it should.

I also felt the hose leading to the inverter coolant reservoir, and felt some vibration, as if fluid is going through it.

So, bottom line: voltages are normal at least with the car parked and the traction battery at two bars, no air in the inverter coolant system. I don't see the turbulence, but that might be me, rather than the pump. I suppose at this point I have to conclude that there probably was nothing wrong with the work the shop did, and my problem is probably unrelated. That is all I set out to determine.

Thanks, everybody, for your help!

Of course if you have any more idea for things I could investigate or fix with my DIY tools and (lack of) experience, I'd appreciate it. The more of the labor I can do myself, the cheaper the car maintenance will be!

 

Oh yes, thanks for reminding me of the DTC. The Mini VCI seems like a good investment in any case.

I was able to retrieve the codes with the jumper method earlier. The codes I retrieved were:35 for the (!) light, 42 for ABS and 45 for VSC.

By any chance, do you know where I could find a list of what these codes actually mean?

 

Thanks, Chap. Completely agreed on the codes only being a starting point for troubleshooting. I'm an engineer by profession (mostly software, some hardware), so I can completely relate!

Wouldn't that still be true with the MiniVCI, though?

 

Thanks for the tip! The ground connection looks good, unfortunately. I unplugged the wiring harness from the taillight assembly and measured the resistance against the car body (I used one of the screws in the cargo compartment). The brown wire (I believe that is ground) showed around 2 Ohms.

 

Thanks for the warning about the blink codes. I think it's time to take it to a shop at this point... Bracing myself for a fairly major bill.