Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV malfunction

Joined
Apr 28, 2015
Messages
723
Location
Reunion Island
Hi,

First, please apologize if my English sounds strange sometimes, I'm french and I might make some mistakes. My wife wanted to replace her MY2013 Renault Koleos Bose Edition with something new. After 1 week looking around, we got a great deal on a MY2017 Outlander PHEV demo car, with barely 9000km (5600mi) on it, and 1 year old registration. Mint cosmetic condition, drives great, no visible problem. Plus, it was at the Mitsubishi local dealer, so we've gone for it. The order was signed on May 25th. The vendor was in a hurry to deliver the vehicle because the end of month was coming, but we took some time to find the best financing option (it's a professional use lease, she's a visiting nurse) because the goal is to trade the car around 2 years later and so on.

On Thursday, July 6th, the vehicle was delivered. First, they forgot to plan the annual service that they said would be done before delivery, so we've booked on the 18th to do it. Plus, the battery wasn't charged, I was a little disappointed by this. The day the order was signed the battery wasn't charged neither. Well, we've traded the old car, took the new, called insurance and went on the road. First, stopped for lunch after a 15 minute drive, it went fine. Then, went home, 30+ minutes drive, well, went fine. Parked, plugged the 10A (2,3kw) supplied charger to try, car charging, went OK.

Here comes the problems. 1 hour later, I stop the charge using the "manual stop" button on the charger, unplug the car (barely 20% charge), and go for a drive to pickup our son at daycare. I go full EV mode, and after leaving home there's 3km flat (yet twisty) and then 4 kilometers downhill (twisty too) before reaching highway, so I've put in B mode, and was switching between B3 and B5 mode. Then, after 2km downhill, when taking a turn, regen braking suddenly ceased (surprise), and "EV System service required, stop safely" appeared on the instrument cluster. Then, RBS service required was alternating on the display with the former alert. The orange car with an exclamation mark, along with the orange RBS light was steady on.

So, I've pulled on the side to stop, switch the car off, look around, breathe, switch on the car (normal mode) and drive away. After maybe 20 meters, the warnings came again. Well, I had to pickup my son, so I was like "whatever, no red "stop" warning, I'll go on". And I drove. Till I reached highway, saw that there was no power, I was taking 60km/h (35mph) at most and the ICE wasn't starting. Remember, I was low on battery so I realised I wasn't going to make it to destination. I pulled to the side and called dealer to book a courtesy car, and assistance to be towed to dealer.

After 15 minutes on phone, I started vehicle back to have some AC/power windows and see if the warning magically disappeared. And yes, they disappeared. So, I tried to drive, and after 2km I called assistance to cancel towing, went to pickup my son with the car, called the dealer to tell I'll come on the next morning after dropping my son to the daycare. The rest of the day drives went OK, I even make it home, charged the car at maybe 75%, and went to a drive before sleeping, to see if EV will defeat again. Nothing happened, car drove seamlessly. EV, Save, Charge, WOT, everything worked flawlessly. Went home, plugged the car, went to bed.

The next morning, unplug (100% charge), go to daycare, go to dealer, drop the car to the dealer so he'll have a look at it and do the annual service. On top of that, I mention that there's a glitch on the carplay head unit, I can't disable the auto reset of the driving statistics (EV%, fuel consumption, electric consumption). I'll make a topic about it when I'll get the car back (if I ever will).
On the end of the day, dealer called me to say that they've maybe found a bad seal on a electric motor and it will be replaced on next Monday.

Today (Tuesday), dealer called to tell even if they took it for a 1 hour test drive on monday, that when he took the car from the garage to the parking so I can come to pick it up, the alerts came back. Now looking forward. Wife's driving the courtesy car at work (Suzuki Vitara 1.6 GDI 6AT), and starts to be impatient about getting her new car back.

Any thoughts ? I'll update thread as the story goes.
 
There should be "fault codes" stored. Maybe the dealership can tell you what the codes are that they saw.
The only other comparable event on these threads recently was a Prius Hybrid that kept breaking down like that, and it turned out to be over heating of the electronics due to a coolant leak. Similar problems, at least from the sound of it, but your Mitsu PHEV issues could be different of course.

You can read what codes are stored inside the car's computer if you have a scan tool or an ELM327 adapter with a smart phone app, so maybe google that if you want to.

You have a long warranty on your car, which is good, and it does seem like a good vehicle.

Since you speak French, for fun let's use Google Translator to convert my English above to French:

Des "codes d'erreur" doivent être enregistrés. Peut-être que le concessionnaire peut vous dire quels sont les codes qu'ils ont vus.
Le seul autre événement comparable sur ces fils récemment était une Prius hybride qui a continué à tomber en panne comme ça, et il s'est avéré être surchauffe de l'électronique en raison d'une fuite de liquide de refroidissement. Des problèmes similaires, du moins à partir du son, mais vos problèmes Mitsu PHEV pourraient être différents bien sûr.

Vous pouvez lire quels codes sont stockés dans l'ordinateur de la voiture si vous avez un outil d'analyse ou un adaptateur ELM327 avec une application de téléphone intelligent, alors peut-être google que si vous le souhaitez.

Vous avez une longue garantie sur votre voiture, ce qui est bien, et cela semble être un bon véhicule.

If that translation worked, try typing your message in French, then use translate.google.com to convert to English. Might work OK! Maybe.
 
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Hybrids like that do tend to have a lot of temperature sensors on-board. My Ford C-Max Hybrid monitors the temperature of the transmission, electronic controller, engine, and battery, and if any are too high, it will cause the system to warn and then shut down.
Of course the dealership mechanics (technicians) should know that. They must have checked all that.
 
just made a run at the dealer to meet the service manager who supervised the case. I wanted to know the stored DTC but I still haven’t got an eye on it. They told me it wasn’t a specific code, more something like a general EV system malfunction.

He also told me that after this morning failure they’ done a BMS reset and the fault disappeared immediately, then he drove it to lunch and that he’ll keep it till the end of week so if it fail, it’s with him, not us. I agreed that if it goes well, I’ll come on Monday to get the car back and return the Vitara, since the workweek of my wife will be over.

I think I understood the seal replaced was the one to drive battery access panel.
 
Hopefully this is all due to not having the system fully charged from the outset. Reflashing the computer and charging the battery to full sounds like a good first step.

From what I have read the computer knows what is best for the system. I wouldn’t try to outsmart it.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
Hopefully this is all due to not having the system fully charged from the outset. Reflashing the computer and charging the battery to full sounds like a good first step.

From what I have read the computer knows what is best for the system. I wouldn’t try to outsmart it.


Of course I think the problem might be solved with those steps. Sometimes Like resetting LTFT on petrol engines...

Seems that the computer screwed up here
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
Hybrids like that do tend to have a lot of temperature sensors on-board. My Ford C-Max Hybrid monitors the temperature of the transmission, electronic controller, engine, and battery, and if any are too high, it will cause the system to warn and then shut down.
Of course the dealership mechanics (technicians) should know that. They must have checked all that.


Did you ever get the yellow wrench after you started out on a car sitting all night
and have it last all day and never return???
 
Originally Posted By: ctrcbob
If I lived on "La Reunion" I would have a Peugeot 607 or a newer 508. Love the 607. Don't know about the 508.


Interesting, why?
 
Service rep called this afternoon to tell he’ll stop extensive test driving because the vehicle now works normally, and I can come pick it up.

I asked if the fixed the auto-reset deactivation problem. He had no clue. I told him how to check and that I’ll come on Monday to pick up car if this feature is fixed or a backorder for a fix made.

Maybe I’m PITA for them at the dealer but I just want a vehicle that works as expected 🤷‍♂️
 
Superflan, I can believe the problem might be some kind of software bug. I've seen it happen in an all-electric car I have, where the computer gets "confused" about which mode its in, really due to bad software that is not handling sensor states correctly & robustly. Tricky to program I guess.
That might create the Regnerative Braking failure signal you got.

Yours is well under warranty, so they have to keep fixing it. If it were mine, I'd get a Scan Tool, like a ScanGauge II brand, ultra-gauge.com, or some kind of DTC code reader for your smartphone so you can see and write down what the computers are storing down if this happens again.
Your computers are monitoring voltages that aren't right, or high temperatures, etc., so it should be detecting something to clue us in.
 
I’m with you on it. I’m actually sad I may never knew the stored DTC if it doesn’t happen again, but I wish it doesn’t of course ! I was far away from my OBD dongle so I had to drop car to dealer without knowing
smile.gif


I may get PHEVwatchdog to watch various data in the future
wink.gif


I hope the auto-reset issue will be fixed too.
 
Hi, some feedback.

I collected the fixed vehicle on Monday. Seems fixed, dealer EV tech said that he found one drive battery terminal dirty, cleaned it.

We then made almost 1000 kilometers so far, everything’s working great. Amazing EV range for an hybrid.

As for the auto-reset thing, it’s a feature. Once toggled one time, it initializes another set of permanent data, that you can display everytime you toggle the button.
 
TLDR,,,,

Originally Posted by ctrcbob
If I lived on "La Reunion" I would have a KTM Super Duke (fixed it for you)


OK, enough sarcasm. I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.

On the other thread, it sure looks like simple scuff marks. Warranty denial for scratches in undercoating is insane. Especially since it seems the scratches were most likely put there, and shoddily repaired, by the dealer.

NOTE: the OP is not a fan of KTM, so I'm regularly trying to persuade him to try the orange brand!

[Linked Image]
 
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Actually I got to work on a 1190 Adventure, and loved how it was put altogether. I mentioned that it was almost built the way of a Toyota car
 
Interesting. I hope the conclusion will be favourable for you. 20€ per day to keep the car starting in March ? That's abusive...bad faith people at Cotrans.
 
Wow. What a crappy place or way to install a battery underneath a car. Mitsu's trying to copy GM or Tesla in the cheapest way they can. Those cars (Volt/Bolt, Model S/X/3) have a aluminum plate protecting the battery pack, while it seems like Mitsu is using simple stamped steel.
 
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