Water Pump DOA

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Scaramanga said:
I think I may have the same problem. After putting my '16 on to charge today (@28% SOC) I came back out the garage after three hours and heard a high pitched whine, really pretty loud. After reading Dave's post I wanted to see if my charger was keeping cool, and it's definitely not. The top of the Power Delivery Module was much too hot to touch for more than a few seconds and only one of coolant hoses coming out of the front of the inverter(?) was even warm. I'm not sure it's moving water, if it is it's not evident, certainly can't hear any coolant moving. Radiator fans were not running.

I unplugged the charger and the pump spun down and stopped, but the PDM is still zinging hot.

I don't have a no-touch thermometer, so I can't be precise, but it's hot. I get that it should get warm, but I'm really not comfortable with the sound of the water pump, it shouldn't be that loud in my view.

I'll get it checked out at the dealer right away.
Click to expand...


There is actually a VERY easy test you can do. While plugged in (might need to wait a bit) check the pressure on the hoses. The pressure should be high enough that you will not be able to squeeze them more than a few millimeters. Before my replacement, I could squeeze the hoses enough that the insides touched.

My water pump was working but had a busted impeller which meant it was not working very well (hardly at all actually)
 
Good call, I did that very thing last night, I can snap all the cooling hoses wall to wall without any effort. They should be firm as the diameter of the tubing is so narrow and the spec is 3.5 - 5.2 psi. (although that's such a low figure, my last S80 was 22 psi.)

So I am getting essentially zero resistance and I can just barely feel any fluid trickling by. I think the impeller is off it's shaft or a blade has flown off, the pump is vibrating and whining really loudly and not all of the coolant lines are even warm.

I drove it to Bellevue today so I can get the charge down enough for Tacoma Nissan to have to charge it while they watch the temps on the PDU cover.

I take it in tomorrow @ 8am.
 
Scaramanga said:
Good call, I did that very thing last night, I can snap all the cooling hoses wall to wall without any effort. They should be firm as the diameter of the tubing is so narrow and the spec is 3.5 - 5.2 psi. (although that's such a low figure, my last S80 was 22 psi.)

So I am getting essentially zero resistance and I can just barely feel any fluid trickling by. I think the impeller is off it's shaft or a blade has flown off, the pump is vibrating and whining really loudly and not all of the coolant lines are even warm.

I drove it to Bellevue today so I can get the charge down enough for Tacoma Nissan to have to charge it while they watch the temps on the PDU cover.

I take it in tomorrow @ 8am.
Click to expand...
yep, yours is same as mine. With new pump, I can barely squeeze the hoses a few millimeters. They are pumped big time. Plus when I squeeze them now, its easy to feel the water moving thru them. before there was nothing.
 
...and Tacoma Nissan doesn't believe me. Just spent 15 minutes on the phone with the service writer and the tech and they tried to tell me up and down that I don't know what I'm talking about. The service writer threw up her hands and let me talk the tech directly after I told her that she was off on the wrong track. They tried to convince me that I didn't understand how the car worked and that I had misunderstood overheating for normal operation of the following:

- Charging Timer
- Climate Control Timer
- Me hearing the off charging cycle noises before the car charges

And then:

- It being to hot outsiden (no)
- Me having driven the car prior to charging (no)
- That's not the way the car works (cycles coolant during charging) - (no)

I told them to keep the car and keep looking until they figure it out. Tech is going to go listen and put an infrared thermometer on the PDU which is what I asked them to do at 7:30am.
 
Scaramanga said:
...and Tacoma Nissan doesn't believe me. Just spent 15 minutes on the phone with the service writer and the tech and they tried to tell me up and down that I don't know what I'm talking about. The service writer threw up her hands and let me talk the tech directly after I told her that she was off on the wrong track. They tried to convince me that I didn't understand how the car worked and that I had misunderstood overheating for normal operation of the following:

- Charging Timer
- Climate Control Timer
- Me hearing the off charging cycle noises before the car charges

And then:

- It being to hot outsiden (no)
- Me having driven the car prior to charging (no)
- That's not the way the car works (cycles coolant during charging) - (no)

I told them to keep the car and keep looking until they figure it out. Tech is going to go listen and put an infrared thermometer on the PDU which is what I asked them to do at 7:30am.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, so why did you go to Tacoma Nissan? did you buy the car there? It took Aaron all of 5 minutes to see there was a problem, Have them check the water pressure in the hoses, That should be enough to figure out there is a problem. Have them plug it in, wait an hour then check the water flow.

OR

Take it to Puyallup Nissan,,,

(My period key stopped working for some reason. the 10 key one still works but not going there...much I guess I should take someones advice and quit eating at the computer...)
 
Yes I bought the car there, so that's where I started. They finished testing and couldn't figure it out, then tested on a 2017 and said it does exactly the same thing. It not sure what to do other than buy a thermometer and call the dealer in Puyallup the next time it gets hot.

The service writer said she could pinch the hoses on a 2017 as well when the fan was running.

I just have to get some facts on temps and test it again next time I charge.
 
Scaramanga said:
Yes I bought the car there, so that's where I started. They finished testing and couldn't figure it out, then tested on a 2017 and said it does exactly the same thing. It not sure what to do other than buy a thermometer and call the dealer in Puyallup the next time it gets hot.

The service writer said she could pinch the hoses on a 2017 as well when the fan was running.

I just have to get some facts on temps and test it again next time I charge.
Click to expand...

Its possible they are not waiting long enough before checking the hoses. I will see what kind of pressure is on mine when first plugging in. Either way; danger to your car is likely minimal. Your charging speed will reduce and the fans will come on first to prevent permanent damage and from what I understand, it can take a lot of heat.

But this does not address localized hot spots that could develop especially when not moving. There is one guy in Portland who is experimenting with grill blocking to increase his efficiency. I am mulling over if I should try it as well to see how much of a difference it makes.

I want LS to get the inverter temps working first though.
 
I bought a infrared thermometer yesterday to be able to spot check while charging:

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Infrared-Thermometer-IR002/205509667

But it would be cool to be able have this just logged all the time so we can correlate temps to current draw.

It still doesn't make a ton of sense to me that the coolant pump runs without moving a good deal of coolant or pressurizing the hoses. I'd like to figure out the relationship.
 

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