Zebra battery, red triangle, power limit blinking, you know - the usual stuff

[Damir]

Hello,

I have just bought a Th!nk City 2010 car with a Zebra battery.
The previous owner stated that the car won't take charge.
The car hasn't been charged for, at least, a year.

First thing I tried is to charge the 12V battery for a couple of days. Everything worked as supposed to (lights, horn, mirrors, radio, wipers etc.), however the "power limit" was blinking and the red triangle was lit all the time. When I plugged in the original charger, the external power supply indicator on top of the dashboard (the right one) lit up and the left one was blinking. The "car link" diod on the charger was blinking. The red triangle on the dashboard remained lit. No other warning lamp is lit.

I have bought a brand new Varta B18 12V battery and replaced it. The symptoms remained the same as with the old battery. I have connected a multimeter to a 12V socket and it shows 12.0V. When I turn the lights on and the fan to the maximum (nothing else), it shows 11.6V. When I connect the car to a charger, it says 12.5V. When I turn the ignition key, the charge level gauge slowly raise to 35%.

I have no PCAN device, so at the moment I am not able to provide with more information.
Can you recommend a cheap one I could get, perhaps somewhere online?
Or I could borrow one from the local mechanics.

I am located in Serbia, unfortunately we don't have EV mechanics yet anywhere around.

Any of your help will be much appreciated.


Damir

[worry]

Hi,
Sorry, but this forum have been rather quiet lately. I'm not able to help, but did you try the FB forum The Think-Tank?

[VWspirit]

You’r zebra battery is death.... only fix is replasement battery.
Build a new one from a leaf-battery

[Damir]

Hi,
Sorry, but this forum have been rather quiet lately. I'm not able to help, but did you try the FB forum The Think-Tank?

Yeah, I'm a following that page.
Guess I'll find some answers there, thanks.

You’r zebra battery is death.... only fix is replasement battery.
Build a new one from a leaf-battery

That's what I was afraid of.

[Damir]

You’r zebra battery is death.... only fix is replasement battery.
Build a new one from a leaf-battery

What would I need in order to make the Th!nk work with the Leaf battery?
Same question if I stumble upon a Li-Ion battery.

[VWspirit]

Depends on the pcu. If it’s gen 2 then it’s almost plug and play. You only need to change the high voltage cabe.

[Damir]

Depends on the pcu. If it’s gen 2 then it’s almost plug and play. You only need to change the high voltage cabe.

How to find out?
The car is 2010.

[pexic]

You can use CHAS software to find out, read here on this forum (using google translate) how to connect a laptop to the "serial" plug located under the fuses. good luck!

[Damir]

Here is the diagnostic result:



Also, it is attached to this post.


So, what would be the best possible solution to go with next?

[Damir]

Can you tell if this is a GEN2 version?
Would it be easy to swap it to Li-Ion battery?

[worry]

This diagnose does not tell anything. It seems to be a CAN fault, but might also be due to a non compatible test equipment.
To see if your City is GEN2 check here: http://elbilwiki.no/index.php/Ny-Think

GEN2 starts from VIN 5373

[Damir]

Seems like mine is GEN1 - VIN is U005019