Fixing the battery on my FREE Ford Focus Electric (Part 1)

Howdy folks! In this video, we pull the lower battery pack out of my 2013 Ford Focus Electric, and take it apart in preparation to clean out all of the coolant and fix the leakage issues.
Stay tuned for part 2 next week!
If you have an EV that is in need of repairs, feel free to reach out!
QC Charge #2
8750 NE Emerson St.
Portland OR, 97220
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[@carlomartin6156]

Im not exactly a ev lover but your videos are awesome, learning every day more about cars.

[@dimanest3245]

Not a big ev fan but this channel is gold

[@abdulla.binayaf]

always hit connectors with compressor air to remove any dirt for easy unclip.

[@thwipp101]

i use a combo of all purpose clear and air. or just straight up hit all of it with a pressure washer before you start.

[@rcpmac]

Just to add to the Monday morning quarterbacking here (not a bad thing), the silicone manifolds seem like a good design with the failure happening at the manifold to manifold connection. If only that connection used a metal nipple that had slip tolerance then battery movement would be accommodated without failure. That seal would have to be designed into the manifold from the start.

[@trainingtheworld5093]

This is brilliant! So great to see a real professional at work and without any nonsense so common in our industry. I love how you label everything.

[@whistlingdiesel]

So quick are almost 2 days gone. Thanks for sharing, looking for part2

[@brentnearhood8874]

Thanks! Alex Maybe you could look into getting a 3D printer to make the parts that you can't get!

[@thecam0073]

Thanks for making quality content and not just being lazy and telling artificial intelligence to make your videos. So many yt channels are just time wasting AI.. I subscribed.

[@johndoyle4723]

Thanks, I will follow with interest. This is definitely a growth area and those with the skills should have a good business. Yes some of the connectors were a bit tricky but compared with removing an ICE, this was so much easier and cleaner, there will be an opportunity for pack rebuilders to provide remanufactured packs for a relatively quick swap. Not sure about swollen cells, I thought that was their end of life, but what do I know, here to learn.

[@danhard8440]

how is it possible that they didn't think the cells would expand and cause the coolant connections to come apart? cells always expand on contract during charge and discharge

[@w5moss]

if the cells have expanded and are clearly defective, why on earth would you want to re-instal them ?

[@AlexEVRepair]

Mainly because there aren't really any other readily available options. Pretty much all early FFEs suffer from this issue at some point, and the later model packs are pretty hard to come by. A new pack from Ford would easily cost 2-3x what the car is worth... I'm going to be exploring some cell replacement options in the future, though that is easier said than done since there are no "off the shelf" modules that will work in it as far as cell count goes. In the meantime, what I'm doing is effectively a "band-aid" fix to get the car back on the road in the short term.

[@Bond2025]

It's on it's way to going on fire.

[@reedjacksonmaccom]

I’ve seen other ev battery repair videos and one common remark is not to restrict the packs from swelling. they need space to swe or contract

[@glenn65]

Thanks for sharing, awesome video! New sub.

[@geoffaries]

This is an interesting exploration of how to strip a battery pack. IMHO the only future of EV's is the ability to re-condition all battery packs, which means that replacement cells will have to be made available. In some countries manufacturers have to ensure that critical parts are available for 10 years from the date that production ceased. This would give EV's a life of about 18 years.

[@usa-ev]

Nice video! Thanks for putting it out! Look forward to hearing your lessons learned and advice for those following in your footsteps. Would you suggest power washing those connectors first? (With time to dry) And items like that. Keep up the great work! Oh, and be careful with those thin wet gloves! Maybe turn the safety knob up a notch or two! Would hate for something to happen.

[@AlexEVRepair]

In the future, if I were to work on another one of these, I probably would try to (lightly) hit the connectors with a pressure washer. Off camera, I did try to clean them with some electrical cleaner before attempting to unplug, but the 11 years worth of dirt and road grime was just really badly caked in there. The pack is broken down into ~100V sections with the disconnect removed, so there isn't any really "very high voltage" present, and while I didn't explain it in the video very well, I had it broken down into even smaller sections (~40-50v) before going hard-core on the disassembly.

[@geoffaries]

@@AlexEVRepair Dry Ice may be a safer cleaning option as there's no water involved!

[@ericcindycrowder7482]

The Chevrolet Volt also used cooling plates between cell groups, but coolant leaking was less of a problem than this car. This looks like LG-Chem the same as the Volt. Newer cars with prismatic or pouch style use a cooling plate underneath the cells and L shaped aluminum transfer things to pull the heat from the cells into the liquid cooled plate underneath. This was much less problematic for leaking. I suspect future EV chemistry will reduce or eliminate the need for liquid cooling from advanced cell technologies

[@AlexEVRepair]

I don't think the cells in the Volt are identical, but certainly very similar. Both are LG Chem cells, but I think the cells used in the Volt were a bit more optimized for high power since there is less overall capacity. GM did use a very different approach to the implementation of the cooling plates, which don't have these leakage issues (I suspect that the modules also have better compression on the Volt as well). However, Volts do have their own issues from what I've heard, particularly with failing thermistors inside the battery pack.

[@young11984]

@@AlexEVRepairwhats the solution to failed thermistors in the cells, are they replacable?

[@AlexEVRepair]

I don't know of anyone that has successfully done it. I haven't worked on any Volts, so I can't for sure, but I think the thermistors are sandwiched between the cells within the modules, which can't be disassembled in a "non-destructive" fashion (which is the case for most EV battery modules)... As I understand it, a software update can be done that will allow the BMS to ignore a couple of faulty temperature readings, but if too many sensors fail, then the only solution is to replace a module or the whole pack.

[@young11984]

@@AlexEVRepair yea thats kind of what i was wondering is if it had multiple thermistors or just one and if they could be tuned/programmed out. Im a life long gear head but EV technology is interesting to me and just picking up some things to have in my hat later on

[@ericcindycrowder7482]

In regards to the delicate locking lever, someone needs to start 3D printing these or manufacture billet CNC versionos.

[@jagster0810]

Plastic will lead to the early death of most modern cars!

[@okiedoke6373]

You could replicate that locking device with a 3D printer might be something you would want to scan in before you install it on the car

[@Smith1000R]

Before disassembling an HV battery, it is recommended to clean it.

[@ericcindycrowder7482]

Thanks for the video. Can you provide a link to who makes the plastic high voltage isolation socket tools. Thanks

[@AlexEVRepair]

These are the ones I have, made by Titan Professional Tools. I believe you can buy them on Amazon. www.titan-us.com/default.aspx?page=item%20detail&itemcode=66100

[@seansysig]

The Data connector black base looked like it was missing mount bolts/screws?

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

Nice audio. What do you have going for a microphone setup? In fact, you may want to slap an 80-100 Hz highpass on it by default... while being able to reproduce low-frequency rumble clear as day (e.g. 17:15ish) is a nice party trick, this sort of _ambiance_ is not necessarily desired. You mentioning attempting to compress the cells honestly has me puzzled - lithium cells that have turned into _Spicy Pillows_ (technical term, and honestly not the worst candidate for a band name) are toast. _T.O.A.R.S.T._ Much reduced capacity, high impedance, not to mention a risk for fireworks (hydrogen, anyone?). Only good for recycling. All of these should be replaced at the very minimum, the remainder individually characterized (super tedious, I know). I would then attempt to assemble new series strings, either with only all old or all new cells (the point being that capacity matching in series strings is critical, while you can easily operate strings of different capacity in parallel with no ill effects if they are the same exact chemistry). That's assuming you can get new cell assemblies or potentially restuff the exising ones, no idea how these are constructed. It's obviously a bit dumb that there isn't any more space for cell expansion before the cooling system springs a leak (some laptop manufacturers have arguably done worse though), but honestly this may be a blessing in disguise as the car should probably not be on the road anyway by the time the battery has grown a whole bunch of bloated cells. I can't imagine it would be very safe if it were to sustain substantial crash damage.

[@AlexEVRepair]

Unfortunately the cells used in these are long since discontinued, and they are not really serviceable individually. It seems that these cars are quite prone to this failure mode, and good packs are hard to come by (unless you are lucky enough to come across one of the newer 33kWh versions, which do seem to hold up better). Trying to get a new pack from Ford is a non-starter, as it would easily cost 2-3 times what the car is worth. Ultimately what I'm doing here is a bit of a "band-aid" fix to get the car back on the road in the short term, and I do agree, it's a bit sketchy... There's no way I would ever agree to do anything like this on a customer's vehicle. In the longer term, I'm going to be exploring options to do a retrofit of some other type of cells, but that will not be a simple task. There are lots of 5-6s modules that would be a great fit, but unfortunately the pack is not divisible by anything other than 1 or 2, so I'll probably have to build something using individual prismatic cells.

[@IrenESorius]

👍‍‍😎👍‍‍

[@seansysig]

Could you use a Banding Packaging Pallet Strapping Kit Poly Strapping Tensioner Tool to compress cell banks?

[@young11984]

Maybe to install but not permanently, they need to be able to expand and contract during temperature variances.

[@Grahammon]

Hi, if the cells are swelling, and thus failing/failed is it possible to buy another matching battery that you can select good cells and replace the failing cells in your current battery? Eg from a breakers yard?

[@AlexEVRepair]

Due to the construction method of the pack, the cells are not really individually serviceable within the modules. Even if they were, the replacement cells would have to be virtually the EXACT same amount of capacity to avoid imbalance issues in the future, not to mention, used packs for these cars are hard to find (I've only found 1 available in the country of this older style pack). If I could find the newer style 33kWh pack out of a 2017-2019 model for a reasonable price, I would consider that for a swap, but as of right now, that's not an option that is available to me.

[@Stoney3K]

Weren't those disconnects required to be removed in one single hand movement by fire crews?

[@DrKlausTrophobie]

As far as i know, in emergency, there is either an interlock connector or a place for cutting the DC HV lines. The connectors at the battery are meant for service.

[@ME-cb1vw]

Why does it have liquid cooling? It even doesn"t have dc fast charging?

[@tube8533]

wow

[@kamilhorvat8290]

I don't think it's a good idea to compress expanded cell modules, because you know what this could cause? Short circuit inside battery.

[@duncancremin1708]

Ooh, if you’re going to clamp swollen cells and try to fit them back in the space they occupied before they swelled up, I want to watch that. But, don’t record a video. Do a live stream. I’m pretty sure you won’t be in a position to edit or post, if you try to make a video.

[@Wolsey67]

Agree with all you say. The coolant leak is caused by the cells puffing up pulling the connectors out of the "O" rings. He is fixing this the wrong way round.

[@crazycommercials2755]

Subscribed to follow your journey. Just bought a 2013 FFE and love it so far. There is not alot of content about these EV's out there. I plan on documenting my whole journey with the car as well on my channel @Jet_Auto . Keep doing what youre doing man!

[@electrickal1]

What a load of bollox, (Not your video, the battery itself). Having to remove that pile of shite to sort a leak that'll just get worse is unbelievable. How in the name of fuck is the average family with 2.4 kids supposed to buy and run one of these portable incendiary devices without having their home repossessed??

[@intrax2tv]

Clearly Ford was using it's ev-customers as guinney pigs to fumble their ev-packs on just like BigPharma used their mRNA vaccins.If you own it it's your problem! Fucxin crazy world!

[@mikaoj71]

Looks lika e death trap -Roo work on. Get a real petrol car. This are plastic toycars..