ZE0 Onboard Charger troubleshooting

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TeamT

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2013
Messages
6
My 2012 ZE0 tripped the fuse/residual current devise during a charging session. Since than AC charging is not possible. Driving and quick (DC) charging works fine. DTC B29C1 and P3173 read via Leaf Spy.

Dismounted the Onboard Charger circuit board. Post mortem findings are:
- AC filter capacitor (blue) totally wrecked
- Diode D211 short-circuited
- Capacitor C109 also short-circuited. When dismounted I still have a short-circuit on the board. I think this indicates a short-circuit in the big "waffle board".

My competence ends here. Any ideas or advice?

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TeamT said:
- Capacitor C109 also short-circuited. When dismounted I still have a short-circuit on the board. I think this indicates a short-circuit in the big "waffle board".
If the Waffle Board™ is shorted, then that's pretty bad news. I would suggest testing it against the Mitsubishi iMiEV Waffle Board schematic, but the iMiEV.com site has been really flaky of late, and is down again. So I can't paste you a URL.

The Waffle Board seems to be a totally custom, potted assembly that you can't buy anywhere, and seems impractical to repair. I've heard of one reader successfully making a small modification to the Waffle Board on his iMiEV, but I think the chances of something like that are slim.

I don't know if the Waffle Boards are interchangeable between the two. There could well be slight or not so slight differences. It's possible that some Mitsubishi Waffle Boards are available from iMiEV owners, since a lot of the iMiEV OBCs were replaced under warranty.

Even desoldering the Waffle Board requires a proper desoldering station, or extreme patience.
 
The iMiEV forum is back up. This page has the voltage drops and resistances for the imiEV Waffle Plate™:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4079&start=440#p40562

Fight your way through the Imgur guff to get to the actual image, so you can see it clearly. It's quite high resolution.

Or use this direct link:

https://i.imgur.com/VbRyfIb.jpeg

Or use "show image in new tab" or similar on the below:

VbRyfIb.jpeg
 
Thank you! I definitely have a short-circuit (P to N-N1). Most likely in the Waffle Board but can of course be elsewhere as I have no idea on the multilayer circuit board.

Anyone out the that know of someone who can repair these boards? A new one is aprox. 3000 € and a used are around 1400 € :shock:
 
@teamT and @coulomb I can't add anything, however just wanted to thank you for doing such a good job documenting the problem, troubleshooting and hopefully a solution. These posts add great value for "the next guy" who will see this issue.
 
Ordered a used charger assembly for 1600 € and replaced it yesterday. Bolts in the underbody cover were stuck so I decided to gamble a bit and split the charger assembly. Used a wet vacuum cleaner to soak up the coolant and tried to handle the gasket with extreme care. Everything workings fine now. I will try to inspect the AC filter capacitor every 10000 km or so going forward.

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