12V battery

Not all EVs have 12V battery issues. The Chevy Bolt EV I sometimes drive has 3+ years on the original AGM 12V battery (manufacture date in 2016) and never had any issues. My eNiro 12V battery died in less than a year with similar usage. It's the same simplistic system as the Kona. It works okay for simply "maintaining" a parked car and compensating for typical resting battery drain. It does not cope well with any unexpected additional drain or 12V battery with degraded performance.

Never tried leaving the dome light on with the manual override switch. It does turn off everything automatically if you leave door or hood open.

Utility mode overrides all the automatic shutdowns for obvious reasons.

 

If the 12v battery is on the low side, even though usable, the remote key sensor does not work reliably. In that situation, I've had problems unlocking the door with the key in my pocket. The giveaway is that both keys fail.

 

Newbie here, my wife is taking delivery of a Kona EV (2021) this Thursday.

I'm aware of the EV 12 volt battery challenges and see that the length of this thread is telling me the Kona is similar.

On my other thread, I posted these questions:

Thanks in advance. Cheers.

 

Does this offer any advantages over the meter I've got plugged into the 12v socket? Resting voltage can be checked by turning on accessory mode.

 

I think not, other than ease of checking as the gauge is about eye level.

 

The meter you talk about, do you have a link to the specific unit you use? Thanks.

 

I'm afraid I can't be very helpful. These were discussed in another thread long ago, and there are many brands. Mine includes a thermometer, of limited usefulness in the lower bin. I recommend the one with the coolest lighting.

 

You can just type in car volt meter on Amazon and you will find lots of them. They are fairly inexpensive and accurate. Here is a link to a typical one with a usb port as well.

https://smile.amazon.com/Palumma-Charger-Adapter-Display-Battery/dp/B0773BYS6P/ref=sr_1_12_sspa?crid=3FNF8F6G5JVLJ&dchild=1&keywords=12+volt+voltmeter&qid=1597610833&sprefix=12+volt+volt+meter%2Caps%2C1804&sr=8-12-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFDUkdXMkhMVzM4JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTEyNTY4MURPSVZQTUxJMVVTMCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjQ5MjUwMzgzVVlPM1hVNDJQSiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX210ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

Cheers. Now I get the idea.

Just found this candidate within 30 seconds:

https://www.amazon.ca/QUMOX-Cigarette-Lighter-Thermometer-Voltmeter/dp/B012FDUHRK/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=Palumma+24W%2F4.8A+Dual+USB+Car+Charger%2C+12V+to+USB+Outlet+with+Cigarette+Lighter+Voltage+Meter+LED%2FLCD+Display+Battery+Low+Voltage+Warning+%28Black%29&qid=1597621886&sr=8-13

 

The advantage of the BM2 Battery Monitor bluetooth voltmeter is that you do not have to disturb the car to take a reading and it logs every 2 seconds 24/7. In this example just opening the door takes the voltage down 0.4 V. Pressing 'on' without the brake pedal sends it down another couple of tenths to about 12.3. Pressing 'on' with the brake pedal (Run mode, which powers up the LDC) brings it up to charging voltage, 14.65 approx. Switching 'off' and closing the door results in a partial recovery.
All I need do is get within 10m of the car and check it with my smartphone which displays the voltage with 1 sec sampling intervals. But normally I only check the history every few days to make sure the level is being maintained. It draws less than 3 mA.

 

Is this the exact product you are recommending? Thanks

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33056891147.html?spm=2114.search0302.3.9.17ec49ebgZYil7&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_0,searchweb201603_0,ppcSwitch_0&algo_pvid=a7ab1e43-f34d-4447-b94a-c171748ddea6&algo_expid=a7ab1e43-f34d-4447-b94a-c171748ddea6-1

 

Here’s the thread on it. The link you’ve provided appears to be the same device.

 

Thanks!

 

Just be aware, if you're trying to monitor 12v battery failures, that the BM2 has no nonvolatile memory. So if the voltage drops way down (maybe in the 6 - 9 volt range) it will lose everything you haven't downloaded into the app and there will be no record of that failure. And the app doesn't suck the data automatically; nothing transfers until you display a graph.

 

Thought I would update my saga. Got the car back today. Tech was able to replicate the no start situation(thank goodness), basically reconnected and contact cleaned all engine swap related connections. This seemed to resolve the problem. He is calling it a non specific loose connection problem. Hopefully this does it.

 

I suppose "non-specific" looks better in reports than "we don't have a clue".

 

Two months since I got the service campaign, and nothing interesting happened until this week.

And this week, what happened is that nothing happened. There have been no charging events since Aug. 24, when I drove a short distance around 13:00, came home, and didn't plug in. After the drive, the voltage settled in around 12.6 - 12.65, as best I can judge from the graph:



The next day there was this blip:



Since then a flat line, with a few jiggles like at the right of the graph above. The voltage right now is 12.53v. Shouldn't it have drawn down more than that just from whatever it does with itself?

I'll try not to do anything to the car and see what happens - or doesn't.

 

So, how many days did the Kona sit idle before the short drive on the 24th? Presumably that's all in your BM-2 history.