So my vehicle is slightly under two months old with about 1400 miles on. I haven't been driving it much these days but put in a few miles every so often. The last was about 10 miles, two days ago. I then plugged in to trickle-charge upto 90%, which it completed in a few hours. This morning, I get in the car and the dash is dark. I placed my foot on the brake and hit the power-on button. The brake pedal pulsed as if the ABS was coming on. The dash briefly showed the "System Check" message and went dark again. Repeatedly pressing the Start button gave a "Key not found" message and the respective symbol came on. Now, pressing the start button does nothing. Has the aux. lead acid battery run down? I am pretty sure if hasn't died but then none of the lights are coming on. I tried to start the vehicle with the spare keys but that didn't work either. Any thoughts?
Checking the voltage of the 12 V accessory battery would be a good start. If you find that is the issue, it may be jump started or hooking a battery charger for a few minutes will probably revive it. If you do not have a meter to check- just try jump starting anyway to eliminate. You will hear a whole bunch of relays clicking and once that has settled down, you can remove the jumper cables.
These are Kona threads but you should probably check 'em out: https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/dead-kona-ev.6991/ https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/if-youve-had-a-dead-12v-battery-please-respond.7399/ I would jump the 12V for bit (or maybe just connect to another car to get yours started) and see what happens. Let us know if you see the energy saver cycling problem discussed in one of the threads starting about here
FWIW, I have read on some of the forums that a few Niro's have had their primary speedo display fail and the symptoms were like yours, it just went black. It seems odd that the 12v battery would just go dead like that, so if you test it and it still has a charge, then I think you might have to get the dealership to look into it. Just a guess though, hope that yours is just a quick fix...
Thanks for the inputs guys. As luck would've had it, my wife's car battery died too. The battery was installed new from Costco three months ago. Go figure. Anyhow, I checked the Niro's battery with a multimeter and it showed 5.6v. Asked my neighbor for help and she drove over so I could jump both cars. The Niro started right up and I took it out for a 15 min drive. It seems fine for now. I think I read in another thread that the Niro (and prob Kona) charge their Pb-Acid battery only when the vehicle is in the ON position. Is that correct? Edit: Checked the battery voltage after leaving the car on for about 40 mins and it reads 12.8v - at or close to normal. Leads me to believe what's being said in the Kona threads. That the battery is probably fine and it's the car that's discharging the 12v.
Do you have your Aux. Battery Saver+ turned on? It's an option in the menu in the dash. The Niro can't charge the 12v unless that option is set to on.
If you don't have time to read all the long threads about dead 12V batteries in the Kona and Niro, the short summary is that the Aux Battery Saver menu option just enables a timer that makes the car turn on automatically every 24-hours and charge your 12V battery for exactly 20 minutes from the large main battery. It then waits another 24-hours since it stopped charging and repeats the same process. On some cars, the battery drains too much before the next day's scheduled 20-minute charge has a chance to run or 20 minute is not enough to fully restore the battery. The car will also charge the 12V battery whenever it is in the "on" position (gear doesn't matter) or while it is charging the large traction battery. If you suspect your 12V battery is low, you can either leave the car turned on while parked for a few hours in the 'P' gear or reduce your charging speed (there are some menu options for this or use the slow 120V supplied EVSE) so that it has plenty of time to recharge the 12V battery next time it charges the large traction battery.
Wizzwig, I have read your posts about the motor issues with the Niro and appreciate the insights you have given. I love the car but two months into ownership I am pissed that I have to buy a portable jumpstarter/powerbank to support a practically brand new $40k vehicle. When the car is powered on/ running, does it charge the Pb-Acid battery continuously?
I find on my Kona the 12.6 is normal resting voltage and when in run (and sometimes I will leave it parked in run just to charge the accessory battery for 2H) the voltage is 14.8 V approx. Other than 1 hung Bluelink command killing my battery once, it has maintained this state and recovered well after the voltage sagged to 4.6 V https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/12v-battery.5090/page-5#post-96122 this thread is really good on the accessory battery charging and ABS function as well as some portable jump starter options. Happy to hear your Niro is alive and kicking
From my personal testing, leaving the car 'on' and parked will eventually top off the 12V battery up to ~90% SOC and then stop until required to charge again. You don't need to plug in the car and it won't make a difference if you do. Unfortunately, I didn't measure the exact charging rate so can't give you an exact time estimate. Two hours like mentioned above should be enough I think unless your 12V battery is really depleted. Like many others, I'm also under pandemic lockdown and have not used my Niro very much in the past weeks. For me the 20 minute automatic daily charges have been enough to keep the 12V battery at a steady voltage and ~70% SOC. Wish it would charge the battery longer because I'm unsure if prolonged 70%SOC is bad for lead-acid battery longevity (they prefer to be fully charged). Not sure why the 20 minute charges don't work for some and the 12V battery dies completely. My car is left unplugged and unlocked in my garage with no accessories in the car. I suggest you pick up an OBD2 adapter and phone app so you can monitor the the state of batteries yourself. Those items will be a good investment no matter the car.
If memory serves me correctly, lead acid batteries will not sulfate unless the voltage is under 12.4.
Anyhow, while on a grocery run to Costco yesterday, I got one of these. I'd better have this in my dash than get stranded.
