Broken Suspension on R1T 😫 during PNW Rivian group trip: WA BDR.

[iansriv]

Depends on the EV.... Rivian threw in a lot of "upgrades" when designing their first vehicles. An R1T without air suspension, glass roof, motorized tonneau, "autopilot", motorized air vents, 4-motor drive, etc... would have been a much simpler vehicle to build and maintain as it ages. I can't imagine many original R1T owners will be keeping their first gen vehicles well after the OEM "bumper-to-bumper" warranty expires.

My 2017 Bolt had none of the parts/systems mentioned above. I had it 3.5yrs and put almost 45K miles on it.... and it was never in the shop for anything but a strictly cosmetic issue (that was covered under warranty). It literally cost me a set of wiper blades to maintain for 45K mi of use.

You bring up a very interesting point. Perhaps the ex explorer could have been a much more simple version without the air suspension, glass roof, etc.

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[MRE]

I keep seeing stories of how EVs will lower maintenance time/costs, but have yet to see any proof of that with modern EV design.

You haven't looked very hard, then. The are countless articles and forum write-ups for people with 100k+ miles that have broken down their actual cost comparisons. I've owned 3 EVs now (2 Teslas and R1T) and driven more than 100k in then myself. My maintenance has included wipers and tires.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

You have to keep in mind that this is the Land Rover / Alfa Romeo of EV’s so ownership costs will be relative. Not keeping things simple is kind of Rivian’s MO.

my previous ev experience has been that it’s cheaper than the comparable ICE vehicle. I spend more on tires but make up for it in the fact that there was nooil changes, fuel costs are lower, and there have been no drive train repairs.

 

[iansriv]

You have to keep in mind that this is the Land Rover / Alfa Romeo of EV’s so ownership costs will be relative. Not keeping things simple is kind of Rivian’s MO.

I was ok with LR but why are we bringing Alfa Romeo into this?

 

[Marchin_MTB]

People love their Alfas for the looks but they are said to break often? Admittedly never owned an Alfa so maybe I’ve transgressed? The point is that this EV has more things that CAN break than say, a Nissan leaf.

 

[iansriv]

People love their Alfas for the looks but they are said to break often? Admittedly never owned an Alfa so maybe I’ve transgressed? The point is that this EV has more things that CAN break than say, a Nissan leaf.

I was joking. Agree, that Alfa's were "temperamental" back a few decades ago. My uncle owned an Alfa dealership. I own two modern Alfas and they are very reliable.

 

[kylealden]

You haven't looked very hard, then. The are countless articles and forum write-ups for people with 100k+ miles that have broken down their actual cost comparisons. I've owned 3 EVs now (2 Teslas and R1T) and driven more than 100k in then myself. My maintenance has included wipers and tires.

+1 to this experience. My R1T is my third EV and I've never spent a dime (or an hour) on maintenance besides tires, wipers (+fluid), etc. My Teslas had some repairs due to a breakin, thrown rocks on the highway, etc., but nothing due to defect or mechanical failure.

Stuff like this suspension failure is inevitable to happen at some frequency, but there isn't enough data yet to imply a significant scale problem. Right now we have a couple reports out of several thousand deliveries (cf. the incidence on genuine known design flaws like the early 12v battery issues with dozens of reports, or the tonneau with hundreds of reports). It could be any combination of bad luck, coincidence, or an actual problem with yields/reliability - but it's just too early to know. And so far this is all well within warranty territory, so it's a bit early to panic about ownership costs. (That would change if this was a chronic failure that increases in likelihood with vehicle age, but there's no evidence of that just yet.)

On the other hand, IMO it's more than reasonable to complain about the failure modes (e.g. the fact that the suspension collapses to an undrivable state with no redundant systems), and as always it's a good practice to never go off-roading far from civilization without an emergency plan (satellite communicator, second vehicle, etc.). But let's not cry wolf about maintenance just yet.

 

[Speedrye]

You haven't looked very hard, then. The are countless articles and forum write-ups for people with 100k+ miles that have broken down their actual cost comparisons. I've owned 3 EVs now (2 Teslas and R1T) and driven more than 100k in then myself. My maintenance has included wipers and tires.

I sincerely hope you're right as my average vehicle is 20 years old. I can't say that any of my 20-year old computers have held up as well, and that's the direction EVs are going. While they're new and shiny, sure, they're cheaper, but I hold my vehicles for longer than many.

Speaking of, has Rivian even put a maintenance schedule out? How often does the brake fluid need to be flushed? Battery coolant? Gearbox service? Suspension hydraulic fluid? Air compressor oil?

 

[MRE]

I sincerely hope you're right as my average vehicle is 20 years old. I can't say that any of my 20-year old computers have held up as well, and that's the direction EVs are going. While they're new and shiny, sure, they're cheaper, but I hold my vehicles for longer than many.

Speaking of, has Rivian even put a maintenance schedule out? How often does the brake fluid need to be flushed? Battery coolant? Gearbox service? Suspension hydraulic fluid? Air compressor oil?

The computer 'problem' isn't just EVs.. at least not according to all these salesmen that keep pushing extended warranties at me because "that Jeep has 14 computers in it.. do you know how to service those!?"

For the Rivian service schedules I haven't seen anything, but that doesn't surprise me {note: I have never looked for one either}. Brake usage/wear will vary greatly between drivers due to the use of regenerative braking for most driving/drivers. If they are anything like Tesla, everything else will be handled via on-vehicle monitoring indicating when a given fluid may be nearing a maintenance threshold.

Regarding the suspension, I'll echo prior comments that over the LONG long-haul we'll probably see coil-over retro fits happening. Though, personally, as long as my budget allows for it I'd replace the compressor and air bag components. The adjustable ride height is worth the extra cost for me, but definitely imagine there will be people for whom that is not true.

Lastly, FWIW in qualifying my responses, I've got ~15k miles on my R1T now (60k on the Tesla before it, and 120k on my Wrangler). I've taken the R1T across a number of states and a couple mountain passes (which I need to do a general write up on sometime soon, but for now you should be able to see pictures here or in my Google Photos album here.

 

[TollKeeper]

Although electrically powered, it is still mechanical in nature. Stuff will eventually break.

Whether that be the infotainment system (like the Tesla), AC issues, suspension issue, motor issue, etc, something is going to break.

Im hoping that its test audience (US!) will slowly get all of their problems weeded out!

 

[M00v0vr]

Ask and you shall receive A few snaps from the trip:

(Missed focus on this one in my hurry to catch the pose that she held for about a tenth of a second. What I would give for pet face detection on the Fuji!)

Which Roof Nest Model is that? It appears to fit perfectly. NVRM, a little searching of the interwebs and I found it.

 

[kylealden]

Which Roof Nest Model is that? It appears to fit perfectly.

Condor Overland. It does indeed fit perfectly Highly recommended (see my post here), although I think we had four different brand RTTs (Thule Tepui, Roofnest, CVT, and iKamper X-Cover Mini) and four happy customers on this trip, so you can't really go wrong!

 

[ravian]

I see so many issues of different types. In a way the early adopters are beta testers.
I wonder how fast would Rivian be able to act on these issues from customers to fix future vehicles to prevent the same problems from happening.Are we talking months or years? I expect my R1S by mid to end of next year and am wondering how “beta” would the vehicle be by then.
btw. Hats off to the early adopters!!

 

[jjswan33]

Quick Update: I was able to get a rental this morning, F150. Per Rivian’s request I had to unload everything from my truck (RTT, Awning, Roadshower, etc). I was able to load everything in but frankly the F150 doesn’t have as much storage as a Rivian. Enterprise made me sign that I wouldn’t smoke or have any pets in the vehicle (but I had my dog with me..) so keep that in mind if you get stranded with your pet.

Unluckily I got a leak in one of the tires in my rental as I was driving on I84 through the gorge, found a nail in the inside sidewall. I had my toolbox with a tire repair kit so I did a field repair and swapped out the rental at a local Enterprise.

No update on the truck just yet.

 

[Dirty_B]

Speaking of, has Rivian even put a maintenance schedule out? How often does the brake fluid need to be flushed? Battery coolant? Gearbox service? Suspension hydraulic fluid? Air compressor oil?

LOL

I laugh at this because there was an EV Noob on here that commented the only fluid in the R1T was the wiper fluid, and there were less parts in an R1T than an ICE car. Wrong on both accounts. A battery pack has 7,776 batteries - compare that to parts in an ICE.

As an exercise in research abilities I'd be curious as to how many parts there actually are in an R1T compared to say a Taco.

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