SOS - R1T bricked during aftermarket horn install (horn not at fault)

[SwampNut]

I believe the pigtail connection prevents charging below a certain voltage.

I had this fear also. And some chargers won't activate at all below a certain voltage.

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[a76marine]

Sorry about your experience. I don't know enough to comment on your plight.

That said, it's not ringing true to me that safety reasons drove the horn upgrade. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that you justified the upgrade with safety to yourself, but in 45 years of driving and riding motorcycles on public roads I can't say my horn has ever saved my bacon. Oh, yes, I've honked it, not frequently, but many times over the years. But it was always to tell another driver they did something bad, or to tell them to get out of my way so I could get through, never to save my bacon.

As a motorcyclist, I know not to trust other drivers, and that includes not honking my horn to prevent an accident. I take evasive action, two wheels or four, it doesn't matter. I'm the only one that can save my bacon. Because, by the time I see a problem developing, and honked my horn, and the sound travelled the distance to the other vehicle, they heard it and responded, well, I would have been better off just taking evasive action to begin with! In this situation I might do both, honk and take evasive action, but the honking is just to tell them they messed up, it's not going to help me save my bacon.

So we blame the victim?

 

[Kuro-Rivian]

Also OP. I made this post way back in April 2023 when my 12V went. There are some pictures of the battery, the frunk removed that may help you identify the battery posts and some info that may or may not be helpful. https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/what-i-learned-from-my-12v-battery-swap.13739/

 

[freshpow]

I believe the pigtail connection prevents charging below a certain voltage. When I reanimated my truck after 12v failure I was NOT able to trickle charge via the pigtail. Had to connect direct.

To the OP. I would wait and continue to batter service to get a repair. Understand you are likely talking to someone in Michigan at a call center. Insist they call and communicate directly with your SC to help get you in and see what happens. Also, no offense, at this point and reading subsequent posts, I think given your "skill level" you should just wait and spend your time hounding service. Again, no offense. But it's nice to have someone to commiserate with so sorry for your problems.

Thanks and agreed. I'm not a rocket scientist but am capable of following directions. I've talked to 7 different people from the call center and have insisted, increasingly firmly, that they get me in direct contact with the service center. They can't even get a response from the SC themselves. They also all tell me they will follow up on my case individually and give me a return call by xx time or date and that hasn't happened once. So each time I call it's someone new and then same old story.

 

[freshpow]

I had this fear also. And some chargers won't activate at all below a certain voltage.

I tried the NOCO boost and it wouldn't do anything when connected to the pigtails. Even with the manual override. I ordered the NOCO Genius 5 you linked and will hook that up when it arrives to see if I can charge the battery.

I followed the Ohmmu 12v install video to safely remove the top cover from the battery and measure the voltage of the battery itself. My multimeter kept jumping back and forth between 0 and ~3.9v max.

 

[freshpow]

Appreciate all the responses and troubleshooting here. This community is infinitely more helpful and responsive than Rivian service. I love my truck and just want it running again

 

[freshpow]

Update - I was finally able to get connected directly with the service center after my 8th attempt. They were very understanding and set up a mobile appt for this Saturday hoping it can be resolved that way. If not, will have to get it towed into the SC for repair. They weren't willing to offer a rental car or loaner until they can diagnose and it can be determined if the issue was caused by the aftermarket install. Not a huge deal since I have another vehicle but I'm a little worried about that still since I know these battery replacements aren't cheap but I told them I'm going to push hard against it because of all the known 12v issues with other Rivians and all of the successful, problem-free installs of this particular horn.

 

[jjswan33]

I know these battery replacements aren't cheap

Curious what info you have here, a 12V battery replacement should be relatively inexpensive as far as automotive repairs go. I am sure Rivian has a premium on it but I wouldn't be terribly worried about paying this out of pocket.

Edit: Also happy to hear you are on the road to a resolution!

 

[freshpow]

Curious what info you have here, a 12V battery replacement should be relatively inexpensive as far as automotive repairs go. I am sure Rivian has a premium on it but I wouldn't be terribly worried about paying this out of pocket.

Edit: Also happy to hear you are on the road to a resolution!

Thanks - am thinking it's over $1k based on this post but maybe it would be half that since my R1T only has the 1 battery + capacitor?

 

[freshpow]

Also OP. I made this post way back in April 2023 when my 12V went. There are some pictures of the battery, the frunk removed that may help you identify the battery posts and some info that may or may not be helpful. https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/what-i-learned-from-my-12v-battery-swap.13739/

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try hooking up a NOCO Genius 5 later today, first from the rear leads then directly to the battery if that doesn't work. It has a setting for 12v vs. 12v AGM vs. 12v Lithium. Which should I use? Does it matter?

 

[Kuro-Rivian]

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try hooking up a NOCO Genius 5 later today, first from the rear leads then directly to the battery if that doesn't work. It has a setting for 12v vs. 12v AGM vs. 12v Lithium. Which should I use? Does it matter?

It should auto detect and choose for you. If not, 12v agm will be fine. It'll likely start the battery desulfate automatically. And it won't likely work from the rear to trickle charge (vs a jump).

Also, I'd be absolutely stunned if they don't warranty cover with $0 cost. The tech will "get it" and they've done a ton of these. You got hit with what's called spurious correlation. That is something happened when another thing happened and they aren't related at all! Just bad luck on the timing. Good luck!

 

[daeHelkcunK]

Sorry about your experience. I don't know enough to comment on your plight.

That said, it's not ringing true to me that safety reasons drove the horn upgrade. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that you justified the upgrade with safety to yourself, but in 45 years of driving and riding motorcycles on public roads I can't say my horn has ever saved my bacon. Oh, yes, I've honked it, not frequently, but many times over the years. But it was always to tell another driver they did something bad, or to tell them to get out of my way so I could get through, never to save my bacon.

As a motorcyclist, I know not to trust other drivers, and that includes not honking my horn to prevent an accident. I take evasive action, two wheels or four, it doesn't matter. I'm the only one that can save my bacon. Because, by the time I see a problem developing, and honked my horn, and the sound travelled the distance to the other vehicle, they heard it and responded, well, I would have been better off just taking evasive action to begin with! In this situation I might do both, honk and take evasive action, but the honking is just to tell them they messed up, it's not going to help me save my bacon.

100% agree. Everyone should be required to ride a motorcycle before driving a car. There would be 95% fewer accidents. Those that didn't learn would never make it to a car. Defensive driving 101.

 

[freshpow]

100% agree. Everyone should be required to ride a motorcycle before driving a car. There would be 95% fewer accidents. Those that didn't learn would never make it to a car. Defensive driving 101.

Agree to an extent but I have taken a number of defensive driving courses and always am on high alert expecting other vehicles to do something stupid. Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you don't have anywhere to go and an audible horn is the only chance you have. I'd rather not find out the hard way with a 6 mo. old in the backseat.

 

[GatorRiv]

Agree to an extent but I have taken a number of defensive driving courses and always am on high alert expecting other vehicles to do something stupid. Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you don't have anywhere to go and an audible horn is the only chance you have. I'd rather not find out the hard way with a 6 mo. old in the backseat.

Agree. Horn is by no means the most important but I wouldn't downplay too much.

I'm pretty sure horn I installed 6 weeks ago already either saved me from getting side swiped or made my evasive maneuver less scary. Maybe depends a little bit on where you drive. In my case it is the I-95 express lanes in Miami which is a little Mad Max esque.

I installed purely for safety and not for any type of need for a louder horn for the sake of it. BTW it is an air horn but it is not obnoxiously loud.

 

[HaveBlue]

It is not and AGM battery. It is an ordinary lead acid 12v. It is also not a car battery. It is a generator and motorcycle sized 18ah battery. Don't charge it like it's a 500-800cca starting battery. 2-4v probably indicates it won't last long even if you get the car charged. It could also have several cells shorted.

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