Bricked

[Dark-Fx]

I don’t know, but thinking about carrying around a backup battery for my R1T just doesn’t sit well. I wonder how many of all Rivians on the road have experienced this failure. I also have a ‘21 Bronco Sport and there are a number of owners experiencing battery issues. My BS complains about low battery all the time, but since it disables the auto stop/start feature for me I don’t care.

I have had zero issues with 12V on either of my Rivians and have also never even seen a warning anywhere.

From what I've figured after following most of these threads: Don't ignore the warnings. A reset might get it to go away but the vehicle likely had an issue with the voltage running low, and that is going to cause future problems due to the way lead acid batteries work.

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[SPITmadFIRE]

Cross posting from another reliability thread as 12V issues were being discussed:

...

The 12V system failures are absolutely an issue it seems like, but it doesn't seem like anyone's been able to account for whether that's coming from battery management system issues, or bad batteries themselves. There's a possibility a non-zero portion of vampire drain issues occur because the HV battery is successfully (and expensively) maintaining a failing 12V battery.

 

[iansriv]

I know this is a ‘hindsight 20/20” comment but get a rechargeable unit with jumper cables to leave in Rivian. A very affordable way to self-jump the 12V.

That's a good idea but we shouldn't have to do that. In the short run I'd like to see warnings on the app and dash that battery is low. Long term-rivian needs to address and fix this.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

That's a good idea but we shouldn't have to do that. In the short run I'd like to see warnings on the app and dash that battery is low. Long term-rivian needs to address and fix this.

Some way of seeing or monitoring 12v health would be good. I thought I recall seeing something similar mentioned in one of the OTA notes. Must not have made its way to public release.

 

[GuyR1S]

Sounds kinda similar to my bricking of a month ago - if so, they’ll replace your HV batteries and hopefully you’ll never have an issue again.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I have had zero issues with 12V on either of my Rivians and have also never even seen a warning anywhere.

From what I've figured after following most of these threads: Don't ignore the warnings. A reset might get it to go away but the vehicle likely had an issue with the voltage running low, and that is going to cause future problems due to the way lead acid batteries work.

Ironically enough, as a follow on to this, I ignored a warning shortly after my Fisker Ocean arrived late last month. Today, the vehicle persistantly keeps throwing the same "Battery System Malfunction" error and will only operate for a very short period of time between 5 minute locked sleep resets.

Was able to drive 20 miles this morning with a couple stops with no warnings or problems, but now I get maybe 30 seconds after a power-on before it's thrown again, and limits output to a snails pace after another 15 seconds. Service suspects it's the 12V battery going bad and is arranging an appointment for it to get replaced.

So I'm going to double down on my recommendation to not ignore any kind of a battery warning!

 

[Tim-in-CA]

A variety of responses have already discussed this -- there's no consensus on a jumper pack that would reliably work. If OP was unable to sufficiently charge the 12V from the hitch pigtails using another vehicle and an hour of time, what sort of jumper pack would work? Other than expensive, industrial battery chargers, I don't know of anything that would reliably work.

Yes, it would be good for Rivian to officially recommend a jump pack and home charger that can jump the 12V battery and also weigh in on using a battery tender for the 12v if storing the vehicle for a period of time

 

[iansriv]

My R1S has been resuscitated. If you wish to bore yourself to death-read on:

Lessons learned are (1) never park your car in your driveway in such a manner that you could block your other cars. This will only validate your significant other's assumptions regarding your intellect; (2) good luck jumping your Rivian using the tailgate module (up the arse)-it just won't work, (3) don't warm up your car (at least until Rivian has fixed this issue).

Rivian SC got a mobile tech out around noon today, which was very fast. He replaced the 12v battery within 15 minutes. Btw-that battery is smaller than a bloody moped battery! Alas, that did not solve the issue. He then used his laptop to diagnose the problem. The culprit, ladies & gentlemen, was the VDM. For those of you that think that this is some sort of sexually transmitted disease-you are wrong. It is a Vehicle Dynamics Module (the tech told me). I have absolutely no bloody idea what this does. Only thing I know is that my car is now working. It is located near the foot pedals. He did something with his laptop and got down by the foot accelerator and did more things (technical jargon) whilst I worked hard at sipping my tea and asking useless questions to which I did not understand the answers to.

The VDM issue is apparently more common than we thought and Rivian is investigating it. Thank you all for your advice and great sense of humour.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

My R1S has been resuscitated. If you wish to bore yourself to death-read on:

Lessons learned are (1) never park your car in your driveway in such a manner that you could block your other cars. This will only validate your significant other's assumptions regarding your intellect; (2) good luck jumping your Rivian using the tailgate module (up the arse)-it just won't work, (3) don't warm up your car (at least until Rivian has fixed this issue).

Rivian SC got a mobile tech out around noon today, which was very fast. He replaced the 12v battery within 15 minutes. Btw-that battery is smaller than a bloody moped battery! Alas, that did not solve the issue. He then used his laptop to diagnose the problem. The culprit, ladies & gentlemen, was the VDM. For those of you that think that this is some sort of sexually transmitted disease-you are wrong. It is a Vehicle Dynamics Module (the tech told me). I have absolutely no bloody idea what this does. Only thing I know is that my car is now working. It is located near the foot pedals. He did something with his laptop and got down by the foot accelerator and did more things (technical jargon) whilst I worked hard at sipping my tea and asking useless questions to which I did not understand the answers to.

The VDM issue is apparently more common than we thought and Rivian is investigating it. Thank you all for your advice and great sense of humour.

Good to know it has been diagnosed. Hum, VDM … don’t they make a cream for that?! ?

 

[NY_Rob]

My R1S has been resuscitated. If you wish to bore yourself to death-read on..

At least you have been vindicated of any naughty behavior... As I had mentioned earlier.. with a sufficient charge in the main battery pack, there should be nothing any owner can do to kill the 12V batt over a 30min period.

Just be grateful Rivian sorted things out and didn't just send you to "the argument clinic" or "the complaint department" ?

 

[R1Tom]

Yes, it would be good for Rivian to officially recommend a jump pack and home charger that can jump the 12V battery and also weigh in on using a battery tender for the 12v if storing the vehicle for a period of time

Something like that might actually make national nightly news...."EV Truck maker recommends owners have a jump pack model XYZ to prevent being stranded if they leave their seat heaters on".

 

[iansriv]

At least you have been vindicated of any naughty behavior... As I had mentioned earlier.. with a sufficient charge in the main battery pack, there should be nothing any owner can do to kill the 12V batt over a 30min period.

Just be grateful Rivian sorted things out and didn't just send you to "the argument clinic" or "the complaint department" ?

Rivian has been great to me. Under the circumstances they did everything they could. The tech worked in cold and rain to fix this. I can't ask for more.

 

[NY_Rob]

Rivian has been great to me. Under the circumstances they did everything they could. The tech worked in cold and rain to fix this. I can't ask for more.

They had a spare Vehicle Dynamics Module with them in the service van?

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

My R1S has been resuscitated. If you wish to bore yourself to death-read on:

Lessons learned are (1) never park your car in your driveway in such a manner that you could block your other cars. This will only validate your significant other's assumptions regarding your intellect; (2) good luck jumping your Rivian using the tailgate module (up the arse)-it just won't work, (3) don't warm up your car (at least until Rivian has fixed this issue).

Rivian SC got a mobile tech out around noon today, which was very fast. He replaced the 12v battery within 15 minutes. Btw-that battery is smaller than a bloody moped battery! Alas, that did not solve the issue. He then used his laptop to diagnose the problem. The culprit, ladies & gentlemen, was the VDM. For those of you that think that this is some sort of sexually transmitted disease-you are wrong. It is a Vehicle Dynamics Module (the tech told me). I have absolutely no bloody idea what this does. Only thing I know is that my car is now working. It is located near the foot pedals. He did something with his laptop and got down by the foot accelerator and did more things (technical jargon) whilst I worked hard at sipping my tea and asking useless questions to which I did not understand the answers to.

The VDM issue is apparently more common than we thought and Rivian is investigating it. Thank you all for your advice and great sense of humour.

Have you ever had issues with damp carpet? I know some people experienced this. Something to do the heater or AC not draining correctly. If this module is by the throttle pedal... moisture and electronics usually don't lead to happy endings.

Something like that might actually make national nightly news...."EV Truck maker recommends owners have a jump pack model XYZ to prevent being stranded if they leave their seat heaters on".

And another stock dip.

 

[iansriv]

They had a spare Vehicle Dynamics Module with them in the service van?

No. They did something to the existing one. He also said he would order one to keep in the SC, jut-in-case I had any other issues.

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