"New" 12V Battery Jump Start process update from Rivian

[Jim4]

So I’m able to get the screens back on and the doors unlocked while I’m connected to my ICE battery to the rear wires of the R1S. It’s been a good 30-40 mins and the charger door and frunk still won’t open.

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[Olsonsolar]

This whole 12V battery crap is a huge miss on Rivian. Battery(batteries) not easily replaceable, no physical way to get in the vehicle, no way to know if battery(batteries) are going bad, Reports that the jump leads need higher voltage than most portable packs can provide. These batteries should be lasting at least 4 years. This is one of my biggest concerns is getting in the boonies and having a 12V problem.

 

[CBRacerX]

So I’m able to get the screens back on and the doors unlocked while I’m connected to my ICE battery to the rear wires of the R1S. It’s been a good 30-40 mins and the charger door and frunk still won’t open.

Might be time to use the manual process to open the frunk.

 

[Olsonsolar]

Might be time to use the manual process to open the frunk.

People need to check that option out before they need it. I did and it is a total pain in the ass to get in there. I did it in the comfort of my cement floor garage. Can't imagine trying to do it in unfavorable conditions. But like I said people need to check it out before they need to do it for real.

 

[LL75]

This whole 12V battery crap is a huge miss on Rivian. Battery(batteries) not easily replaceable, no physical way to get in the vehicle, no way to know if battery(batteries) are going bad, Reports that the jump leads need higher voltage than most portable packs can provide. These batteries should be lasting at least 4 years. This is one of my biggest concerns is getting in the boonies and having a 12V problem.

Yes. Rivian did have a bad batches of 12V batteries, but to be fair. 12V issues happened to Tesla as well. I went thru it personally.

 

[Yossarian]

Did they not realize there's a pair of jumper cable connections directly to the right of the hitch behind that round plastic cover, making their trailer connector cable unnecessary?

Perhaps the reason they used an adapter for the 7-pin port is because the auxiliary/12v charging lead (number 4) is always live vs the lead on the jumper cable connection that is not and requires upward of 30 amps to open the connection?

 

[blacknight]

Perhaps a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway. Do the 2025+ (Gen 2) R1's still use a 12V lead-acid battery or has Rivian switched it to Lithium-Ion?

Thanks!

 

[Yossarian]

Assuming that it turns out that keeping the 12v happily charged is effective in reducing or even eliminating VD, I wonder if a small portable charging system would be worthwhile.

What I have in mind is similar to what I posted in an earlier rumination on this topic: flexible solar panels that can be affixed to the roof, or in the case or the R1T, the truck bed or even the tonneau cover. Since the PV panels would only work during daylight hours, we could add a small LFP storage battery to the setup.

The cost could be pretty reasonable assuming that a 200 watt system would work. A pair of generic 100w PV panels is about $100, a 12V 20Ah LiFePO4 with BMS can be had for little as $70 and a PVM solar charge controller for about $20. Add in the wire and miscellaneous hardware needed and your are right around $225. I don't really know if a 20Ah battery is sufficient, but even if you needed to use a Grp 31 battery (similar to the Rivian 12v battery), LFP variants of those can be had for about $200. You can get a Grp 31 lead-acid AGM for half that though.

This kind of setup may make sense for folks taking their Rivian's out on BLM lands or for those who leave their vehicle unattended for long periods. I envision using the cross bar ports to anchor the panels (or the tie-downs if you use the truck bed), so you could easily add a cable and lock to deter thieves. This of course assumes the battery and controller are in the frunk or the gear tunnel.

Just speciation/rumination on my part at the moment. Will do the actual calculations and planning after those experimenting with the 12v charging hypothesis confirm it.

 

[mcarver316]

This whole 12V battery crap is a huge miss on Rivian. Battery(batteries) not easily replaceable, no physical way to get in the vehicle, no way to know if battery(batteries) are going bad, Reports that the jump leads need higher voltage than most portable packs can provide. These batteries should be lasting at least 4 years. This is one of my biggest concerns is getting in the boonies and having a 12V problem.

Rivian should at least include a 12V battery health status widget on the dash center console- and yes, make the 12V battery easily accessible in future refresh.

 

[dradam]

I have been down this rabbit hole. Only one 12V in my vehicle.
If HV is dead I am Sol.
If 12 V dies but HV has power I have yet to find a charger for the road that will bring it back to life, although a jump start may get me in the car I do not belive it would start it.

I keep a tool kit in my trailer hitch to manually get into the frunk and a set of tools there to replace the 12V.

Only problem is that I don't have an extra 12V. Rivian would not sell me one ( I checked at my local SC). I don't like what I am hearing about Ommhu quality.

Still looking for a drop in replacement with the terminals in the correct position to keep in the frunk for road trips. TIA

 

[ohseedee]

Assuming that it turns out that keeping the 12v happily charged is effective in reducing or even eliminating VD, I wonder if a small portable charging system would be worthwhile.

What I have in mind is similar to what I posted in an earlier rumination on this topic: flexible solar panels that can be affixed to the roof, or in the case or the R1T, the truck bed or even the tonneau cover. Since the PV panels would only work during daylight hours, we could add a small LFP storage battery to the setup.

The cost could be pretty reasonable assuming that a 200 watt system would work. A pair of generic 100w PV panels is about $100, a 12V 20Ah LiFePO4 with BMS can be had for little as $70 and a PVM solar charge controller for about $20. Add in the wire and miscellaneous hardware needed and your are right around $225. I don't really know if a 20Ah battery is sufficient, but even if you needed to use a Grp 31 battery (similar to the Rivian 12v battery), LFP variants of those can be had for about $200. You can get a Grp 31 lead-acid AGM for half that though.

This kind of setup may make sense for folks taking their Rivian's out on BLM lands or for those who leave their vehicle unattended for long periods. I envision using the cross bar ports to anchor the panels (or the tie-downs if you use the truck bed), so you could easily add a cable and lock to deter thieves. This of course assumes the battery and controller are in the frunk or the gear tunnel.

Just speciation/rumination on my part at the moment. Will do the actual calculations and planning after those experimenting with the 12v charging hypothesis confirm it.

I've been playing with a similar idea in my head for a while. However, I was thinking the charge controller would be used to keep the Rivian battery charged vs the extra LifeP04. By keeping the Rivian 12v "topped off" via the solar you'd most likely improve vampire drain and reduce the risk of battery failure overall.

The extra LifeP04 I was thinking could live in the bed of my R1T but connected to a 120v battery tender. LiFePO4 has a decent self-life, so I wouldn't need to keep the battery tender on 24/7, but every time you did use the inverter it would keep the extra battery healthy.

Then I'd run battery leads from the backup battery in the bed down to the jump leads near the hitch (pretty easy to do in the R1T via the goose neck flap). If by chance the Rivian battery did die, I could just pop open the jump lead door and connect the jump leads to the extra battery. In theory, if you didn't have the 2nd 12v battery (I do) and/or the secondary battery was fine, you could probably just drive like normal with the extra battery serving as your primary long enough to get out of trouble (i.e. no need to wait for it to charge).

I'm thinking about these as two independent setups: #1 to avoid 12v failure and battery drain and #2 a way to get back on the road during a 12v failure. I think I'd probably start with #2.

The only issue is most of this is rather impossible to test as a way to avoid failure and/or provide a safe way to get back on the road. That said, it's pretty non-invasive for the R1T as the solar could mount over the bed cover and wires could be routed without any holes. So I might get around to trying it.

 

[Rivianero]

Just thought I would add on my experience jump starting my late 2023 R1T...

Bought mine at auction. It had been in the lot since May, delivered to my place on a carrier in November. Dead brick not at all responsive to either key fob or card. Driver had expectation that I would have a handy forklift available to unload the vehicle.

With some luck I had obsessed about the R1T while waiting for delivery and read through all of the published manuals, so I knew about the jump leads near the tow hitch. Was able to access them, but the driver's jump box didn't work. As others have commented, these "smart" jump boxes interpret no current as no connection so don't power up. We were able to power up the 12v system with good ol' dumb jumper cables from my car. That enabled us access to the interior and the ability to open the frunk.

I took the driver's jump box and connected it to the 12v battery in the frunk, and was able to close the frunk. This allowed me to disconnect the jump cables from the rear leads. Even though the HV battery showed 0%, I was able to drive the R1T off the carrier and 1/4 mile to my driveway where it quit within reach of my L2 charger... albeit in turtle mode with every possible error on the dash.


I did end up replacing the struggling OEM 12v battery with a $60 Lithium off Amazon. Not sure if that will be my final solution, but it's driving OK at the moment. Because my R1T was marked as salvage, Rivian has disavowed it, so no $800 battery replacements for me. (Actually, that would be closer to $1600, since Rivian has stated they would need to do a $780 "salvage inspection" to ensure the vehicle is safe for their techs to work on it at all.)


My backup kit includes:

• An A23 12v battery in a water-tight pouch, zip tied to the rear 12v leads. Not yet tested, but hoping this would provide enough of a spark to allow popping the frunk.
• A small Lithium jumper box, stored in the bottom of the frunk, that I can connect to the 12v battery. As others have said, if there is juice in the HV system, the vehicle will use some to charge a low 12v battery. Not quite sure if that will kick in if my jumper box is connected. My R1T is the kind with one 12v battery + capacitor. I'm thinking the capacitor might bridge to allow the system to stay on long enough so that the HV charging would kick in when the jump box is removed.

None of this is yet proven. Happily it has not bricked. I just would rather have something to try rather than sit there on my hands if it does happen.

Anyway, for those of you wondering, any motorist with a pair of normal jumper cables is your best friend in this situation.

 

[good2go]

Add me to the suddenly bricked truck via 12v death club. It’s inconvenient and I wish Rivian had a user/field fix for this since it can happen without warning. I was in super remote off-road country just two days prior

Last known SOC was 68% at 3:04am. Rivian believes replacing the 12v battery and connecting the vehicle to my L2 charger should remedy the issue. A mobile tech is scheduled tomorrow afternoon.

Buttermilk Country Road west of Bishop, CA.

Where can you see SOC? How did you know it was at 68%?

 

[agame32]

Where can you see SOC? How did you know it was at 68%?

IIRC the app was showing that SOC and had a small message underneath with the “as of” message.

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