PSA: Don't leave seatbelts connected

[Stickboy46]

I'm sure some of you know this, but just as a PSA. Don't leave anything connected to your seat belts. I went out of town this weekend and took my dogs to a friends before I left. I left the dog seatbelt harness plugged in while I was gone. I was gone for 4 days. Apparently when something is connected to the seatbelts, the truck doesn't shut off .. like at all. It drained my battery within a day and now 4 days later when I get back, I can't even get the charge door open. I worked with the call center last night and got the truck jumped enough to get the door open, but could never get it to start charging from the wall. By the time I was done working with them, the truck is completely dead to the point that even a jump wont turn anything on. I'm being told it will take at least a week for someone to come look and they might have to tow it 2.5 hours to the service center. Even better, they are telling me its not a warranty issue so all towing and rentals are my costs. Even though its an obvious design flaw that the truck would let itself drain down to inoperable state in 4 days.

So yea, never leave anything plugged into the seatbelt

As a completely related question: Anyone know how to directly get in touch with Rivian Corporate?

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[Dark-Fx]

PSAs don't work.
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/psa-front-seat-belts-and-auto-off.20405/

 

[Stickboy46]

PSAs don't work.
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/psa-front-seat-belts-and-auto-off.20405/

Maybe, maybe not .. i'm still gonna vent and hopefully save 1 person the trouble.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Maybe, maybe not .. i'm still gonna vent and hopefully save 1 person the trouble.

IMO Rivian needs to send notifications about the vehicle still being left on every hour or something, especially once the battery starts getting low. Would be annoying if you meant to but there are probably more situations where you didn't.

 

[COdogman]

I'm sure some of you know this, but just as a PSA. Don't leave anything connected to your seat belts. I went out of town this weekend and took my dogs to a friends before I left. I left the dog seatbelt harness plugged in while I was gone. I was gone for 4 days. Apparently when something is connected to the seatbelts, the truck doesn't shut off .. like at all. It drained my battery within a day and now 4 days later when I get back, I can't even get the charge door open. I worked with the call center last night and got the truck jumped enough to get the door open, but could never get it to start charging from the wall. By the time I was done working with them, the truck is completely dead to the point that even a jump wont turn anything on. I'm being told it will take at least a week for someone to come look and they might have to tow it 2.5 hours to the service center. Even better, they are telling me its not a warranty issue so all towing and rentals are my costs. Even though its an obvious design flaw that the truck would let itself drain down to inoperable state in 4 days.

So yea, never leave anything plugged into the seatbelt

As a completely related question: Anyone know how to directly get in touch with Rivian Corporate?

That would be such an easy thing to forget, especially when trying to get out of town.

It does seem like there should be some sort of timer that starts when the seatbelt (or anything else that can cause battery drain) is plugged in, and after an amount of time we choose it could notify us that an accessory is still plugged in causing battery drain. Or it just stops whichever function is using that power if the vehicle is parked.

 

[rhuber]

Been there. If you can get the front trunk open and hook a battery charger up to the battery or batteries (depending on whether it has one or two) you can recover. The key is to charge them up fully and then pull the HV cut loop (look it up), and then disconnect one or both 12v for 30 seconds. Then reconnect the cut loop connector, and then reconnect the 12v batt(s). Basically a hard reboot.

tinkering with my truck, I’ve had to do this more than once. The root cause of your issue is that some ecus go offline when power is lost and never return unless you completely pull 12v. The cut loop needs to be removed to prevent the truck dcdc converter from stepping in to keep the 12v system working when you disconnect the 12v batts.

if you’re not comfortable doing this, don’t.. but considering the cost and your current situation, I wanted to give you the info and option.

The important takeaway here is that simply charging the 12v system back up is not always enough to recover when an ecu drops off due to low voltage. You have to force a reboot.

 

[Stickboy46]

That would be such an easy thing to forget, especially when trying to get out of town.

It does seem like there should be some sort of timer that starts when the seatbelt (or anything else that can cause battery drain) is plugged in, and after an amount of time we choose it could notify us that an accessory is still plugged in causing battery drain. Or it just stops whichever function is using that power if the vehicle is parked.

I fail to see why a truck would stay 100% running without any user input, movement, weight detection for over 24 hours .. After a couple hours it should go to sleep. Even worse, it was warning me on the app, but I was already out of town with no way to tell it to sleep from the app.

 

[Stickboy46]

Been there. If you can get the front trunk open and hook a battery charger up to the battery or batteries (depending on whether it has one or two) you can recover. The key is to charge them up fully and then pull the HV cut loop (look it up), and then disconnect one or both 12v for 30 seconds. Then reconnect the cut loop connector, and then reconnect the 12v batt(s). Basically a hard reboot.

tinkering with my truck, I’ve had to do this more than once. The root cause of your issue is that some ecus go offline when power is lost and never return unless you completely pull 12v. The cut loop needs to be removed to prevent the truck dcdc converter from stepping in to keep the 12v system working when you disconnect the 12v batts.

if you’re not comfortable doing this, don’t.. but considering the cost and your current situation, I wanted to give you the info and option.

The Rivian service center just called and said they are going to try to get a tech sent to me today to replace the 12Vs .. which is great .. but they still are adamant this isn't a warranty issue. I'll let them fix the truck then I'm raising hell with corporate. This is 100% a design flaw that should be covered under warranty.

 

[rhuber]

The Rivian service center just called and said they are going to try to get a tech sent to me today to replace the 12Vs .. which is great .. but they still are adamant this isn't a warranty issue. I'll let them fix the truck then I'm raising hell with corporate. This is 100% a design flaw that should be covered under warranty.

Replacing the batteries is standard procedure when they are drained low enough, because there is the possibility they are damaged. In my experience they recover fine, but I understand why they prefer to not take a chance.

I’m not going to comment on whether it is okay or not okay to consider this non-warranty, but the reason the vehicle does it is because it assumes an occupant is inside and uses every kWh it has to stay running for that occupant. I do agree a mobile notification would be a good thing…

 

[biker1284]

What do you do with a carseat? Or is this just front belts?

 

[Stickboy46]

Replacing the batteries is standard procedure when they are drained low enough, because there is the possibility they are damaged. In my experience they recover fine, but I understand why they prefer to not take a chance.

I’m not going to comment on whether it is okay or not okay to consider this non-warranty, but the reason the vehicle does it is because it assumes an occupant is inside and uses every kWh it has to stay running for that occupant. I do agree a mobile notification would be a good thing…

I agree it should stay running for a period of time... but indefinite? and to a battery level that leaves the truck inoperable? No. That's a 100% a design flaw. There are lots of sensors on this truck. There are many ways to make sure it needs to stay running besides just a seatbelt latch. Most cars, require you to reinput after a bit. There is also the dog mode for a reason...

 

[rhuber]

I am going to caveat this with saying that I know you’re frustrated and with good reason, and I agree that a notification should exist. Just be prepared for the manual to be cited, despite most people never reading it, myself included.

Also, give rivian a chance to do the nice thing and see what happens. They understand the vehicles have quirks and may just do it for free.

I am curious if this was a front belt? Those are the only ones I’ve known to keep the vehicle awake indefinitely.

 

[Stickboy46]

I am going to caveat this with saying that I know you’re frustrated and with good reason, and I agree that a notification should exist. Just be prepared for the manual to be cited, despite most people never reading it, myself included.

Also, give rivian a chance to do the nice thing and see what happens. They understand the vehicles have quirks and may just do it for free.

I am curious if this was a front belt? Those are the only ones I’ve known to keep the vehicle awake indefinitely.

It can be in the manual and also be a design flaw. Yet again, zero logical reason why a seatbelt buckled should keep the truck running for days at a time and to the point that it literally cripples the truck. There HAS to be a safety mechanism. For instance, on Tesla's many of the "maintain" features like cabin overheat protection shut off after it reaches a low battery state. They need to implement that here. It should turn off and go to full sleep at 10-15% or something like that. Then you would need to manually override that.

They are semi taking care of it. They are getting me back on the road today (hopefully) as they have dispatched a tech to work on it (i'm 2.5 hours from the service center). So I do appreciate them helping with that. That part is really good customer service. I just see zero reason this shouldn't be a warranty issue.

 

[rhuber]

I am not trying to litigate this with you. I don’t have an opinion on whether it is or is not a warranty issue. I am very familiar with Teslas. I only came here to give you the procedures to fix it yourself, if you chose to.

Genuinely curious if this was a front belt or not. It would be helpful info to me personally, because I depend on this behavior. Was it a front belt or a rear one?

 

[Stickboy46]

I am not trying to litigate this with you. I don’t have an opinion on whether it is or is not a warranty issue. I am very familiar with Teslas. I only came here to give you the procedures to fix it yourself, if you chose to.

Genuinely curious if this was a front belt or not. It would be helpful info to me personally, because I depend on this behavior. Was it a front belt or a rear one?

Yea, i know you are just providing useful input. I appreciate it.

And yes it was the front passenger belt which is where my Aussie like to ride.

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