I Saw A Leaf Up Close Today!

My biodiesel club had a spot at the San Luis Obispo Earth Day event, so I drove down in my Beetle TDI and set up to discuss biodiesel with the attendees.  I was parked in the alternative vehicle area along with a CNG Honda from Funride, a Honda CRZ hybrid and then up comes a Nissan Leaf!

It's bigger than I thought it would be.  The styling is great and there's lots of room inside.

The owner has had it for about 3 weeks and has driven it for 300 miles.  No problems at highway speed, going up hills, or handling.  It has the J1772 plug, plus a high-current DC charging plug widely used in Japan; hopefully it will become the DC standard over here.

There's a large multi-function display inside and a small joystick that controls park, forward and reverse.

The owner said he's received notification of a software bug fix.  The battery monitoring system sometimes switches into safe mode and won't restart when the air conditioner is turned on, giving a spike in power draw.  A small setback in what is otherwise a great project.

and More and More Parts

As a result of my threatened visit to the EA seminars or EA's improvements in cash flow, I got a flood of parts which is nearly everything I need to complete the job.  Here is the 120V AC - 120V DC charger.  If I find that 120V charging takes too long, I may buy a 240V AC charger and wire them in parallel.

Here is the contactor:

Here is the DC-DC converter.  It takes a feed off the battery pack and provides 12V to the existing systems in the car such as lights, radio, etc.

Now all I'm waiting for are the wire crimper, terminal blocks, battery box weather stripping and hood pins.  I don't know when these will arrive, if ever so I'm going to buy them from other sources so I can continue the project.

We're Suspended

It took the better part of 3 weekends to tear the suspension apart at each wheel, rebuild and reinstall.  The first thing I want to say is that EA's manual references the Haynes manual to take apart the front suspension.  It involves taking the brake caliper and the the hub off which exposes the wheel bearings.  If you have a deep desire to check wear on the bearings it's a good idea, but it's unnecessary.  It was much heavier to keep it all assembled, but with the aid of my floor jack it was much easier to do the work on the passenger side than the driver's side.  Anyway, let's dive in.

This is the driver's side, I removed the brake line (and didn't do a very good job of containing the brake fluid) and pulled off the previously-upgraded BMW brake caliper.  I checked the pads carefully and they looked almost new with lots of material left.

Then I took off the hub nut and pulled the brake disc and the brake disc cover.  The ball joint on both sides was in excellent condition.

When I got to this place, I noticed that the tie-rod end's rubber boot was shot, so I ordered two new ones from Pelican Parts.  Here is the old and new:

I unbolted the top of the strut from the inside of the front trunk, pulled the strut down and levered it out of the fender.

Here are the old and new struts.  The old ones were shot - you can see that when the arm is pressed down into the body, it doesn't pop back up again.  They needed to be replaced anyway.

There's a rubber bumper-stop located at the top of the strut body.  Both sides had one of the three lobes badly disintegrated.  I searched far and wide on the web for replacements, to no avail.  I stopped in at SGS Motorsports (formerly Strasse) in San Luis Obispo and asked the expert there.  He said unless the car had been lowered in the past, it's safe to just cut off the bad lobe.  It's meant as the final protector when the car completely bottoms out.  So here are the before and after:

Next I moved on to the torsion bars.  In this car, the torsion bar slides into the long tube at the bottom of the suspension A-arm.  This is different from my Nissan pickup where the torsion bars are exposed and mounted rearwards of the front suspension.  Here are the old and new, and you can see the difference in thickness, which is needed with all of the extra weight.

Here are shots of the front and the rear torsion bar mounts.

Here is the A-arm, pulled from the driver's side.  You can see the collection of tools it takes to get the job done.

Now comes the hard part.  Getting the rubber bushings out of the A-arm was a huge pain.  They've been jammed into place for 38 years and I had to use two different puller tools and a lot of lubrication.

Now I moved over to the passenger side, taking the whole suspension out without tearing the caliper, disc and bearings apart.
 

Getting the torsion bars in and out was easier on this side for some reason.

I cleaned off all of the gunk, then sanded off all of the rust down to smooth shiny metal.

And now everything is back in.  It doesn't look like much, but we've got new torsion bars, new torsion bar bearings, full lubrication, new struts, cut-down strut bumpers and new tie-rod ends.

I then polished the strut-top hardware and bolted everything back in place.

Now moving to the back the job is a lot easier.  The new shocks and springs are near total replacements, but there is some hardware that needs to be swapped over.  I can't do this job myself, as the spring has to be compressed and bolted on to the new shock, so I took it over to Morin Brothers and they got it done in less than an hour.  The new assemblies went in smoothly.

Whew!  A lot of work for no real visible improvement, but I tend to focus on infrastructure so it's rewarding to me, and now the car will support the rest of the effort.

My Second Visit with Electro Auto

I'm sorry this post has taken a long time to put up, but my visit with EA was followed by a two-week solar monitoring installation trip to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, north of San Francisco.  Then it took about two weeks to catch back up on life.

My visit was a direct result of the poor communication and broken promises I've experienced by EA.  As you can read in previous posts, I've been waiting for about 9 months for a significant number of expensive parts and have had no luck getting any kind of response to my calls and emails.  An alert reader pointed out that EA was beginning to hold monthly electric car seminars in San Jose.  I emailed EA that I was going to drive up on the day of their March seminar and tell their attendees what kind of business they're running.  I also wanted parts or the cash equivalent refunded so I could buy them from other suppliers.  I also threatened to take them to court.

This got a response from Shari:

"The seminar would not be an appropriate time and place for this discussion.  When we are doing a seminar, our mental focus is completely on that course material, and even the "break" times are pretty much filled with answering student questions."  "The past couple years have been extraordinarily brutal, financially.  We went from $xx gross WEEKLY sales to the same amount as gross QUARTERLY sales.  We went from us plus a staff of 3 full timers and 5 part timers to just the two of us.  From what we hear from our suppliers, our situation was not unusual during this difficult time.  Finally, this spring, we are seeing signs of recovery, and we are pursuing every avenue of cash flow we can find in order to get caught up on our obligations, able to carry inventory, and to deliver promptly.  I believe we can be at that point this summer."

Then a flurry of parts started arriving, including the struts, shocks, springs, torsion bars and bushings, charger, DC/DC converter and contactor.  Maybe they were reacting to having income from the seminars, but maybe I was just the squeakiest wheel and I could affect their business by protesting in front of the following seminars.  I decided I was still going to go and told Shari by email.

On the morning of March 19, I left home around 6 AM and arrived at the seminar location in San Jose at about 9:30.  Nobody was there yet so I waited in the rain outside the building.  After a while I saw Mike from EA park and start walking towards the building.  He saw me and then recognized me and nearly stopped in the street, but kept walking to me.  Now I'm going to try to describe our conversation.  I'm sure won't get it exactly right, so any mistakes are mine.  You'll get the gist of the discussion.

I said "Morning Mike, remember me?"  He said he did and immediately got very defensive.  He asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted the rest of my parts for the car.  He said I just got a big shipment of parts, what was I doing there.  I explained that I hadn't had any email or phone calls returned in months.  He said, literally, "What do you want me to do, slit my wrists?".  I said of course I don't want that, but I do want you to understand that you owe a lot of people parts that they've paid for and haven't received.  He then said "Who made you God?".  I tried to stay calm and factual, so I said "Of course I'm not God, but a lot of people have contacted me because they are waiting for parts too."  He then started describing their financial problems.  He tried to get me to understand the difficulties of running a small business.  He asked me what I did for a living and I told him I was an engineer.  He then asked if I ever had to make a payroll and I said yes.  He then looked at me like I've been through the same kind of situation.  They have had some very bad problems due to the economy and a big drop in orders, but now with the seminars they have money coming in and are working to ship the backlog of waiting parts.  I said I'm happy that things are turning around, but you have a lot of very unhappy customers out there.  He told me a story that one of his former employees told him he was a "shitty manager", and it's hard to run a business if you're only good at building car designs.  I agreed that it's hard to be good at many different things, but I thought that Shari was handling the business side.  He just sighed.  He completely changed his attitude and seemed like all the air had come out of him and he was beaten down by the circumstances of the last year or so.

I then tried to take a different tack and said that as long as parts were flowing again, I would suggest that he work on communicating with his customers.  Return emails promptly and completely, answer the phone and tell the truth.  I pointed out the phone number listed on the web site wasn't correct and Shari's packing slip emails actually say

" If you have any questions about your order, please contact Bill Lentfer at bill@electroauto.com or 831-251-8656. He will get back to you by the next business day at the latest."  

The problem is Bill doesn't work for them anymore and doesn't respond at all at that email or phone number.  They need to correct everything and go back to notify all customers what the status of their parts is.  I asked him why they didn't simply answer the phone.  He mumbled something about "You just don't understand".  I later realized that they were probably getting calls from collection agencies and other nasty people and were

I said that I hoped I had helped him understand what he was putting his paying customers through, and to ship parts ASAP and stay in effective communication.  He thanked me for having a calm conversation about the issues and admitted when he saw me standing on the sidewalk "you scared the shit out of me."  I told him I was sorry that it had come to this, but I ran out of options, and I was lucky that I was within driving distance, something that many of his other customers didn't have the luxury of.  We shook hands and he went inside and I got in my car and drove up to start on my solar installation.

I'm hoping that other people have been contacted or have had some parts show up.  I know one person making one visit isn't going to change the world, but I hope it had some small effect.  Please let me know if you've been contacted or received some parts in the last month or so.  Fingers crossed!

Another Day Another Box of Parts

Today I got a box with the torsion bars and control arm bushings.  These are replacements for the ones already installed in the front suspension, but I'm guessing they're heavier gauge to keep the car flatter through a turn, given the additional weight.

Shari says I already have the engine loom, so that leaves the contactor (on the way), DC/DC converter (on the way), charger (on the way), wire crimper, high current terminal blocks, battery box weather stripping and hood pins.

I have been contacted by another person who's been waiting for a costly replacement part for nearly two years.  Shari definitely doesn't want me to go to the seminar but I feel it's the only leverage I (and through me other customers) have.

The Parts are Rolling In

It looks like the pressure I put on ElectroAuto is paying off.  In the past week I received three emails and four boxes of parts.  I'm still going up to their seminar on Saturday because I want to talk with them face to face and explain the difficulties involved in being their customer.  And it's not just about me, but about all of the other customers waiting for parts.  This is what I got:

Motor Controller:

Heavy cable:

Front shocks and rear struts:

and the rear springs.  Here you see the old and new side by side.  It's interesting that the car already had aftermarket KYB struts which are being replaced by a very similar model KYB model.  The car had been autocrossed and I noticed that the front brakes have already been upgraded to BMW 3-series discs and calipers.  I'm sure the new struts are spec'd for the heavier load.

In this closeup, you can see the new spring is a significantly heavier gauge steel.  I looked for a load marking but couldn't see anything.  It was surprisingly easy to remove the old units.  Just remember to loosen the top nut before removing the huge bolt in the bottom.

Now off to Gary's so he can use his spring compressor to remove the top plate from the old strut and build the new one up.

According to EA, I'm due to receive the contactor, DC/DC converter, charger, torsion bars, control arm bushings this week or early next week.  This would only leave the wire crimper, engine loom, terminal blocks, battery box weather stripping and hood pins.

Frustration With Electro Automotive for Missing Parts

I just don't understand what EA is doing.  They're happy to make promises and take your money but after that, it's unreturned emails & voicemails and a dribble of parts if you're lucky.


It's been 9 months for me and I'm still waiting for nearly $6K worth of parts.  I've threatened legal action - nothing.  My last email to them was that I would sit outside the building at their event in March in San Jose and hand out flyers warning people not to buy their system - no response.  My frustration level is off the charts right now and I'm going to do it.  Anybody else within driving distance is welcome to join me on Saturday March 19.

http://www.electroauto.com/3DaySeminar.shtml
 

If you're a paying customer of EA and are still waiting for parts, please email me at mwbrown42@gmail.com with your name, when you placed your initial order, and an estimated value of the parts you're still waiting for.  If you have all of your parts now but had shipping delays or communication issues, let me know too.  I'll put all of our names on the flyer to explain the situation of current paying customers.

I posted this notice to the 914EV forum, and 15 minutes later I have confirmation of over $20K of waiting orders from 3 people.  I'll keep this updated as the event date approaches.

Porsche Club Poker Run to the Pozo Saloon

The Porsche club has a lot of great activities and I've started to participate as I can, even with a 914 (they don't seem to mind too much) and it's up on blocks.  They do think it's cool that I'm doing the electric conversion and most read about my work in the chapter newsletter last fall.

Last Sunday the club had a poker run from Atascadero to Sunday brunch at the Pozo Saloon.  We went on a lot of windy roads in Templeton, Paso Robles, Shandon, Creston and Pozo.  It's called a poker run because we were given 5 cards in a sealed envelope at the start.  There were two checkpoints where you could exchange any cards to improve your hand.  We ended up with three-of-a-kind-3s, but it wasn't good enough for a prize.  The drive took about 2 hours.  I was lucky to be invited as a passenger / navigator in Ken Finney's 2007 Carrera S.  What a magnificently-handling car.  I figured we were going into the ditch on several occasions but Ken's confidence in his brakes and foot-wide tires was spot on.  Ken upgraded several parts of his car at Gary's shop.  Sadly G-Rides is no more due to the economy but he went out with a great reputation in the Porsche and performance car fraternity.

Here is Ken and some pictures of the other 20 or so Porsches in the event.

Front and Saddlebag Battery Racks

Having attacked the engine battery rack, I moved to the front.  Simple, right?  Just drop it in, drill a few holes and stick in some bolts.  Well, close but no EA cigar!

I positioned the rack in the compartment and found that no matter what I did, there is a 1" gap between the front mounting tabs and the bottom of the car.

A helpful person on the 914EV forum said he also had a gap that he filled with a long bolt and a stack of washers.  I will do the same with some washers and a short tube.

Now we move on to the excitement of the saddlebag battery racks.  Surprisingly, it went very smoothly.  I used the templates to mark the outline and drill the mounting holes.

I then cut the shape out with a jigsaw with a metal blade.  I taped the opening to avoid marring the surrounding paint.  It took several test fittings and trimmings to get the rack to fit, then I filed the opening smooth.

Due to the ribs, EA supplies shims to give a level surface for the rack to mount to.

Luckily for me, Lowes carries the special metallized silicone specified in the EA manual.  It said to use a lot of sealant around the hole and the bottom of the rack to make a complete seal.  Well I went way over the edge on the first mount and had a lot of nasty cleanup.  I used significantly less on the second rack and it went in nicely.  I used a lot of paper towels to clean up the excess, on the top and bottom of the hole, and mineral spirits to get it perfect.  I was surprised to find that the bottom of the rack is only about 3/8" above the CV joint bracket where it bolts to the transmission.  You can see the CV boots below.  Neither of these should move while driving so theoretically it should be fine, but I may end up putting in some spacers to lower the transmission a smidge.

I also added the hydrogen gas vent to the rear trunk compartment.  The battery boxes will have tubing and fans installed to get rid of the gas generated by the batteries as they do their battery thing.

Day of Destruction - Engine Battery Rack Prep

Before I get to the destruction, I wanted to show the result of prepping and finishing the metal around the interior of the passenger compartment.  If you go back a bit in time, you'll see that the car was caught in the rain with bare metal exposed in the passenger compartment.  I would have thought Rainbow would have blasted, primed and painted the compartment, but it didn't happen.  I had to scrape off most of the existing rubberized coating to expose the rusty parts.  I then treated it with my magic rusty solution.  I then used about 6 cans of 3M rubberized undercoating spray.  Trust me, a can doesn't go very far.  It's basically thinned tar.  I masked off the area, then sprayed multiple coats and I think the final result looks great.  I've dealt with the rust, and added a temperature stabilization and noise reduction layer.

Now, on to the destruction.  During the tear down, I read the EA directions and it said remove the engine cover release bracket so the engine bay battery rack will fit.  So I unbolted the catch mechanism from the mount welded to the rear of the rear engine firewall.  The car was then painted and now I come to realize, with some advice from the helpful folks on the 914EV forum, that I was meant to remove the mount too, and the hard tube that shepherds the release cable from the passenger compartment!  This was going to be ugly, given the delicate nature of removing a welded metal bracket from a newly painted area.  You can see the tube curving in from the right and attaching to the mount.

The tube is very stiff and tack welded to the frame as it comes out of the passenger compartment, so I decided to cut it off, and I'll pop a small rubber cap on later.

Here's a closeup of the mount we need to remove.  I taped off the areas I was likely to bang into for a little protection.  I had to climb inside the engine compartment to get the proper access.

With the use of a sawzall, jigsaw with a metal blade and angle grinder, the mount is now gone.  I painted it with rust fluid and will prime and paint to match the body later.  It came off better than I thought it would.

I tried a test fitting of the battery rack and immediately found the original 12V battery tray needs to be removed too.  I just missed that in the instructions.

I did manage to remove it, with the help of the tools listed above.  I didn't take an after-picture, so I'll put that up later.  The good thing is when I got the tray out, I found a strip of rust under the horizontal tab of metal you can see welded to the vertical panel.  This would have been a rust farm in the future.  They weren't able to reach it with the blaster and the primer and paint couldn't get up underneath well enough.  I slathered it with rust solution and it's in good shape now.