The 'glue' OP is describing is the conformal coating. It is basically clear acrylic paint to seal out moisture. The actual connections are the welds that are impossible without the pricey tool.
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brainhouston
Active Member
Ah good to know
since i've never seen old pack in person, i didn't know they cover those
Mine were all rock-solid (knock on wood). All of my issues were the boards themselves. It looked like the 4x redundancy in the later packs was an improvement, but now it looks like those connections are very fragile and are coming loose with impacts like collisions or even potholes. Hopefully that doesn't end up being a big deal.
Thanks for the advice. I did my best to check over everything, and all else looked okay. Voltages were within .1v of each other (all modules were 22.9v or 23v, the car was at about 61% charge when the battery was pulled), I tested the coolant connections with 1) just coolant in there and 2) some pressure from an air gun, and they held up fine. Removing the female end of the coolant quick connect from the car and attaching hoses makes things way easier. Visually, I didn't see anything egregious on the boards or other parts of the batteries, and I ended up putting a screw on the orange wires ( I forgot to mention that module 7 also had a loose sense wire, every other module and every other wire was still connected). I recoated all other wires. Be very careful when drilling the hole, aluminum is soft. Take your time and be gentle. Lithium reacts with air, so nature will gladly let you know if you 'screw' this step up. I also added some super glue and a liquid gasket with the theory that the cyanoacrylate can withstand the temps the battery gets to and liquid gasket will protect from vibrations (I still wonder about thermal cycles). Gasket will also protect from moisture damage, which I think is what made those two wires separate. Time will tell whether I made a mistake, hopefully I did not.
I have reattached the battery pack cover, which was a bit of a pain. Try to flatten out the pack as much as you can. Get a buddy if you can, and try to align holes the best as possible. If you are off even a tiny bit you will not know until you get to the bolt holes on the other end of the pack cover. Also, I started from the connector end and ended at the penthouse, which I think was a mistake, because the black metal piece where the nuts go on the penthouse end has a very small gap with the metal connectors that go between module 8 and module 7. I still managed to get it, but it was difficult. Go section by section, because if you try to do everything at once you will be rushed and miss things. Also, I the manuals say do not use an impact gun for any part of the battery (at least not for the major bolts), because the vibrations would be bad for the sensitive parts of the module. I neglected that part for the battery cover, hopefully that does not come to bite me later. I have yet to finish the penthouse and reinstall the battery, will get to that when I can.
I still am not fully sure how so much pure water got in there. I recall that one of the torx bolts on the bottom end of the battery pack was wet (this was the bolt closest to module 7). EIther way, I am going to go through carefully and make sure everything is seal up as best as possible. More to come.
I have reattached the battery pack cover, which was a bit of a pain. Try to flatten out the pack as much as you can. Get a buddy if you can, and try to align holes the best as possible. If you are off even a tiny bit you will not know until you get to the bolt holes on the other end of the pack cover. Also, I started from the connector end and ended at the penthouse, which I think was a mistake, because the black metal piece where the nuts go on the penthouse end has a very small gap with the metal connectors that go between module 8 and module 7. I still managed to get it, but it was difficult. Go section by section, because if you try to do everything at once you will be rushed and miss things. Also, I the manuals say do not use an impact gun for any part of the battery (at least not for the major bolts), because the vibrations would be bad for the sensitive parts of the module. I neglected that part for the battery cover, hopefully that does not come to bite me later. I have yet to finish the penthouse and reinstall the battery, will get to that when I can.
I still am not fully sure how so much pure water got in there. I recall that one of the torx bolts on the bottom end of the battery pack was wet (this was the bolt closest to module 7). EIther way, I am going to go through carefully and make sure everything is seal up as best as possible. More to come.
Attachments
Update- the car is working! I spent hours and many tubes of gasket sealing every possible entry for water. It was difficult to find a way to reliably pressure test the pack, so I just sealed everything. The front alignment bolt may have been where water previously got in because it was wet beforehand, but it is sealed now. Hopefully the fixes for the sensor wires last. Everything just started up fine without complaint once I reinstalled and added coolant. Thanks everyone for the advice. I have never owned or driven a Tesla before, the braking takes some getting used to!
I did not have to clear any, they resolved on their own. Will update on the car as needed.
Also, I thought of a different solution to the sensor wire issue, but unfortunately I thought of it after I closed the pack. One can solder a long wire to the sensor wire end and then attach that wire to the end of the respective brick the wire goes to. The reason to do this is because at the end of the brick there is metal to work with that is not directly over batteries, so a more permanent solution could be worked without concern that cells will be damaged
brainhouston
Active Member
Nice, it was the same for me
However other ppl had to clear the error so not sure what gives...
Yes, Russians already thought of that haha
Watch at 13:40
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