Killing OnStar:
Pulled the onstar fuse because fuk that noise, and shockingly the car doesn’t complain about it at all, the only way I can tell is the missing LTE bars on the screen & no light above the onstar button.
First real test drive:
I took it all the way to town & ran a bunch of errands. Put 82 miles on it that day and didn’t even use half the battery, this range is crazy compared to my prier EVs.
This was the gauges when I got back home “since last full charge” as the correct info for that trip, but gauge cluster has good range est & can kinda see the %.
I’ve been driving it like this for a couple weeks now. Unfortunately due to the car being newer I’m struggling to find a white bumper for it, I did find 2 option for the fender, but they’re both asking too much IMO and at this point I can take my time.
Cost so far with taxes:
$6,381 Purchase
$57.23 Coolant reservoir
$205.64 Radiator
$376.15 Passenger headlight assembly
$26.49 Screen protector
$7,046.51 Total
I’m currently playing with charging it via solar. I have a power station capable of 7kw of solar input & I have the solar to do it, but for now I’ll start with 2kw of solar & see how that goes.
Yup, slowly but surely.
Thanks! With a little work I think most people can do what I’ve done so far, it looks more daunting than it really is once you dig in.
I don’t know, the only father figure I had taught me about computers before he could teach me about cars before he passed. I can check/replace air in my tires, put water in the windshield wiper “canister?” And check the dipstick and read the damn level on it.
Just remember: most mechanics were the guys who quit high school early.
It’s literally not rocket science, and most of the time if you take your car to someone else for basic repair you’re getting it looked at by the 16-18 year old apprentice.
certainly want to hear some updates as time goes on. I love my civic Si and thankfully it does good on fuel, but premium fuel is costly… granted not as bad as diesel has gotten!
Plenty of cheap bolts in the states, and i’ve considered it once or twice.
Repairing a car is not that hard as long as you are not touching the drivetrain. And thats locked out on evs, you cant really fix battery or motors in any meaningful way
It depends on the EV. You can swap them out on Leafs, Sparks, Volts, & bolts that I know of.
On another kinda fun note, inside these batteries packs are littreally just giant phone cells or 18650 cells (3.7ish nominal voltage), and those don’t have much for brains so even if the pack is locked to the car you could just replace the cells.
With all this said, I certainly CAN NOT recommend anyone crack one of these batteries packs open. Most are 400v & that’s spells death if you make a mistake.
There are SOP for working with these batteries safely though.
Im surprised the car hasnt yelled at you for removing the radiator. I owned a volt years ago and that car refused to charge because the coolant level sensor went bad and had to be reprogrammed by the dealership(simply swapping a $15 sensor did not clear the code)
Love the project. I hadnt realized salvage value had come that low on EV’s
Wow, that is extremely crappy.
I’m happy to report I dont have any check engine lights. I do have an airbag light since the seatbelts went off (apparently that’s something that happens with newer cars)
And like I mentioned the car doesn’t even cry about the OnStar fuse being pulled. Very surprised by that one.
The fact that fount bumpers are unobtanium probably helps drag those values down. I haven’t checked with the steallership yet tho.
Also these cars new start at $28k which I feel is pretty good for the range.
30% off msrp is common practice fwiw. They’ll give that out to anyone working in collision(or a heartbeat). all the trim pieces are extra, which is why these new bumpers usually run $700+. Looking at the damage I can see why they would total it; my old shop would call that hit the money shot because of all the components that would need to be replaced through insurance(my shop would have written up the inverter, high voltage lines, harness, refrigerant lines and plenum; nevermind the parking sensors, recalibrating automatic cruise control, etc). You’d easily be looking at 9k of work and parts if written up for insurance.
Oh that’s extremely interesting. I’m sure this is one reason repairs cost so much these days, none of the high voltage lines, modules, or A/C lines have damage.
There was some damage on the sheathing for a low voltage harness but not to the wires themselves.
Also had a broken locking clip for a low voltage plug.
The bumpers are $1,800 on ebay with trim, I would consider this if they were in really good condition & white, but I would certainly reach out to a dealer first.
Hopefully I can use your inside scoop to insure I don’t get shafted. Thx.
I ran across this EV in the parking lot of Princess Auto in Calgary, Alberta. I wish I would have had time to talk to the owner but at least i grabbed a couple pics…
