[WIP] Citroen Saxo Electrique

[manny]

Bought a Saxo electrique december of 2018 with a burned collector on the dc motor.

Original:

• Motor: Leroy-somer SA-13 11kW (20kW max) separately excited dc motor
• Batteries: SAFT STM 5-100 nickel-cadmium 20x6V 120V nominal
• Controler: 200A dc with 11A for excitation
• Charger: 3kW (integrated in Controller)
• DCDC: 14.1V 70A (integrated in Controller)
• Heater: Webasto Thermo Top gasoline 5kW
• Power steering: electro hydraulic
• Power brakes: vacuumpomp with vacuum switch

Current:

• Motor: MES-dea AC induction 42kW (from a Peugeot Partner Venturi)
• Batteries: LEV-50 2p44s (from a Peugeot ION)
• Controler: MES-dea TIM600 (original controller bypassed)
• Charger: original (changed settings)
• DCDC: original
• Heater: original
• Power steering: original
• Power brakes: MES-dea vacuumpomp

Plans:

• Motor: Volvo V60 phev 50Kw viewtopic.php?t=3859
• Batteries: Peugeot E208 battery pack 108S viewtopic.php?t=2465
• Controler: Volvo XC90 with Openinverter pcb/software viewtopic.php?t=3675
• Charger: Audi e-tron 11kw 3 phase (MG ZS 7.2kW backup plan)
• DCDC: Integrated in Controller (have this working at 13.5V possibly adjustable)
• Heater: Not sure maybe a leaf heater because I have one
• Power steering: Opel Corsa powered steering column
• Power brakes: i-booster form a Toyota Yaris
• Fast charging: 50kW CCS

So this is not a conversion but more and upgrade. The goal is for me to be able to sell the gasoline saxo I still have for the longer distance trips.

Over the last year I have bought all parts listed, connectors, pins and wire. At this moment I have the first version of the BMS pcb working on the E208 battery, the first version of the pcb with Openinverter running the XC90 controller and spinning the motor. Have a ZombieVerter VCU to control this mismatch of parts.

Currently designing the battery boxes. One in the back unter the car with 10 modules. It is a tight fit but I think it will fit. And one in the front with 8 modules.

[manny]

Got two weeks off work. So i could make some progress.

First removed the motor, inverter, vacuumpomp, driveshafts, battery boxes, electronics box, 12V battery and the heater.

Next, see if the Volvo motor will fit. Happy to report that it does. I have flipped the motor around so that the mounting holes line up better.

At the rear of the motor I mounted two rubber mounts normally used for the lower control arm. used a length of 20mm round bar turned down the ends to fit in the rubbers and a M12 thread on the end. Cut a piece of steel box section to bolt to the motor and welded to the round bar.

rear mount

On the front of the motor another two lower control arm rubbers are mounted to the cross brace. Made a plate to mount the motor to the rubbers. The lower control arm rubbers have a 17mm bore that is not a standard bolt size so a made a set of bolts on the lathe with a M12 on the end.

lower control arm rubbers

frond mount

Of course the drive shaft do not fit. Got a set of drive shafts with the V60 motor. Ordered a pair of new SKF drive shafts for the Saxo. Cut them and welded them together. I am not sure if I run with the welded drive shafts or get a set made. The previous set up had welded drive shafts that lasted 50.000 km.

drive shafts

From top to bottom: Saxo drive shaft, my hack job, Volvo drive shaft.

It is a tight fit but it's in. I am very happy that it fits and I have enough space for the battery box.

[manny]

Have made some good progres.

EPAS:
Originale I bought a Corsa power steering column. This is way to big, the column is to long and the motor is to big to fit under the dash. After some searching online I ordered a steering column out of a Renault Clio II which is much closer in size to the Saxo column.

Cut and welded the two steering columns to make one that will fit under the dash. Did loos the steering lock, but I think that it will be fine without. I did not get a universal joint with the steering column, ordered a random steering shaft that looked good. The two outer joins where to big, but the inner joint to change the length of the shaft fitted perfect. Hammered the joints apart, and mixed the old and the new. Luckily the bearing size and spacing are the same.

To resist the torque from the column, made a bracket to bolt the column to steering wheel supports.

Brakes:
I fitted the Ebooster a while ago. Had to order brake line and fittings to connect all the lines. The original master cylinder had 4 ports. The new cylinder has just 2 ports because all modern cars have ABS. The Saxo does not have ABS, to make the lines work I bought 2 T-pieces. The original brake lines are 5mm and have M10 nuts. The new cylinder has M12 thread for 8mm pipe. Found some M12 nuts for 5mm pipe.

Mounted the inverter to the firewall and cross brace.

Next batteries

[mike77cos]

I keep seeing these and wonder if they would make a good project, and you are showing that they do!

[manny]

Some time ago I ordered aluminium plates for the battery cooling. Its 3 plates glued and screwed together.

The battery modules bolt to this plate on 20mm standoffs like in the original battery box. There will be modules mounted on top and bottom. A set screw connects the standoffs together through the plates.

Because of space constandes all the modules in the back battery box have to face the same way because of the connectors for the bms wiring. I made 8 busbars from new copper bar to connect the modules. After bending them I covered them with heatsink. Most of the smaller busbars I made by reusing busbars from the e208 pack.

This battery box is 80% brackets and busbars

With the help of a friend designed a replacement insert for the charging port. After a lot of back and forth we got a 3D print that fit the complex shape of the fender. After this I had to mount the ccs port to the car. First I bolted the fender back on the car. Then held a piece from the charge port inplace and glued it to the car.

Cut, drill and bend a bracket. And mount it with 4 rivnuts.

After some fine tuning it fits.

The 3d print needs some fine tuning to get the hinge for the charger door to fit.

I decided to have the drive shafts made professionally. The company doing this needs a prototype shaft and the parts that mount to it. If you want to take apart a driveshaft from a citroen saxo you have a choice, destroy the shaft or the ball cage and the CV center. So I did both

Cut the shaft really short so you can spin the inner part of the CV joint further than than normal, and then remove the balls one by one.

With the center removed I drilled the shaft out to 14mm. biggest drill I have. Then in the lathe make the hole bigger until you hit the groove for the clip. Hammer out the remaining two pieces and remove the clip.

To get the shaft out of the CV joint in one piece. Cut the ball cage and remove the balls. then you have a shaft with a CV center on it. cut 3 slots in the centerpiece without cutting the shaft. with a hammer and chisel split the center in three pieces. This is the official way to replace the CV joint.

[nkiernan]

Nice job on the pack and cooling

[manny]

Did not know that the battery boxes take so much time to make.

This is the front box holding 8 modules. Did not take into account that the box needs to hold two contactors, HV connector, fuse and a LV connector when ordering the aluminum plates. So I addon so aluminium plate for the contactors and HV connector. And a box around the fuse that also holds the LV connector.

Next i'll make the rear box that will hold 10 modules. And I have a piece of aluminium square stock that I will turn into cooling hose fitting.

[manny]

The modified driveshafts are in. Had to order a new shaft to take apart to get the outer CV joint. It looked a little different from the outside, the internals are probably the same right? Same part number for SKF. Well NO, the splines are bigger. F#ck. I ordered a new shaft from another supplier. And luckily it was the right one

So first reassemble the constant velocity joint and then carefully hammer the axle in. The first one worked fine, the second one not so well. The clip did not click into the groove in the constant velocity joint, but slid through. GRINDER TIME

Saved the modified axle by destroying the cv joint. I had a spare cv joint outer housing.

Succes

The battery boxes are ready. Made 6 mounting brackets for the rear box, just like the original box. Had to align the brackets and check the placement in the car. I will bolt the brackets through the battery cover to the steel angle inside. Temporarily bolted the brackets to the cover with m3 screws.

It fit perfectly so I welded them on. This warped the cover into a double banana Lots of hammering and bending, I got it straight enough

Then it's time for the wiring. As you can see in the E208 battery threat, I ordered new pins and housings for the BMS connections. I reused most of the original wiring. The original wiring is all over the place so there's more than I needed.

tested the wiring with the BMS master unit. And it worked first time.
Next, test the cooling plates. And then the battery can be mounted under the car

[CrAzY_DrIveR]

In my previous project (peugeot 106) i used the original boxes + 1 instead of gas tank.
Now like you i will make new boxes and i never saw a cooling plate glued like that, what glue did you use?
I am sad i didn't get the 208 battery modules, my taycan modules were very hard and expensive to modify

Who made your axles?

[manny]

what glue did you use?

Loctite 5926

Who made your axles?

https://jvdcwebshop.nl/aandrijfassen-op-maat