Re: Upcycling a Suzuki Samurai
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 11:08 am
Some small progress to update on:
- Last weekend I went to a nearby breaker's yard and got a radiator from a Toyota IQ. Compared to most modern cars the Samurai is tiny and this was about the only one that would fit the space available. I mounted it in the car yesterday, next weekend I'll plumb it in.
- The HVJB bug turned out to be a dodgey kilovac contactor which caused my precharge circuit to be bypassed and release some black smoke along the way . Contactor now replaced, no more black smoke.
- I am ~80% done with the battery boxes. They're all mounted in position, I just need to figure out connectors and cable runs. 8 modules in the back, replacing the samurai back seats (having them was fun while it lasted), 2 modules mounted in the undercarriage where the petrol tank was, 2 modules mounted under the bonnet.
- Throttle bug overcome, but still needs some adjustment.
So at this point, I thought, "Why not enjoy my car a little when I have it at this quasi driveable stage? What about a jolly around the farm, or a single field, or the damn driveway? After all, did even you really believe you would get this far? Bask in the glory of DIY achievement."
Yesterday afternoon, tuning guide in hand, I set about making the Samurai drive again with 240v (just the 8 modules in the back, I need to figure out some proper connectors for the other two). First I checked the parameter DB for any Siemens 1PV tunes, none available but I could find one tune from JB on the land yacht pre makeover. This was my starting point. Here are my findings:
- Boost >4000 needed to get any movement from motor (expected as voltage is low)
- Fslipmin > 3.5 needed to ease the early shudders, but the shuddering kicks in again at anything above a crawl speed.
- Any boost value greater than ~6000 quickly leads to an overcurrent event.
- Overcurrent errors came up a lot. Plotting IDC as I went, the current never went over 20amps but the Overcurrent error still triggered (ocurlim was 100 amps as per Johu's A2 tune in parameter database).
- Car moved most smoothly in 2nd gear, but still got large shudders above walking speed.
So not much in the way of drivability yet.
First on the list is to try and figure out why I'm getting overcurrent, then I'll continue my attempts to tune out the shudder.
Note, inverter is wired for Reverse, as that's what generates forward motion through my transmission.
- Last weekend I went to a nearby breaker's yard and got a radiator from a Toyota IQ. Compared to most modern cars the Samurai is tiny and this was about the only one that would fit the space available. I mounted it in the car yesterday, next weekend I'll plumb it in.
- The HVJB bug turned out to be a dodgey kilovac contactor which caused my precharge circuit to be bypassed and release some black smoke along the way . Contactor now replaced, no more black smoke.
- I am ~80% done with the battery boxes. They're all mounted in position, I just need to figure out connectors and cable runs. 8 modules in the back, replacing the samurai back seats (having them was fun while it lasted), 2 modules mounted in the undercarriage where the petrol tank was, 2 modules mounted under the bonnet.
- Throttle bug overcome, but still needs some adjustment.
So at this point, I thought, "Why not enjoy my car a little when I have it at this quasi driveable stage? What about a jolly around the farm, or a single field, or the damn driveway? After all, did even you really believe you would get this far? Bask in the glory of DIY achievement."
Yesterday afternoon, tuning guide in hand, I set about making the Samurai drive again with 240v (just the 8 modules in the back, I need to figure out some proper connectors for the other two). First I checked the parameter DB for any Siemens 1PV tunes, none available but I could find one tune from JB on the land yacht pre makeover. This was my starting point. Here are my findings:
- Boost >4000 needed to get any movement from motor (expected as voltage is low)
- Fslipmin > 3.5 needed to ease the early shudders, but the shuddering kicks in again at anything above a crawl speed.
- Any boost value greater than ~6000 quickly leads to an overcurrent event.
- Overcurrent errors came up a lot. Plotting IDC as I went, the current never went over 20amps but the Overcurrent error still triggered (ocurlim was 100 amps as per Johu's A2 tune in parameter database).
- Car moved most smoothly in 2nd gear, but still got large shudders above walking speed.
So not much in the way of drivability yet.
First on the list is to try and figure out why I'm getting overcurrent, then I'll continue my attempts to tune out the shudder.
Note, inverter is wired for Reverse, as that's what generates forward motion through my transmission.