Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Nissan Leaf/e-NV200 drive stack topics
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Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Post by johu »

So 2 weeks ago I welded both my contactors by switching them on without precharging. They were then permanently closed.

So I decided to take a look inside
IMG_20211006_100708.jpg
So, the connection to the top is removed first. Its two short right angle bus bars. Then the actual contacts into the relay are exposed.
IMG_20211006_100718.jpg
The contacts are inside a ceramic hull. Strangely it says "120A". Is that the rated continuous current? The fuse is 3x that. Hmm.
IMG_20211006_101444.jpg
The inside of the top shell contains some magnets to divert arcs away. So the relays should be able to interrupt substantial current without damage.
IMG_20211006_101223.jpg
Now some brute force was needed to get inside the ceramic. Vice helps. Indeed the copper bar was welded to the copper poles. You can see the circular burn mark on the connector bar.
IMG_20211006_101326.jpg
Current is conducted via this roughly 5x2mm copper bar. The actuator is spring loaded and moves by about 2mm. So 4mm spark gap in total when the relay is open.
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Re: Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Post by JaniK »

So that's what is in there.

Gap is smaller than what I was thinking..
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Re: Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Post by celeron55 »

I wonder if you could un-stick the contactor without tearing it apart by tapping with a hammer and punch at the cylindrical copper contacts with the relay placed on a soft surface.
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Re: Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Post by ZooKeeper »

Could you determine if they are filled with an inert gas?
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Re: Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Post by johu »

celeron55 wrote: Thu Oct 07, 2021 3:37 pm I wonder if you could un-stick the contactor without tearing it apart by tapping with a hammer and punch at the cylindrical copper contacts with the relay placed on a soft surface.
I just did tap it with a hammer and it indeed came loose! I just held in my hand (=soft surface) and tapped. Now it is infinite resitance again and I can hear it switching.
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Re: Taking apart the Nissan contactor (Panasonic AEV6505A)

Post by johu »

And update on that again. I pulled out another pair of welded relays and they did not come loose by tapping. I think they are welded stronger. Last time it was a software error that would cause the relays to come on in charge mode without precharging. But at least there was the 200ms boot loader time to do a bit of precharging.
This time the relay driver had failed shorted and switched on the positive contactor immediately.
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