R1T 12v batteries dead

[emoore]

Another update: 12v batteries replaced on Wednesday. Drive about 70 miles that day, no issues. Motor Fault Detected Alarm on Thursday morning, cleared with a truck reboot. Drove truck about 35 miles on Friday, no issues. Drove to work Saturday night and Sunday night (about 30 miles each way), with Motor Fault Alarms on Sunday and Monday morning, as I wanted to leave work and drive home. I rebooted the truck on Sunday morning and it cleared, and on Monday morning it cleared on its own while I was calling Rivian service. Rivian is towing it to Brooklyn tomorrow. I did have a Motor Fault Detected with Turtle mode about a week before my 12v batteries died.

Wow that sucks. Sounds like there was something else wrong with your truck besides the 12v batteries. Hope you get it back soon.

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[ads75]

Wow that sucks. Sounds like there was something else wrong with your truck besides the 12v batteries. Hope you get it back soon.

Thanks, I agree. I wasn't sure if the 12v batteries were the symptom or the problem, I am now guessing a symptom. Part of me is glad that it needs further investigation, rather than chalking it up to a random bad battery after 7 months and 10k miles. I think fault alarms should stay in longer if they are valid, but maybe the truck needs X amount of miles driven before they come in. The alarms/faults never came in while I was driving, it was always when I started the truck to drive away from where I was at. The truck has a warranty, its time to use it.

 

[C.R. Rivian]

September 2022 delivery, VIN 11xxx.
Updated software yesterday, no issue. Drove the truck in the afternoon.
This am, truck wouldn't wake up. Bricked. Support says both 12V batteries are dead. 48% charge on the high volt batteries. Tried to charge the 12v via tow hitch panel as per support but battery wouldn't charge with 2 different chargers.
Fortunately truck was at home, tow truck just picked up to take to service center.
Unclear if related to latest software update but tow truck company said they picked up 2 other today and have 2 more tomorrow....
Incidentally, no way to unlock the truck, fob, card, phone not working and no way to insert a physical key as some cars have. No way to release parking brake so they had to put skid pads under rear wheels.
Will update when I hear more
Anyone had same issue?

Did you try to charge your 12 volts or do a jumpstart? I recently had a similar issue and was able to wake the truck after a jumpstart. Before the jumpstart, as you say, everything was locked up. In my case, they replaced the batteries and corrected an issue with a wiring harness/hub.

 

[cpd1]

Jumpstart wouldn’t work from the wiring loom in the tow hitch. Both batteries were dead and wouldn’t take new charge. The tow company tried too to no avail so they had to drag the truck after usin a tool to unlock the driver door.

 

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Oops...I just realized I posted my update to someone elses post.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Update: Rivian mobile service came out today, and replaced both of my 12V batteries (2022 13xxx Vin, Nov 2022 delivery, about 10k miles). Took about 2.5 weeks to get out to me for an appointment, and the work took about an hour. He did inform me prior to performing the work I may be on the hook for the repair, I said I assumed it was warranty work and explained I drove it the day before it died, and charged it to 70%, and about 19 hours later my 12v died. After he replaced the batteries, he saw my main battery charge was still at 70%, and agreed it was warranty work (no vampire drain over almost 3 weeks with a dead 12v system!). Mobile service guy was friendly and professional. In the 2-3 weeks leading up to the failure, I may have had one 12V alert that cleared before I backed out of my driveway (unsure on how long ago since it came once and almost immediately cleared), I got turtle mode/drive motor failure alarm (cleared with reboot), and morning the R1T did not recognize my phone as a key, although I could stream music from it, and one key card wouldn't work (the fob did, and later that afternoon everything was fine). I do wonder that possibly those errors may have been caused a low 12v system.

It did sound like if you drive your truck until the main battery is zero, and your 12v dies, you would be on the hook for that repair (really unfortunate if you are having charging station troubles while traveling). Or if you park for a couple weeks and don't plug in, and your 12v battery dies, you may be on the hook for that. I don't agree with it, but I do understand where they are coming from. I do think there should be some reserve in the big battery to keep the 12v batteries happy for a few weeks, but I'm just a guy on a keyboard. I will probably be disabling Gear Guard going forward, in case I do park for an extended time somewhere. It would be nice if Gear Guard would disable automatically (and let you know it did) if your battery voltages got too low. I still don't know why my 12v died, I don't have seat belts buckled, I had Gear Guard disabled at home, ambient temperatures were mild, I haven't used the bed outlets. I did normally keep an iphone cable plugged into the center console, but moving forward, I will probably unplug it unless I need it (the charging pad is effectively useless for me).

He did make it sound like the Trenton NJ service center would be opening by the end of 2023, or close to it. Edison NJ center needs to be physically built. Hopefully I don't have those backwards. And even if I don't, either are easier than Brooklyn for most of us NJ/PA folks.

Just wanted to say I agree with the Rivian policy that if you didn't charge the main battery and it killed the 12v system to have the customer pay. There has to be a certain responsibility the consumer has to take care of their products and I would rather the truck goes to 0 instead of locks down at 10% to prevent me from draining the 12v system and protect the warranty.

Its always a balance and I'd rather have the company put the responsibility on me and allow me to break it instead of lock it down via software so I can't.

 

[R1Tom]

Just wanted to say I agree with the Rivian policy that if you didn't charge the main battery and it killed the 12v system to have the customer pay. There has to be a certain responsibility the consumer has to take care of their products and I would rather the truck goes to 0 instead of locks down at 10% to prevent me from draining the 12v system and protect the warranty.

Its always a balance and I'd rather have the company put the responsibility on me and allow me to break it instead of lock it down via software so I can't.

Another software improvement spot....user selectable option.

Do you want death of batteries but stay alive to last possible moment, or do you want to go into a super sleep mode at 10% to drastically slow any use of power, send an alert to app that truck is in dangerously low battery state, etc

 

[Craigins]

Just wanted to say I agree with the Rivian policy that if you didn't charge the main battery and it killed the 12v system to have the customer pay. There has to be a certain responsibility the consumer has to take care of their products and I would rather the truck goes to 0 instead of locks down at 10% to prevent me from draining the 12v system and protect the warranty.

Its always a balance and I'd rather have the company put the responsibility on me and allow me to break it instead of lock it down via software so I can't.

The correct fix would be to shut down the vehicle when the HV battery runs out, before discharging the 12v battery.

Then you'd need to apply voltage to the hitch leads to restart the vehicle and connect to an L1/2/3 charger.

 

[Joel]

The correct fix would be to shut down the vehicle when the HV battery runs out, before discharging the 12v battery.

Then you'd need to apply voltage to the hitch leads to restart the vehicle and connect to an L1/2/3 charger.

The other correct thing would be to maintain the 12v battery so you can use your vehicle.

 

[Craigins]

The other correct thing would be to maintain the 12v battery so you can use your vehicle.

How does the vehicle maintain the 12v battery when the HV system is completely drained?

 

[Joel]

How does the vehicle maintain the 12v battery when the HV system is completely drained?

The BMS should not allow either to the HV or 12v to completely die. The 12v in my R1T has died for the second time. It all appears to be software related. As a jump and then a reboot of the vehicle is the only way to trigger charging of 12v again.

 

[Craigins]

The BMS should not allow either to the HV or 12v to completely die. The 12v in my R1T has died for the second time. It all appears to be software related. As a jump and then a reboot of the vehicle is the only way to trigger charging of 12v again.

I'm failing to follow.

My comment was concerning running the HV battery down to 0.

Once again, if you don't charge the vehicle and use it, how does the BMS prevent both the HV and 12V batteries from running out.

 

[Brewbud]

The BMS should not allow either to the HV or 12v to completely die. The 12v in my R1T has died for the second time. It all appears to be software related. As a jump and then a reboot of the vehicle is the only way to trigger charging of 12v again.

Agreed, if there is power in the HV above 10% the 12V should never die.

 

[Joel]

Agreed, if there is power in the HV above 10% the 12V should never die.

My 12v died again with vehicle plugged in and charged to 85% on the HV.

 

[FooF]

You would think as long as there is not a short in the wiring or bad component or a bad battery the 12v system should never die. The vehicle software should have failsafes to prevent this kind of issue. And why is there not a way to see what the 12v battery voltage is in the service menu and some kind of log of battery voltage.

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