What % of owners have experienced 12v battery failure?

[CO-rayman]

I have been fortunate. 1.5 years and 30k miles without any 12v battery problems. However, I know that many others have endured frustrating failures. It got me wondering just what % have failed.

I imagine that build date, mileage, dual vs. single batteries, charging habits, and environmental conditions all play a role in the likelihood of a failure. But, that's a more complicated data gathering effort. So, I set this up as a basic yes or no to see if we can come up with a simple % from this community.

I voted. Haven't had any issues with my dual battery R1T for 12k miles.

I am interested in the cold cranking amps rating on the battery to test it with my digital battery SOC tester. Do you have a higher resolution picture of the data on the battery or can you tell me what the numbers say please? (trying to avoid having to take out my battery)

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[NY_Rob]

^ I believe it is 18Ah rated.

 

[foxerson]

I voted. Haven't had any issues with my dual battery R1T for 12k miles.

I am interested in the cold cranking amps rating on the battery to test it with my digital battery SOC tester. Do you have a higher resolution picture of the data on the battery or can you tell me what the numbers say please? (trying to avoid having to take out my battery)

I 'borrowed' that picture from a prior thread. In that thread, and several other places online, the battery part number is identified as DCS12-18UNC RIT. A datasheet with full details is available on the C&D website.

 

[CO-rayman]

I 'borrowed' that picture from a prior thread. In that thread, and several other places online, the battery part number is identified as DCS12-18UNC RIT. A datasheet with full details is available on the C&D website.

Thank you!

I did some more searching since the data sheet lists different info from what's on the battery. Below is the best picture I could find on the Internet. I am specifically interested in the CCA (Icc listed here) to test the SOC for the 12V batteries so I am not surprised by a bricked vehicle like others have been and I was with my BMW i3. If interested, this is the battery tester that's given me early warning to change my 12V batteries on cars for years: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017R5EQK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Rae11]

Not 12v. But apparently an HV as that is currently getting replaced

 

[Scoiatael]

Welp, looks like for my R1S the dead 12v might be a symptom, not the cause of an issue. They suspect its the HV battery thats the issue and that it might need to be replaced. Counting down the days now to lemon law it.

 

[Rae11]

Welp, looks like for my R1S the dead 12v might be a symptom, not the cause of an issue. They suspect its the HV battery thats the issue and that it might need to be replaced. Counting down the days now to lemon law it.

First gen or second?
How many miles?
Was it still operable or get towed?

 

[Scoiatael]

First gen or second?
How many miles?
Was it still operable or get towed?

2nd Gen R1S, had it 1 month and 2 days, 1273 miles. It had to get towed, the high voltage battery went into safe mode after the 12v died.

 

[CANCERDOC]

Dropped my vehicle off at Costa Mesa for an unrelated issue and decided to ask the service advisor about the 12V campaign. This is what I was told.

1) gen1 will charge the 12v only when the vehicle is being driven or in certain cases if the vehicle is awake while plugged in
2) apparently the 12v for gen2 is moved to under the passenger seat. (Can anyone confirm this?)
3) gen2 will wake and charge the 12v even if not plugged in and “off”. A gen1 won’t do this regardless of HV charge level.
4) the advisor was confident gen2’s updated charging strategy for 12v will prevent failures
5) gen1 regardless of dual or single 12v have the same issue. If not driven or plugged in, 12v will drain regardless of HV status.
6) we’ve seen plugged in vehicles come up with the low 12v warning. Don’t have an answer for this if it charges the 12v when plugged in.
7) I asked why Rivian would replace thousands of 12v for gen1’s when it seems a software patch should solve the charging issue. They had no answer.

 

[jplblue]

Dropped my vehicle off at Costa Mesa for an unrelated issue and decided to ask the service advisor about the 12V campaign. This is what I was told.

1) gen1 will charge the 12v only when the vehicle is being driven or in certain cases if the vehicle is awake while plugged in
2) apparently the 12v for gen2 is moved to under the passenger seat. (Can anyone confirm this?)
3) gen2 will wake and charge the 12v even if not plugged in and “off”. A gen1 won’t do this regardless of HV charge level.
4) the advisor was confident gen2’s updated charging strategy for 12v will prevent failures
5) gen1 regardless of dual or single 12v have the same issue. If not driven or plugged in, 12v will drain regardless of HV status.
6) we’ve seen plugged in vehicles come up with the low 12v warning. Don’t have an answer for this if it charges the 12v when plugged in.
7) I asked why Rivian would replace thousands of 12v for gen1’s when it seems a software patch should solve the charging issue. They had no answer.

Appreciate you relaying what was said, but I'm dubious of their description of Gen1 charging behavior. From what others on the forum have observed, keeping the 12v charged is the main source of vampire drain on the HV battery in Gen1's. And I doubt that Rivian would leave such a big issue with a relatively easy fix unpatched. The software team have been tinkering with 12v charging behavior for a while.

 

[JackRussellRacing]

Disagree with

1) gen1 will charge the 12v only when the vehicle is being driven or in certain cases if the vehicle is awake while plugged in

That is not the experience I witnessed specifically during the last two days.

• My charge limit is set to 70%. I got the 12v warning on Monday morning after being plugged into L2 on Sunday evening.
• Drove to my warehouse (5 miles) and immediately plugged into L1 and left the drivers window fully down, I disabled Gear Guard and all camera stuff, and locked the vehicle. When I arrived at the office, SOC was like 69%.
• The truck sat still (asleep in my warehouse) on the L1 charger until mobile service arrived on Wednesday afternoon. During the idle period, it used the L1 charger many many times. Vehicle was 'asleep' per my phone app, but would initiate charging.

 

[SparkyR1t]

Just an FYI my son purchased a new Toyota Tacoma and the 12 volt battery failed after two weeks. Battery manufacturers are slipping. Quality in the US is not what it used to be.

 

[Dark-Fx]

My '22 has had the batteries replaced, but the '23 has been fine so far. I'm guessing a lot of the early vehicles will get battery replacements inside of the warranty period, since Rivian wasn't as good at keeping them maintained before.

 

[Dark-Fx]

My speculation is for a production date correlation. Seems plausible that there was a bad batch from the battery supplier.

@jjswan33's R1T and my vehicle were probably batched together, VINs are very close and both the same color. I've had a "failure" and he has not. I say "failure" because my vehicle identified that mine were going bad before replacement, but it didn't actually cause me any issues.

My failure happened during a very deep freeze we had here, so it seems likely it was starting to get weak, and the cold snap pushed it over the detection edge.

 

[WrekEE]

Remember there are two configurations of the 12V. Earlier ones had two.

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