GEN2 R1S STANDARD ISSUES

[cthelan]

Took delivery of our 2nd Rivian over the weekend. We were very excited to experience all the Gen2 enhancements after living with our Gen1 R1T for several years now.

Delivery experience was seamless, as we expected it to be, and drive home was mostly uneventful. I was interested to see how the LFP performed on our routine longer trip from the Oregon valley over to Central OR. Car was delivered with a 90% charge, so I suspected that the battery indication was going to be somewhat inacurate/in need of a 100% charge for calibration.

Total trip home is 130mi over a mountain pass. Have done it many times in my Gen1 quad without ever having range anxiety, even in very cold, miserable winter conditions. As we started up and over the mountain pass, the range projections began to drop significantly, to the point where I wasn't comfortable rolling into town with a projected range of less than 10%. Luckily there was a supercharger enroute that only required a quick 5min bump to get comfortably back home. This is much worse behavior on the range guessing than I was expecting. Got home and immediately charged up to 100% to calibrate the BMS.

The next day things got interesting.

Went for the first orientation drive of the day for my wife, as the R1S is her new daily driver. First issue popped up immediately--no proximity sensors. Thought ok, just a bug and we continued the drive onto the freeway. On the freeway we had no driver assistance, no blindspot monitors, no cars displayed on sides or rear on the driver display--weird. Got home did a soft reset. No change, all sensors still out and driver assistance settings were un-selected with no ability to select them. Let car sit (sleep) for a few hours and when we came out to drive it again everything was working again. Great! Came home plugged in and set a scheduled charge overnight for 75%.

Next morning (today). My wife calls me in a panic as she was leaving for work. She came out to the R1S and the drivers side of the vehicle was totally inoperable. Doors would not open, charge port would not close. Incidentally the car had not charged as scheduled as well, yet still had above 50% remaining from previous day. Had to walk her through getting in on the passenger side and doing a hard reset. Car came back online and she was able to drive it to work. She said it showed TPMS warnings the whole way there. Not looking forward to what issue is going to pop up next. I worked so hard to convince my wife that EV's and Rivian's in particular are so great and now she's pretty freaked out by the whole thing.

Submitted a service ticket and Rivian's hopefully going to be able to remote diagnose this thing. Next available service appointment is a month out and a long drive back over the mountains.

Needless to say this is extremely disappointing for having just taken delivery of a new car. I've had zero software/computer issues with the Gen1 and I'm surprised that this one seems so buggy. Anyone else experiencing similar issues with brand new Gen2's?

I can't imagine a first time EV owner going through this! It's absolutely unacceptable. As much as I am a Rivian fan, these kinds of bugs should be caught much earlier pre-delivery so customers aren't experiencing major systems failures on the 2nd day of ownership!

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[mpshizzle]

I cannot say I've had anything like that with my gen 2, but sounds like it could be an issue with the west zone controller. (That's the ECU that controls everything on the driver's side)

I did have to have my West zone controller replaced BUT I did not have the symptoms you saw. My symptom was an error message saying that the suspension needed to be serviced. Everything was still 100% functional, drive modes ride height and everything, but the fix was a new West zone controller

 

[cthelan]

I cannot say I've had anything like that with my gen 2, but sounds like it could be an issue with the west zone controller. (That's the ECU that controls everything on the driver's side)

I did have to have my West zone controller replaced BUT I did not have the symptoms you saw. My symptom was an error message saying that the suspension needed to be serviced. Everything was still 100% functional, drive modes ride height and everything, but the fix was a new West zone controller

Thats what I am suspecting is the issue. Did your's come up soon after delivery?

 

[C12farmer]

Never bother with just soft "infotainment" reset for sensor issues. If some sensor is acting up, just do a full hard reset. Gen2 still seems to have a lot of sensor bugs pop up. I had a couple of these bugs pop up the first few weeks I owned the car but never have happened since. Sometimes I think these cars are going through some calibration mode during their first weeks on the road.


I hope Rivian standard procedure is to charge every standard pack to 100% at the service center before delivery. Some of these cars have been sitting idle for weeks or months and the battery calibration will drift. You made the right call to charge up with 10% remaining.

 

[Ngkgb]

Sorry that you had to go through this. Though annoying, I’m sure it’ll get resolved. The bigger issue is why weren’t these things noticed by Rivian before you picked it up. That’s the most frustrating part of these stories.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

That’s a frustrating experience. Another symptom of overloaded and overworked service center staff. This should have been caught during pre-delivery though it’s possible the problem didn’t present i

Standard pack should reset itself at least every two weeks to 100% charge limit. The recommended 100% charge is once every two weeks…otherwise I would charge to 80% on the daily for the best longevity..though if needed could go to 90 too.

Standard range is an excellent value. If you’re only waiting a month for a service center appointment that’s not awful compared to other locations. It’s still a pain to have to get it serviced so soon though.

I am sure all will work out. I concur this sounds like a problem with an ECU.

 

[mpshizzle]

Thats what I am suspecting is the issue. Did your's come up soon after delivery?

It was about 3 months/6k miles after delivery. Nice thing about electronics heavy vehicles - usually IF the computers/electronics are going to fail, they usually do in the first few months of life while it's still under warranty. Statistically speaking, if a computer component makes it through the first year of life, it's usually good for the long haul

 

[cthelan]

That’s a frustrating experience. Another symptom of overloaded and overworked service center staff. This should have been caught during pre-delivery though it’s possible the problem didn’t present i

No excuse for this not being worked out pre-delivery! I would say if this had been happening on early VIN Gen1's, totally understandable, but a year into production of Gen2?!

Standard range is an excellent value. If you’re only waiting a month for a service center appointment that’s not awful compared to other locations. It’s still a pain to have to get it serviced so soon though.

Certainly hope the Standard range performs as advertised. If we're not able to routinely make a 130mi trip without charging, this will be a very short ownership run with the LFP pack!

Our service center is great and they always make things a pleasant experience. But I should not be taking in a 2 day old car with 200 miles on it! Plus driving the 130mi to get to service with a potentially faulty ECU with an unknown failure mode.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Yeah I’m sorry you’re going through this. The standard range should definitely get more than 130 mi range. Will you let us know how you make out?

Rivian should give you some all weather mats or something from all this hassle.

rivian, if you’re listening, it’s easy to identify when a customer is coming from a long distance. If a customer is coming from a long distance to pick up a vehicle, extra care should be taken to ensure the vehicle is in good operating order to prevent these types of experiences.

 

[iamnid]

I have all sorts of software bugs on my R1S Standard. Hard reset gets rid of them. Updates have also lessened them. I've had the sensor not available warnings, adaptive headlight not operating warnings, trailer brake controller and trailer lights warnings -- all fixed with a reset. I haven't had the driver's side door issue you mentioned though. I definitely get much more than 130 miles per charge.

As far as setting daily charging, set it to whatever you want. The vehicle itself will change it to 100% fairly frequently just on its own. With my driving, I only charge about once every 10 days or so... so it pretty much always wants me to charge it to 100%.

 

[cthelan]

Interesting. Not a lot of solid info out there on the LFP behavior. Have heard so many conflicting reports of best practices for charging, discharging, calibration etc. Didn't realize the system will force a 100% charge if it need it. Good to know!

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I still recommend an 80 or 90% charge on Standard range LFP even though LFP can do more cycles its still a good idea. The app will remind you when its been too long.

 

[cthelan]

Update:

ECU issue did not return following the hard reset. Service center cancelled our appoinmeant.

Today we hav a whole new issue to deal with. HVAC makes terrible ‘clacking’ followed by loud whine when waking the car by opening the door. Repeats in reverse when door is closed and car goes back to sleep. Seems to be AC compressor related. Another service appointment made for next month. Hope it holds on till then!

Also having issue with the heated steering wheel. Comes on initially but quickly gets cold in less than 2 min. Our Gen 1 stays hot as long as the heat is selected on.

Still not impressed with LFP performance. We have now made the 130mi mountain drive several times and the car cannot make it with anything less than 80% charge to start the trip. Winters are going to be rough with no viable charger mid-route. In hindsight we should have gone for Max pack.

Coming from a mostly flawless Gen1, the Gen2 has been a serious disappointment! Way too many issues for a second generation vehicle.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

What is your average efficiency on the trips where you have poor range? What is the net change in elevation?

Assuming usable capacity of 106 kWh in standard range and 80% SOC your efficiency would be approximately 1.53 mi per kWh to be able to only make 130 miles. That's not normal efficiency so either something is wrong or if you have a significant net change in elevation that could be an issue...still seems very low efficiency wise. At 2.25 mi per kWh you should be able to go 191 miles on an 80% charge...though I wouldn't want to run it below 10% very often.

Even in the winter, with the vehicle preheated and ambient temps below 20F I was able to get 2.0 mi per kWh in a Gen 1 Quad. Even at 2 mi per kwh you should still get 170 miles out of an 80% charge. Efficiency of dual a quite a bit higher than gen 1 quad too...in mild temps I have seen more in the realm of 2.5 mi per kWh with dual in AP mode...sometimes higher depending on driving style.

 

[PaythePiper]

We make a drive from Phoenix to Showlow AZ. 160 mile drive that takes 270 miles of range to complete. Elevation is from about 1100 to 6300 ft. Colder weather in the winter months as well. Dual max R1S

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