Dave's shonkers - Zoe whispering continues

[Dan302]

55 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

I'm not looking forward to attempting to handball it off the trailer

What does it weigh?

[beko1987]

Can't you whip the old pack off, out the car in the lift then reverse the trailer under it and lower the car onto the battery?

I bet that's well easy 😂

[Dave_Q]

18 minutes ago, Dan302 said:

What does it weigh?

About 300kg. I've managed to shuffle it along the bed of the trailer on my own, hoping I can convince a friend or two to come and help me get it off the back.

Plan is to back the trailer up to the garage and slide it off. 

I'm borrowing a pallet truck to do the actual swap but not till tomorrow.

[Dave_Q]

15 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Can't you whip the old pack off, out the car in the lift then reverse the trailer under it and lower the car onto the battery?

I bet that's well easy 😂

I'm sure the whole operation is easier with a lift, I have some axle stands and a pallet truck.

[Dan302]

12 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

About 300kg. I've managed to shuffle it along the bed of the trailer on my own, hoping I can convince a friend or two to come and help me get it off the back.

Plan is to back the trailer up to the garage and slide it off. 

I'm borrowing a pallet truck to do the actual swap but not till tomorrow.

That's about 7 Kylie Minogues 🤔, looks awkward but 3/4 people should manage.

[DeanH]

30 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

About 300kg. I've managed to shuffle it along the bed of the trailer on my own, hoping I can convince a friend or two to come and help me get it off the back.

Plan is to back the trailer up to the garage and slide it off. 

I'm borrowing a pallet truck to do the actual swap but not till tomorrow.

Happy to lend a hand, not far away at all.

[Dave_Q]

2 hours ago, DeanH said:

Happy to lend a hand, not far away at all.

What a stone cold legend this guy is, coming straight round on a Friday night to assist with serious heavy lifting.

This was deffo a 4 man job but we managed it with 2.

 

[Dave_Q]

Longer version:

I thought I'd at least get the trailer reversed up to/into the garage so it was in position. 

My road is a dead end with a few little spurs off it. I drove down a bit to try and turn around and get a more favourable approach angle, for some reason I couldn't manage to reverse the trailer round the corner despite managing a couple earlier.

Went a bit further and got stuck in a bit that just wasn't big enough to turn around in. So had to unhitch the trailer and turn it round. 0/10, do not recommend. This trailer weighs 1.4 tons and does not want to turn at all unless you risk the integrity of your back trying to lift it.

Hitched back up and amazingly managed to reverse the trailer partway into my garage in not too many attempts. My street still smells of van clutch as trying to slowly reverse the outfit up a sloping drive was pretty punishing.

Dean arrived and between us we somehow managed to drag it off and into the garage. Dean bought a very handy wheely tray type thing which we were able to use to position the battery the right way round for how I plan to pick it up with the pallet truck for installation.

Cannot thank Dean enough, would be totally stuck otherwise.

[Dave_Q]

Also to add, I only have the one Zoe here now, I sold the lower mileage one to WBAC over Christmas.

This is the one that I had a for sale thread for until it shart battery, hence the battery.

[DeanH]

No probs Dave, glad you are sorted. 

[Brigsy]

Big old lump to move! 

Interested to see how this goes in. 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Longer version:

I thought I'd at least get the trailer reversed up to/into the garage so it was in position. 

My road is a dead end with a few little spurs off it. I drove down a bit to try and turn around and get a more favourable approach angle, for some reason I couldn't manage to reverse the trailer round the corner despite managing a couple earlier.

Went a bit further and got stuck in a bit that just wasn't big enough to turn around in. So had to unhitch the trailer and turn it round. 0/10, do not recommend. This trailer weighs 1.4 tons and does not want to turn at all unless you risk the integrity of your back trying to lift it.

Hitched back up and amazingly managed to reverse the trailer partway into my garage in not too many attempts. My street still smells of van clutch as trying to slowly reverse the outfit up a sloping drive was pretty punishing.

Dean arrived and between us we somehow managed to drag it off and into the garage. Dean bought a very handy wheely tray type thing which we were able to use to position the battery the right way round for how I plan to pick it up with the pallet truck for installation.

Cannot thank Dean enough, would be totally stuck otherwise.

Leccy cars, so simple, they say! Good effort, though - hope it works out

[Dave_Q]

It's in.

More later

 

[Dave_Q]

I'd decided today had to be the day as it's meant to be pissing it down tomorrow. Didn't get started till 2pm as I couldn't borrow the pallet truck off my M9 till 1:45.

Step 1: raise the car off the ground

Step 2: remove these covers near the front of the battery 

Step 3: isolate 12v and high voltage batteries 

Step 4: disconnect data and HV cables from battery, and earth strap

Step 5: insert pallet truck and pallet under car and pump to maximum height

Step 6: realise that the bloke on YouTube had a high lift pallet truck. Stop, scratch head, consider options 

Step 7: drive to B&Q and buy a fence post. Cut into lengths to make pallet high enough. Add extra random wood from the garage to taste

Step 8: simply* unbolt the 8 bolts holding the battery to the car. 

Have to say, this was the absolute worst part of the whole job. These bolts seem to be ideally placed to catch spray and shit from the road and only had my shit eBay ugga dugga which only managed to dugga one of the 8 bolts out. The rest I had to crank out by hand using a mixture of ratchet with jack handle extension and breaker bar. Miraculously none of them broke but this took about an hour during which the sun went away and the ground started to freeze.

Step 9: lower battery. Dick about with jacks moving additional wood layers out of the way and remove from car

Step 10: reassembly is the reverse of removal

The new battery is from a 2019 car and is at 91% health and 35k miles according to canZE. CanZE does seem a bit confused about what's going on, whatever model I select it still thinks it's a 22 battery. 

Maybe I will have to take it to Renault for an EVC update to make everything happy but for now I'm just going to drive it and see how we go.

[loserone]

That is fucking brilliant @Dave_Q. Well done.

[320touring]

Top work on that @Dave_Q! Well played.

 

I think it will need to be told of it's 40kwh upgrade 

[High Jetter]

Main battery swop at the roadside! Top work.

[DeanH]

Excellent work. Good to see that maintenance is within reach of the DIYer.

Is there any value that can be reclaimed from the batteries? either by scrapping or selling for re-celling?

[Kiltox]

Fucking hell, what a legend 

[Dave_Q]

34 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Main battery swop at the roadside! Top work.

My drive is sloping so I don't have much choice 

42 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Top work on that @Dave_Q! Well played.

 

I think it will need to be told of it's 40kwh upgrade 

Opinions seem to be mixed, there is a Dutch guy on YouTube who did it and in the comments they asked him if he had to get any updates or coding, he says not.

I believe in the brief period Renault offered this they did update something, but it it drives and charges as expected and gives the right range then I won't be going out of my way to give Renault £2-300.

[bangernomics]

Zoe 1 back, heating is working well.
£208 bill though, sure I paid about £120 last time.
I've ordered some AC gauges and a vacuum pump for testing, I have also been looking around for totally legit places on FB marketplace that might sell me a big bottle of R1234, I believe you're meant to have an F-gas cert though so might not be possible.

If you could find a used machine and a few empty bottles then a friendly scrapper would likely not be adverse to you hoovering a few for some folding.

When the price of gas doubled overnight about 12/15 years ago my BiL did a roaring trade via his local big boy breakers in Bury hoovering gas out and flogging for cash m8.

[Dave_Q]

6 minutes ago, DeanH said:

Excellent work. Good to see that maintenance is within reach of the DIYer.

Is there any value that can be reclaimed from the batteries? either by scrapping or selling for re-celling?

I very much hope so as the thing is gonna be well in my way.

I'll offer it up whole on the basis of being faulty but suitable for reuse, i think people use the modules to build house batteries etc.

Anyone know how much a 20kWh battery for home storage normally costs?

[DeanH]

14 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

I very much hope so as the thing is gonna be well in my way.

I'll offer it up whole on the basis of being faulty but suitable for reuse, i think people use the modules to build house batteries etc.

Anyone know how much a 20kWh battery for home storage normally costs?

I don't know how difficult they are to open up and repair. But there could be mileage in offering an exchange service.

[Dave_Q]

Full charge this morning:

With a 2 pedal reset:

This isn't right for a 40kWh battery, a 40 should come up with something mental like 250 miles on a 2 pedal reset. I believe a 100% healthy Q motor 22kWh will show 130 miles max which is what I have.

I'll have a look later if there is anything I can program in the EVC with ddt4all.

[Dave_Q]

First journey completed, 55 miles on 50% battery, or a tad below depending if you believe SOC real or user. Last couple of weeks it was only just making this journey starting from 100% with the old battery.

[hairnet]

respec for doing that outside in a rough part of yorkshire in this weather

[Dave_Q]

2 hours ago, hairnet said:

respec for doing that outside in a rough part of yorkshire in this weather

It was only rough because you were there, the rest of the time it's alright 

[hairnet]

if the locals can spell rough

[Dave_Q]

First thing I did when the battery was in was to take it for a 3-phase charge.

This worked in that there were no errors, but the speed was severely limited to 8kW.

Asked on the Zoe bodgers Facebook group and Gazebo Gary suggested it was due to the temperature, TBF it was about zero and battery temp was about 5C.

Tried again this morning after a drive, battery started at 14C and it seems to be working as expected.

I've read that the 40kWh pack has a heater in, where the 22kWh only has cooling (via the 2nd AC evaporator in the back of the car). So I've booked it in with Renault Wakefield for the EVC update on 28th Jan.

The range estimate seems to be working OK for now but weirdly it goes right down if you do a normal reset of the trip. And you can see above that the car thinks there is less kWh than there is, in the bottom graph it's saying available energy is about 12 kWh but that is at 50% charge.

Dunno if the other people I found online saying they had done the swap got lucky, or if their cars had the same sort of (admittedly minor) issues and they just never did anything about it.

[davehedgehog31]

On 10/01/2026 at 19:37, Dave_Q said:

I'd decided today had to be the day as it's meant to be pissing it down tomorrow. Didn't get started till 2pm as I couldn't borrow the pallet truck off my M9 till 1:45.

Step 1: raise the car off the ground

Step 2: remove these covers near the front of the battery 

Step 3: isolate 12v and high voltage batteries 

Step 4: disconnect data and HV cables from battery, and earth strap

Step 5: insert pallet truck and pallet under car and pump to maximum height

Step 6: realise that the bloke on YouTube had a high lift pallet truck. Stop, scratch head, consider options 

Step 7: drive to B&Q and buy a fence post. Cut into lengths to make pallet high enough. Add extra random wood from the garage to taste

Step 8: simply* unbolt the 8 bolts holding the battery to the car. 

Have to say, this was the absolute worst part of the whole job. These bolts seem to be ideally placed to catch spray and shit from the road and only had my shit eBay ugga dugga which only managed to dugga one of the 8 bolts out. The rest I had to crank out by hand using a mixture of ratchet with jack handle extension and breaker bar. Miraculously none of them broke but this took about an hour during which the sun went away and the ground started to freeze.

Step 9: lower battery. Dick about with jacks moving additional wood layers out of the way and remove from car

Step 10: reassembly is the reverse of removal

The new battery is from a 2019 car and is at 91% health and 35k miles according to canZE. CanZE does seem a bit confused about what's going on, whatever model I select it still thinks it's a 22 battery. 

Maybe I will have to take it to Renault for an EVC update to make everything happy but for now I'm just going to drive it and see how we go.

This is absolutely spectacular work, well done.