First time buyer - advice needed

[dmason]

Hello All,

Thanks for the great forum, happy to finally be able to make a post!!

Just took the plunge today and bought a Berlingo on Ebay, my first EV. Its a 2004 with 13,000 miles on the clock, was owned by Luton council pest control.
Have been madly reading up to try and figure out what I should be looking for when I go to pick it up, the seller purchased it at auction I think and has no idea about its history/range etc. only that it has a years MOT and he has taken it for a spin, so it works. He has said that if I am not happy with it when I go to collect then I can call off the deal.
If anyone could give me some advice on the things I should be looking for/checking I would be very grateful! there's a huge amount of information on here and its a bit overwhelming!!!

It seams that the most important thing is checking the health/voltage of the cells, is there a quick way to do that?
Would the evLite be able to give me info on the health of the cells?
I was thinking about taking it in to DriveElectric to have it checked over, what do you think?
Got the number for Luton council pest control, so will call them tomorrow to see if anyone knows the history of the vehicle.

I am a bit worried after reading tonight how easy it is to bugger up the cells even early on by not doing maintenance charges at the right times and by using substandard water etc etc, so there is a chance even with such low mileage that the batteries could be damaged.

All the best,

Dave

[arsharpe]

Welcome to the forum.

You are correct the batteries are the key thing.
The short form is

a) the year of manufacture is good (vans before about 2000 had a design weakness)
b) the relatively low milleage is good as well (I have am just replacing post 2000 batteries at 35kmiles)
c) checking battery condition

at very crude level you can measure the voltage using evlite after a nights charge. Looking at http://www.saftbatteries.com/doc/Docume ... deebe9.pdf

you could probably guess that the voltage per cell should be 6.6-6.7 volts. Given that there are 27 cells then the total voltage should be between 178 and 181 volts. It is quite difficult to check the condition of the batteries simply on a simple voltage check. The voltage is quite variable and there are so many cells that a faulty cell can get "lost" in the natural variation of the voltage that occurs after charging and self discharge.

One test that I have been thinking about recently, relies on the van being discharged until the orange light comes on. This is the only real practical test (without dropping all the battery boxes). Here you get the owner, or yourself, to drive the vehicle until the orange light comes on. (This is ok to do for nicds but not for lead acids). If the indicated remaining charge is less than 0 % then you can be sure that the batteries are in good condition.

Also ask if any cells have been changed recently. If there has been then it could be that the pack has been abused and is on its way out.

Hope this helps a little.

[ChrisB]

Welcome to the Blingo owners club Dave

I would conclude that a range test really is the only way to find out how well the batteries are.

I would expect a 2004 van with 13k on the clock to be able do 40miles without any issues on level ground and doing speeds of 30-40mph.

One thing you may run into if the vehicle hasnt been used recently is the range may be lower than normal, as it will require a couple of cycles before it will be back to normal, so this could give a false image of battery condition.

To get a true reflection on battery condition they need to be discharged to less than 50% on at least two trips and recharged fully before you'll get a true idea, this of course your unlikely to be able to do when you go to pick the van up.

Hopefully the vehicle will have been watered by a main dealer (not ideal as they follow the book and wont water them until the light comes on) but with just 13k on the clock I suspect they will have only been watered 4 or so times in their whole life.

I'd like to think its OK, take it for a spin with a full charge in it and try and get at least 35-40miles out of it without the eco/recharge light coming on, if its not been used for a while then avoid driving in the yelllow or red areas of the eco meter, look at keeping the speed around 30-40mph keeping the eco meter in the green area then I recon they are a good set of batteries.

If the van was used regulary and it only did 30 or less miles on the test before the eco/recharge light comes on then alarm bells would start to ring.

If it was me then once I get it home I'd get hold of an EVlite pronto and check out when the last time it had been watered i.e how many Ah over charge was recorded, anything around 450-500ah then I'd put it through a maint cycle and watering, TBH I doubt drivelectric wont be able to do much more than just plug an EVlite and possible run round with a volt meter on the packs, but if the van hasnt been used then equally they could run into the same stagnant battery syndrome.

Hope the above helps and feel free to ask anything else and enjoy your new purchase.

ChrisB

[dmason]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! Very useful info.

I spoke with Luton Council transport yesterday and the head of the service department had been responsible for upkeep for the Blingo, he said it had been serviced at various Citroen dealerships four times when the battery watering light had come on, he also said the power and range of the vehicle was reduced just before it went to service, is this usually the case if the batteries need watering? He said he drove the vehicle and that the range was a good 50-60 miles which seems great.

I got a very kind offer from one of the members here Grumpy-b who lives near to where the vehicle is located to come along and have look at the Blingo with me, he has an evLite and has done lots of work on Blingos so that cold be a life saver!

Dave

[arsharpe]

Sounds good.

Just to clarify my experience with several Berlingos. It is possible to get 55-60 mile range when driving as ChrisB said. I have had to use this technique about 4 times to get to my parents who are 54 miles away.

So what the supplier says sounds correct.

[ChrisB]

Hello All,

Thanks for the great forum, happy to finally be able to make a post!!

Just took the plunge today and bought a Berlingo on Ebay, my first EV. Its a 2004 with 13,000 miles on the clock, was owned by Luton council pest control.............

..............and ???

Hows it going with the Blingo Dave, is it as good as you thought ??

ChrisB

[Grumpy-b]

It has a few problems.
The aux battery was down past 12v and the classic pumps on while not in use prevailed.Unfortunately the 12v battery the seller put on was equally poor and just took the traction pack even lower. Still at least we know the DC To DC works fine.
Main battery voltages are well below 120v now in the mid 50s. At the moment it wont come fully alive. Even leaving on charge for about 4hrs made no difference.
I am attempting to get some power into the traction batteries so that it will hopefully come live. If not then its out with the controller and up to Evan for a period of rest and recovery.

To give him his dues , the dealer is being very good about getting it sorted before letting it go.
Grumpy-b

[cianof]

How about the brushes? 13000 miles, if they've never been changed, could be due.

[Grumpy-b]

Brushes 10mm showing above the wear line so no problem there.

[ChrisB]

It has a few problems.
The aux battery was down past 12v and the classic pumps on while not in use prevailed.Unfortunately the 12v battery the seller put on was equally poor and just took the traction pack even lower. Still at least we know the DC To DC works fine.
Main battery voltages are well below 120v now in the mid 50s. At the moment it wont come fully alive. Even leaving on charge for about 4hrs made no difference.
I am attempting to get some power into the traction batteries so that it will hopefully come live. If not then its out with the controller and up to Evan for a period of rest and recovery.

To give him his dues , the dealer is being very good about getting it sorted before letting it go.
Grumpy-b

mmmmmm it should go into a auto recovery mode if the traction pack is that low, cant remember what it does but "in theory" you just leave it hooked up to the mains and it will sort itself out but will almost certainly require a water afterwards.

I'd feed it a nice fresh 12v to start with and go from there.


ChrisB