27ace27
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2023 12:17 am

Rebuilding the Battery?

Hi All,

I finally got the upper pack pulled out of my 2012 FFE and the bulging is pretty bad. Given how insanely hot it gets here in Phoenix, I'm wary about simply deleting the cooling loop. Ideally I'd like to rebuild the pack with new cells, but I've never done such a thing before. Has anyone attempted this before?

Paul
Anti_Climax
Posts: 532
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 12:22 pm
Location: The Valley of the Sun

Re: Rebuilding the Battery?

Finding bare cells has been next to impossible, they seem to be OEM only. You can find modules of grouped cells from other packs or more complete assembles from scrapped cars but that seems to be about it.

Any chance you can post some pictures? I could also come check it out in person since I'm local. Might be able to think of something.
2012 Candy Blue FFE, 100K+ Miles
33.5kWh battery pack, 26.4kWh EtE
40A+ L2, CHAdeMO, CCS pending
27ace27
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2023 12:17 am

Re: Rebuilding the Battery?

With a large enough order, having custom cells made wouldn't be a problem. The issue would be getting the old cells out. From what I saw when I took my pack apart, it looks like it might actually be cheaper to just build new modules from scratch:
Image
Image
Not only is every cell spot welded(?) 3 times, but the frames themselves are all heat staked together. With the right tooling to disassemble and assemble packs quickly, it would probably be possible to turn a profit, but the time and resources required to get started are prohibitive for most.

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