Have you ever wanted to own an electric car? or have you ever wanted to drive a Porsche 911? I wanted both, so I decided to build one. This blog is here to document my journey as I convert a 2002 Porsche 911/996 Carrera 2 from a gas guzzler to a completely electric vehicle - not a hybrid!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Caught in the rain

I drove the car to work 4 days last week.  On the last day, it rained unexepectedly and the car stayed in the rain all afternoon.

During the build process, I was cautious and paid attention to all the water drip lines so the water should shunt away from critical components, that being said, I was unsure how the car would fare in the heavy rain.  I honestly had no intention to drive in wet conditions, let alone a downpour.

So, on my way home, I drove the usual 10 mile route, without issues which was great.  However, after being parked in the garage for an hour or two, I smelled burning antifreeze.  I immediately investigated and found that water had got into a circuit that caused the heater pump to pump antifreeze, and somehow that started leaking and spraying antifreeze into the low end DC-DC.  The DC-DC fried itself and also blew one of the HV fuses which shut down the chain of events and prevented further damage.

I removed the low end DC-DC and confirmed it needs to be replaced.  I also removed the 1000W DC-DC and need to test if that is also blown.  More on that later.

Its a little frustrating because I have repair work to do, but in the grand scheme, it could have been a lot worse.

By the way, I have been using the charger without the 15uF cap that blew up, and it seems to be working as is.  I have the replacement part and expect to get that installed soon.  I also plan to move the LCD display to near the fuel tank port so that I no longer have to go near the charger to make charging adjustments!

Stay tuned.
-K

1 comment:

  1. Oh bummer, sorry to hear that Kurt. Let me know what you find out about the damage. I am lucky here in California as we don't get a lot of rain, but we do get periods of full rain in the winter time. Instead of water proofing everything, maybe you could get a water repelling car cover? Good luck!

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