And about 5 kg less for the rear pack
Z3 EV Conversion
- Thread starter Andybpowell
- Start date
It' been a while since my last post as most of the work I've done has been pretty unexciting lots of planning re-running cables and redesigning things to accomodate my new setup and lots of programming and testing for my new controller which will control the brake booster, gear lever, charger, reverse light, and power up the motor controller.
all of the hardware is back in the car
but I now need to connect it all up and the weather isn't much good for doing electrical work outside so will just have to wait
all of the hardware is back in the car
but I now need to connect it all up and the weather isn't much good for doing electrical work outside so will just have to wait
It's been really slow going with the project lately but I'm still chipping away
I built my own controller to control the outlander charger, dc to dc, BMW f30 gear lever, brake booster, power steering and the cars canbus systems, power the Zombieverter motor controller as it has no standby mode and control my Nextion display but the software on the Zombieverter controller has been updated and I can now hand over half of that for it to deal with
ok maybe not half of it but the vehicle canbus, Gear lever and brake booster at least and maybe the charger
I've also been updating my Nextion display to suit the lexus setup
And I've fitted the f30 gear lever into the Z3
The mounting holes which I presume were for the automatic shifter were almost ideal just fitted them with some m6 rivnuts, made up a bracket and some spacers only took 30 minutes, shame it took me 2hrs to get the centre console out before I could do that
I built my own controller to control the outlander charger, dc to dc, BMW f30 gear lever, brake booster, power steering and the cars canbus systems, power the Zombieverter motor controller as it has no standby mode and control my Nextion display but the software on the Zombieverter controller has been updated and I can now hand over half of that for it to deal with
ok maybe not half of it but the vehicle canbus, Gear lever and brake booster at least and maybe the chargerI've also been updating my Nextion display to suit the lexus setup
And I've fitted the f30 gear lever into the Z3
The mounting holes which I presume were for the automatic shifter were almost ideal just fitted them with some m6 rivnuts, made up a bracket and some spacers only took 30 minutes, shame it took me 2hrs to get the centre console out before I could do that
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Just updated previous post as pictures were not displaying properly for some reason also just realised this project has been ongoing for 2 years in May how time flies when you're having fun I'm still progressing slowly with the wiring hopefully will make some progress today
I'm still progressing slowly with the wiring hopefully will make some progress today
There has not been much visible progress on this for the last 6 week, but lots of work in the background lots of testing and failing, the power was cutting out and major juddering and power limitations and after a huge amount of help from the guys over on the open inverter forum and updates on the controller software the car is getting there I won't say usable but close
I had to weld the motor to gearbox coupling up solid as it was making the juddering worse also my diff is completely shot I knew it was bad but all of these issues pretty much finished it off. The new diff arrived today the ratio is slightly better for this application it's 3.38 instead of 3.45 it's minimal but better than nothing the lexus the hybrid transmission comes out of has a diff ratio of about 2.5 I believe given time and space I would swap the 168 small case diff for the 188 med case with access to far more suitable ratios but I think that may involve driveshafts and possibly prophaft changes as well so thats for a later date if necessary
The weather has been miserable today so I treated the new diff to a spin in the media blaster and a couple of coats of paint, I hope to get this in tomorrow weather permitting
I haven't cleaned up the rear diff cover as it will be getting swapped over with the current one as it has the polybush fitted
I had to weld the motor to gearbox coupling up solid as it was making the juddering worse also my diff is completely shot I knew it was bad but all of these issues pretty much finished it off. The new diff arrived today the ratio is slightly better for this application it's 3.38 instead of 3.45 it's minimal but better than nothing the lexus the hybrid transmission comes out of has a diff ratio of about 2.5 I believe given time and space I would swap the 168 small case diff for the 188 med case with access to far more suitable ratios but I think that may involve driveshafts and possibly prophaft changes as well so thats for a later date if necessary
The weather has been miserable today so I treated the new diff to a spin in the media blaster and a couple of coats of paint, I hope to get this in tomorrow weather permitting
I haven't cleaned up the rear diff cover as it will be getting swapped over with the current one as it has the polybush fitted
Diff is in and it was an absolute pig the bolts were really hard to access and some idiot (me) put them in really tight with threadlock, but its all in just need to refill with oil and torque up the driveshaft bolts
This project is still ongoing but it's mostly software right now trying to sort out a few bugs and improve power delivery though I have been designing some 3d printed parts where I'm connecting to the lexus inverter in ways lexus didn't envision and wouldn't approve of for instance between the HV battery and inverter there is a boost converter that boosts the battery voltage from 230 Volts to 650 Volts this is a weak point in the system and often fails and has little chance of surviving when using the motors as a primary drive source so we bypass this and connect to the inverter afterwards this is not a big problem since we are using higher voltages than lexus in my case 330-400 Volts
this is the unmolested inverter the standard HV dc input from the battery is the connector sticking out top right and the black oval cover part way down is where I need to connect to bypass the boost converter
This is the standard HV dc input and connector
And this is the new HV dc input point
This is the inverter with the modified connection and blanking plate for the original HV input machined from white nylon but I was never happy with this
And these are the new 3d printed parts I've designed to replace them
sadly I can't get much done right now as I'm trying to move home but I'll keep chipping away
this is the unmolested inverter the standard HV dc input from the battery is the connector sticking out top right and the black oval cover part way down is where I need to connect to bypass the boost converter
This is the standard HV dc input and connector
And this is the new HV dc input point
This is the inverter with the modified connection and blanking plate for the original HV input machined from white nylon but I was never happy with this
And these are the new 3d printed parts I've designed to replace them
sadly I can't get much done right now as I'm trying to move home but I'll keep chipping away
Attachments
Hi everyone can't believe how long it's been, the moving house which got in the way of work on the Z3 finally went ahead just before christmas and I've spent the last 6 months building, repairing, upgrading and generally spending all my time and money on our new house
the good side to this is i now have a garage to work in, the downside is I'm feeling very poor
I'm now in a position where i can get back to the Z3 good job because the MOT is due in about 6 weeks, the rear brakes were making a terrible screeching noise turns out the backplate has a rust issue and one of the shoe retainers has escaped so have used the standard repair method until the winter when I will replace the backplates
other than that the headlights were hazy and out of alignment, the headlights polished up fine sadly one on the adjusters is completly knackered and ive had to order a replacement
hopefully after the mot I can get back to the real work
the good side to this is i now have a garage to work in, the downside is I'm feeling very poor
I'm now in a position where i can get back to the Z3 good job because the MOT is due in about 6 weeks, the rear brakes were making a terrible screeching noise turns out the backplate has a rust issue and one of the shoe retainers has escaped so have used the standard repair method until the winter when I will replace the backplates
other than that the headlights were hazy and out of alignment, the headlights polished up fine sadly one on the adjusters is completly knackered and ive had to order a replacement
hopefully after the mot I can get back to the real work
Your new place looks incredible! Super jealous!
Finally getting back on with my second project soon. And putting the first one into the paint shop.
Finally getting back on with my second project soon. And putting the first one into the paint shop.
i look forward to some updates
are you ever going to find the time to continue with the ev chat video's ? I know you're always busy
oh and how is your paint holding up on the calipers you painted, mine's crap, needs doing again
I hope to, but not committing to that yet. I have two (soon to be three) new businesses on the go as well as all the usual challenges of life in your late 40s.
So plan is to hand off my main car for a few weeks (albeit filming as much of that process as I can), and bring the second project car home from storage and film the work on that. Mostly because I'm just itching to work on it!
So plan is to hand off my main car for a few weeks (albeit filming as much of that process as I can), and bring the second project car home from storage and film the work on that. Mostly because I'm just itching to work on it!
AlexGSi2000
Dedicated Member
The new gaff looks like an absolute dream, congratulations.
Yes it's getting there, cost an arm and a leg and then we walked into some expensive problems mainly the triple garage was full of woodworm and the heating system needed replacing so I've spent months rebuilding the garage and had a heat pump and big solar and battery setup installed luckily being a relatively new conversion it's well insulated, has under floor heating and a large South facing roof so ideal for it
