Recall 23v-840 Replacing Cell Block Module on High Voltage Battery

[Gino]

When I bought my RWD Taycan in Los Angeles two years ago I was told by the Porsche outlet general manager that California law supersedes the Porsche battery warranty and provides a 10 year warranty. Apparently this is not the case, which is quite surprising and, frankly, disappointing. From California Air Resource web site:

I agree w/ the comments about the risk of "bricking" otherwise perfectly fine EVs after, say, 100,000 miles due to the high cost of battery replacement. Because of the low cost of other service aspects of EVs, it doesn't seem unreasonable to pay, say, 25% for a new battery system every 10 years if the expected life of the car is in the neighborhood of 300,000 miles. Otherwise it will become yet another ding (a big one) against EVs.

For me, I keep my vehicles forever so I pick ones I love and will stand the test of time in terms of beauty & performance. My Taycan will test me on this for the first time in my life. I won't put more than 60K to 70K miles on it by the time the 8 year battery warranty expires. If the range is reduced to 50% or below after 10-15 years I can live with that but I hope the old battery modules don't become a risk of fire in the long term when charging in my garage or from credible possibility of spontaneous combustion in my garage. If there are long term dangers for battery modules beyond a certain age then you can't simply replace a few modules to get back range. You would have to replace them all to remove the fire risk or replace just a few and remove all the old modules which would not necessarily be possible since it would change the battery weight distribution in the vehicle or require modifications to the charging system if the overall capacity was to be at 50% or less depending on how many modules were replaced and how many removed. On the bright side the car would become lighter so the range with 50% less battery capacity would give better range without the dead weight of batteries which are already greatly diminished but if all old batteries beyond a certain age must be replaced for safety reasons then that would really destroy the value of EVs of any type or manufacturer since you would then be forced into an expensive complete battery replacement which would be higher than the residual value of an EV.
Very bad for collectors like me...

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[Caraholic]

Add me to the recall. They seem to be going out now

 

[Caraholic]

Asked my dealer about this the other day and they said it was just an inspection. Then if they see something then they would order a part which is not yet available. Just curious if anyone else has heard the same?

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Asked my dealer about this the other day and they said it was just an inspection. Then if they see something then they would order a part which is not yet available. Just curious if anyone else has heard the same?

Do you have a recall code? Like, say, “apb2” or “xyz3”.. You can then try searching, or posting specifics for more helpful answers.

 

[Caraholic]

Its ARA4 which is what is being discussed here.

 

[Tooney]

There are at least 3 separate recalls for Taycans entitled "High voltage batteries may short circuit" :

Campaign APB5 Dec 13, 2023 NHTSA 23V840000 205 units​

Campaign ARA4 Mar 20, 2024 NHTSA 24V215000 606 units​

Campaign ARA5 Mar 20, 2024 NHTSA 24V217000 749 units​

Posts with links to NHTSA documents for each of these 3 recall campaigns are in the "recalls" category of this forum.

As of today, there are no TSBs from Porsche posted at NHTSA that provide dealers with detailed instructions/procedures for handling the recalls. Either the TSBs with dealer procedures have not yet been posted at NHTSA, or they have not been issued to dealers.

 

[ShiftyWolf]

After reading threads similar to this, interesting timing that this article popped up in my Google news feed this morning.

Modern EV batteries rarely fail
Hmm

 

[Gino]

There are at least 3 separate recalls for Taycans entitled "High voltage batteries may short circuit" :

Campaign APB5 Dec 13, 2023 NHTSA 23V840000 205 units​

Campaign ARA4 Mar 20, 2024 NHTSA 24V215000 606 units​

Campaign ARA5 Mar 20, 2024 NHTSA 24V217000 749 units​

Posts with links to NHTSA documents for each of these 3 recall campaigns are in the "recalls" category of this forum.

As of today, there are no TSBs from Porsche posted at NHTSA that provide dealers with detailed instructions/procedures for handling the recalls. Either the TSBs with dealer procedures have not yet been posted at NHTSA, or they have not been issued to dealers.

I wish Porsche would advise us as to how long after charging above 85% are these HV batteries at risk of shorts & potential fire.
The statement "In 2021 Porsche became aware of a report of a single vehicle battery fire that occurred shortly after charging."
What does "shortly" mean? Minutes, an hour, a few hours after charging at an EA rapid charger?
The last thing I want to do is fully charge my Taycan to 100% the evening before a long trip and put it in the garage like a ticking bomb. Do I wait 15 minutes, an hour or how much longer before it's considered safe from shorts & combustion in Porsche's eyes?
Even my Porsche dealer does not charge only to 85%. Both times I brought my vehicle in to the dealer for service/recalls they put it on the charger and gave it back to me at 100% even though I showed them the Porsche service bulletin stating you should not charge beyond 85% on a regular basis.
I was told they were not aware of the service bulletin I showed them but also said they have no way of automatically stopping the charge at 85% so they simply let it charge to 100% when the charger automatically stops.
Apparently Porsche dealers are not worried about shorts and runaway battery fires since I doubt I'm the only Taycan owner they are charging to 100% as a standard practice.
I was also told they were confident if the HV battery was degraded to the point it needs their attention the software will make it clear the HV battery requires service. I do think this confidence is a bit misplaced since Porsche is warning that there are no warning signs just prior to a short & possible fire other than "shortly after charging" which is vague to say the least.
I wish I could see the data showing the charging history on the vehicles where shorts occurred as well as the vehicles which actually caught fire.
I'm certain Porsche knows what the shortest time after 100% SOC a short and eventually fire actually occurred as well as what the longest time after 100% SOC a short and eventually fire occurred.
This information would be important for customers to understand the window of risk of shorts and possible fires so this timeframe can be avoided.

 

[GoDucksYellO]

Asked my dealer about this the other day and they said it was just an inspection. Then if they see something then they would order a part which is not yet available. Just curious if anyone else has heard the same?

Yes mine was inspected and no issues were found with any of the cells.

 

[Genau]

My entire HV battery pack was replaced with a new one under warranty four months ago, yet I received the ARA4 campaign notice when I signed into the My Porsche website today. Wondering whether the recall notice was tied to my original pack, or to the new pack, or both, I called PCNA. I worded my question very carefully, assuming the default answer would be nonsense. The rep put me on hold, and came back five minutes later with a nonsense answer. I gently pressed him on it and got more nonsense. He said that it doesn't matter that my battery pack was replaced four months ago, the recall is tied to the vehicle manufacturing date, and I need to stay in close contact with my local service center for when a remedy becomes available.

Of course I'll make sure the dealership doesn't touch my new 99.4% SoH battery without proving to me via lot/date code or serial number that it's defective. According to the NHTSA notice that @Tooney posted here, Taycans manufactured after July 17, 2023 don't have the issue, so if the pack installed four months ago has a date code newer than early July, and the dealership still says ARA4 applies to it, I'll call shenanigans. Hoping this won't result in a permanent open safety recall against my VIN.

 

[Tooney]

@Genau When I took delivery of my Taycan over 2 years ago, the sales rep sent me a report entitled PCSS vehicle information report for my VIN.
Among other things in the 6 page report were the HV battery serial number, GBT code, and the GBT codes of each HV battery module. See extract below. You may want to request that report for your VIN. Might help in determining whether your car is/is not in the recall group.

 

[Jkring]

I negotiated a deal on a 2022 4s cpo last week and the day my salesman was to send me the contract, he called to say there was a “stop sale” on the car due to this recall. Of course he’s saying this should be resolved quickly, but from what I’m seeing, this is going to take a while.

 

[Cooler]

I have this ARA4 recall. Talked to service rep. He didnt know much as it was quite new recall. Said that they wont replace whole battery, will take it down open it, replace modules (not confirmed that def will replace or will replace if needed), then seal battery pack together, thus taking about 5 days to complete.

Suspected that inspection/repair wont happen before september.

 

[electricsidecar]

Spoke with my rep today and they also hadn't heard about this recall. When I asked about it they assumed I was referring to the one from last year regarding the charging cable and were surprised to hear about this new one.

 

[Gino]

Did you have the recall I noted or battery failure ?

No, not yet but before I purchased my CPO from Porsche I asked the service manager what is involved in the repair or replacement of individual battery modules as well as the entire battery pack which includes at least 11 or 12 modules on the base Taycan.

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