Speak EV - Electric Car Forums banner

Dead car left in storage for nearly a year, is there any hope?

2K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  EdH 
#1 · (Edited)
My Fiat 500e has been in storage for around a year and is unsurprisingly dead. It won’t charge when plugged into the Level 1 charger. Will it charge if I were to take it to a Level 2 charger, or is it completely dead?

Maybe jumpstart the smaller battery? Is the main battery replaceable or would that not be worth the money/effort? Is there any sense trying to fix it, or other things I can look into trying?

I don’t want to salvage it but I don’t want to go out to where it’s stored and spend money to tow it if there’s no hope. I also don’t want to mess it up more.

Any wisdom or advice appreciated
 
#2 ·
Your 12volt battery is run down. The car won't turn on or charge if the 12v battery is dead.

After sitting discharged that long the 12V battery is almost certainly ruined. You could try charging it but I doubt that will be enough. Get a new 12v battery and try again.

Get a new 12volt battery from Costco, PepBoys or Autozone or .... and try again. I don't know how hard it is to change the 12volt battery on a 500e. On most cars it easy.


---

The traction battery is probalby ok unless you stored the car when the battery was already very low. If the car was at or below 20% when you stored it there is a good chance that battery is ruined too.

The main traction battery is replacable but expensive. You wont' be able to tell the state of that battery until you get the 12volt system up and running.
 
#3 ·
Probably not economically viable to replace the traction battery. Used 500es are easy to pick up at very good prices. If changing the 12V battery doesn’t resolve the issue, sell it for spares. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is probably not true in this case!
 
#5 ·
Hopefully the 500e will be better than it's stablemate the Smart EQ where this does seemingly kill the traction battery.

Cheaper than replacing the 12v is to see if it will start with jump leads. If it does then the 12v will probably still need changing, but at least you know it is worth the effort.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top