[Neon]

I have recently bought a low mileage Ion and noticed a gap in my repair kit storage area under the rear seat. I have a compressor and the inflation pack but there is am empty slot in the polystyrene next to it that looks like it is missing a tool, am I right?

Also my rear passenger airbag warning lights stay on for about 30 secs with the sos light flashing. Is this normal as the front seat warning light goes off much quicker? (With no passengers I should add, plus nothing sitting on the seats to activate anything).

Lastly, I have no speakers inside the rear door speaker recesses, do you think mine been removed?

 

[misterbleepy]

Not sure about the stuff under the rear seat - I'll take a look if I get an opportunity today.
The rear passenger seatbelt warning lights do stay on longer than the front ones, and there are no 'bum sensors' on the back seat, so if it bothers you, doing up the rear belts might help.
The rear speakers are also absent in my car, though I believe the wiring is present if you want to try and fit speakers yourself. The car is really a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which might help if you try to find a speaker kit for it.

 

[Kelvin]

Welcome to Ion ownership Neon. Excellent choice of cheap EV motoring I also got myself a low mileage Ion and have found it an excellent car to run around in for 95% of my travels I only use an ICE now when I have to tow something or do a long distance journey.

What you have found is perfectly normal for the Ion but having just had a puncture in one of the rear tyres on my Ion I'd make a worthwhile suggestion to you. Get yourself a jack and a wheel brace. This is what is missing from the 'tool kit' under your rear seat. The aerosol repair kit is a waste of space and ought to be made illegal.

I had a piece of crockery punch through my tyre (no idea how it got there must have been in a pothole some place) and had I had a spare tyre and a jack and wheel-brace I could have been off and on my way in all of 3 minutes. With no jack and no brace to remove the tyre ..... Well how do you move a car and get a repair? This is not just a MiEV feature it's found in many modern cars nowadays. Unfortunately the Ion has different front and rear tyre sizes so a spare is always going to be a problem but it's a real simple thing to get a wheel-brace and a jack and carry it with you in the car so you can get the tyre fixed when you need it done.

Another irritating 'feature' / lack of feature, is that there's no clock. Simple solution here for that also is to get a cheap LCD clock from Maplin or other electrical retailer and get yourself some magnetic adhesive tape to pop on top of the dashboard and hey presto you now have a clock on the dash that you will look at several times on every journey. It's surprising how many times you do it but you don't notice until the clock is missing.

Oh also on the seatbelt warning lights.... If you happen to pop something such as a packed lunch or torch onto the passenger seat when you quickly nip up the road to fetch something. you may find the seatbelt warning light comes on occasionally on the dash. The weight sensor in the front seats are a bit overly sensitive.

Another thing to be aware of is that there have recently been a couple of compulsory recalls on the Ion one for the brakes and one for the main traction battery. Contact your Peugeot dealer and get them seen to it is a free safety recall and there is no charge.

 

[misterbleepy]

That's what I have under my back seat (plus a 20p piece - yay!)

I have found this US Mitsubishi i-MiEV forum a good resource for these cars - although the US version is wider, the forum has a small european contingent too, and is a handy place to look if you want to add a diesel heater, or use an android device and a bluetooth CANBUS monitor to get realtime info on the battery and drive system while driving: Mitsubishi iMiev Forum - Mitsubishi I-Miev Forum for the I-Miev Electric Car

 

[Neon]

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. A welcome intro to eV ownership and to this forum, many thanks.

 

[markweatherill]

Here is what the rear door looks like on a petrol 'i'. The iMiev and its friends should be the same.
In the front doors, the speaker is mounted on a short cylindrical plastic piece which fits into those three slots and rotates to lock in.

I wanted rear speakers in my petrol 'i' car and managed to make some suitably sized speakers (from a Toyota) fit; I didn't have the plastic pieces for the rears so as I recall I lined up some of the speaker's bolt holes with the slots in the door and found a position that worked.
The wiring should indeed be present.

 

[Neon]

Thanks for the photo and details Mark, i will use this when i start on mine soon.

 

[Mark Cornwall]

Welcome Neon, great choice of ev.

 

[Andy Parr]

Nice shots of the door. How easy is it to remove and more importanty replace the door cover ? Appears to be screwer on but i dont want to fiddle if there are any plastic clips involved.....