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[Spires]

ultrarnr, I hope it doesn't come down to returning to a dealer.. Its a 200mile round trip with a ferry ride back and forth.. Ugh.. And I have no truck at the moment haha.. Guess if the either of the new ones fail, I will have no choice but to borrow a truck and drive to a dealer. Wish they would just ship out some instructions and a new board to swap out, that would be soooo much easier. They are so easy to work on..

[ultrarnr]

Spires,

There is no single cause and single fix for the contactor error problem. The Zero rep had told my dealer that the resistor which was installed a week ago did fix a few bikes with this problem but not all of them.  Others required the controller to be replaced which is what they did to mine today. Today they discoved an issue with the seat which was increasing electronic noise in the system so a shield of some sorts is being shipped out and should arrive tomorrow morning. This problem has been going on since the Power Tank was installed on 13 March. Sure glad all of this is covered under warrenty.

The challenges in identifying the problem makes it very unlikely you will be able to do it without taking it to the dealer.

[Richard230]

I'll bet Zero dealer technicians are getting a real education in Zero problem diagnosis and repairs.  Whether or not they appreciate this education is probably debatable. 

[ultrarnr]

Richard230,

Yes they are. Mine basically gave up and told Zero they needed to send someone out to work on it and they did. There is a really big difference between working on a Suzuki or Yamaha and a Zero. There is only so much you can do on the phone. It is really interesting how Zero can dial into your bike when it is connected to the dealers lap top computer and try to sort out a problem. I don't doubt that this is effective in many cases but it wasn't enough in trying to sort out what was causing the contactor error problem.

[kensiko]

Really interesting, I'll be sure to share.

[ultrarnr]

I picked up my Zero SR today from the dealer and took it for a test ride. So far the contactor error problem seems to be fixed. Guess replacing the controller and all of the other work performed last week did the trick.

A few other notes from the test ride:

Averaging 55 MPH range with the Power Tank is about 96 miles.
No "limp home" mode kicking in at 7% charge, was able to do 55 MPH until about 3 miles from home when the speed limit drops to 35 MPH. About a mile or so from home the charge level dropped to 0%. When I plugged the bike in at home the Smart phone App showed 5% charge while the bike showed 0%. Charge time was 10 hrs, 38 minutes.

It has taken over six weeks to get this problem fixed. Too long. To Zero: You have no idea how close you came to losing a dealership over this problem. Waiting six weeks to send a technician to fix a problem is far too long.

[protomech]

Zero says 106 miles @ 55 mph .. so that sounds fairly close.

[ultrarnr]

protomech,

I didn't think I would get that kind of range with the Power Tank. I live about an hour south of Raleigh, NC and terrain here is what I would call easy rolling hills. My guess is the Zero range numbers are for flat terrain.  Like I am sure most people with EVs have done once or twice on the way home I was wishing I had turned around a few miles sooner than I did. I was definitely surprised to see no power cut once the charge level got down to 6%. I never had a problem doing the speed limit. Someone had mentioned in another thread about a firmware upgrade and maybe they did that to my SR. The "Limp Home" mode was definitely no fun and glad that feature went away. There were also some fields in the Smart Phone App that show charging data that were never available before and now are.

I had tested range before without the Power Tank and 70 miles was really max. I wasn't on the exact same route but close enough for planning purposes.

Also had the opportunity to pass a SUV and a bus that were doing 40-45 MPH in a 55 zone. The roll on speed of the SR is definitely impressive. Of course I am used to a V-Strom!

[protomech]

Any temperature differences between the time you ran the route before the power tank and this most recent time?

[kensiko]

Good to know that everything seems fine now.

It was possibly me who told you about the firmware update.

[ultrarnr]

protomech,

I am sure it was a few degrees warmer yesterday compared to when I tested range before. That could easily explain some of it. Wish I had written down the Wh/mile rate from before to.

[biolife]

Man, glad to hear it seems to be working properly now, but the whole thing really sucks. My SR should be here soon, and I'm really hoping to not have to go through stuff like this. I guess that's part of being an early adopter, but still no fun!