Damaged pipes under chassis

[JohnR]

Hi All,

I use my PHEV on and off road, though the latter is pretty mild, mostly farm tracks etc. Yesterday I missed seeing a rock and I have managed to smack the pair of pipes that run under the car. The result is one is pretty well squashed flat at the point where it runs under a rail (the damage hidden under the black braiding covering).

I dread to think what a main dealer would charge to replace the pipes! Has anyone ever cut out the damaged part and simply used some rubber hose in place? After all, those same pipes have flexible sections already formed that way.

I am not at all new to working on cars, over 20 years of Land Rovers and also racing cars, but this would be the first home efforts on the PHEV.

Thanks

John

 

[richr]

Do you know what the pipes are carrying? I guess if they already have rubber sections then it may well be coolant at relatively low pressure (going to the battery pack?). If so that should be fine. But obviously not for high pressure fluids such as petrol, brake fluid or aircon refrigerant.

I used to replace sections on the fuel pipes on my Renault 5s and Pajero fairly often - but that was low pressure as there was no in-tank pump on those. They were forever corroding or getting bashed on rocks...

 

[JohnR]

Yes it certainly looks like coolant pipes, it appears that the same cooling system for the ICE is also used to cool the batteries. This is the circuit to the battery tray.

The damage was yesterday, I drove home about 25 miles with no ill effects, and kept a close eye when I went to work today. No fluid loss nor overheating, though I do not want to wait long before dealing with it.

 

[jaapv]

Just make sure that you are not looking at 300V cables...

 

[JohnR]

I did as planned, though once the braided covering was pulled back I decided one pipe was OK after all.

I had to drop a small plate that was protecting 300VDC cables, that gave me more room to cut the alloy pipe. The High Voltage cables are well covered and easy to spot anyway.

I used a big plastic bowl to catch all the coolant having disconnected the damaged pipe at the rear end where it joined flexible rubber. Even doing this on the ground outside it was about 2 hours, I envy those with access to car hoists.

I still need to watch for any fluid leaks and also I do not know if the PHEV cooling system is prone to airlocks after draining. Time will tell.

 

[BCbackroader]

JohnR, it sounds like you need to do the mods I'm undertaking on mine, to avoid repeating that sort of damage. I've just done a 40mm lift kit, and plan on larger dia tires soon. Look for my details in the "Modding the PHEV" thread, page 6.

 

[Katmandu]

On my MY18 there are two cooling sysytems, one for the engine and one for the battery/motors but they are fairly distincive and given your experience and the work you have already done you would have found out if you had two by now.

 

[khaan0001]

Hello!
The first post on this forum begins with a problem: my PHEV, has a curious trail of the pipes that circulate the traction battery cooling fluid. I attach a photo with their route. Practically, it traverses under the chassis so the lowest point of the car is those two pipes!
In your cars how is the route of these pipes? If possible, please send me photo (even in private) with the route on your cars. If it was walked to them - I bought the used car - to be able to rebuild the original route. At this point, between the pipeline and the asphalt, there are only about. 10 cm.
Thank you!

 

[ArthurUK]

I was surprised how vulnerable these pipes were on my 2017 MY and I did a search to see if anyone had had any problems, clearly you have !
These two pipes are actually part of the Heater system, nothing to do with Motor or Battery Cooling.
They take the same coolant that is in the engine and when the engine is off/cold it is passed through the PTC Heater, this is a 300V Electrical Resistive heater that is under the Nearside seat, the pipe routing is a mess and the least they could have done was put a skid plate over them.

So I have made a skid plate.
I made a template from a piece of cardboard having decided the two anchoring points, one a large front subframe bolt the other a clamp that picks up on a large hole in the chassis member. To take any compressive load from below (Grounding out or a debris) I have bonded two Wooden Blocks to the chassis member with some clearance for the pipes, these are deliberately not attached to the plate. If the plate is struck it is better it can deform without pulling the blocks onto the pipes.

Front N/S Wheel off for access and a jack under the subframe so when I removed the 18mm Bolt nothing moved (without the jack the subframe would drop I am sure)

I cant give you a drawing, but the plate was 200mm wide and 500mm long, I used about 480mm of it.
Start off with a cardboard template.