Performing a DBCAM (battery calibration) using a ThinkCar OBD scanner, with screenshots (for PHEV up to 2022)

[Daixiwen]

TLDR: the procedure starts on post nr 2

Hello everyone!
I’ve had some battery degradation on my phev lately. The battery state of health stayed religiously over 72% until the end of the battery warranty, but then started to go down faster and faster. Last week it went down by 1.5Ah overnight, down to 64.8%, so I decided it was time to do a DBCAM. I have a Thinkcar OBD scanner and discovered recently that it can actually do a DBCAM, so I thought I’d have a try and share my results. I was successful! I got my yellow card in PHEVWatchdog:

I gained back 7%, which is really not bad, but I’m a bit disappointed the battery is in this state now. I thought I took better care of it, but 7% is still better than nothing.
If you want to do it yourself, first you need to determine if your OBD device (or the one you want to buy) can actually do it. On the Thinkcar website they have a coverage enquiry page. Select “Online retailers” and your product, then choose Mitsubishi in the list. Then in the selection boxes, find “Outlander-PHEV” in the first one, the model year in the second one, BMU in the third one, and “Special Function” in the fourth one. What we are looking for in the list is “Battery Auto Capacity Measured”. If you see it, then you should be able to do the procedure with the selected OBD tool.

I used the Mitsubishi service bulletins MSB-17EXL54-501 and MSB-14EXML00_54-001, finding the correspondance with the options available in the Thinkdiag app.
There are still two points I’m not sure about, and I’d appreciate if anyone has some answers:

• The service bulletins talk about the electric power switch. When they say to turn the electric power switch on, do they mean to turn the high voltage on, and therefore to put the car in ready mode? This is what I assumed here
• I didn’t find the procedure to write back the battery manufacture date in the BMU after a reset. I can’t find anything in the Thinkdiag app either

 

[Daixiwen]

And now, this is how I did it:
First before you begin, the drive battery needs to be as empty as possible. The original procedure said that the state of charge should be under 30%, the updated procedure says that the charge level on the dashboard should be at just one bar. I don’t know which one is the easiest. If you have the PhevWatchdog app, I find it easier to use it to check the battery state of charge. But basically if you drive the car until the ICE kicks in, it should be fine. If you need it, you can also use the AC or the heater in the car with the windows open to help discharge the battery more.

Park the car, near the charger, knowing that it can sit there for a while. In my case it took 6 hours, the original procedure says up to 12 hours but the new one says up to 72 hours, so you never know how long it can take…. It will depend mostly on the battery temperature, and on whether the car has a battery heater or not.

Don’t connect the charger yet, plug the diagnostic tool in, and put the car in ready mode. If you have a charging timer configured, turn it off to be sure it doesn’t interfere with the process.

Open the Android app, and choose “ALL SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC”.



click on “VIN Decoding”. Let the app find the car model, and if required download the Mitsubishi software.



Choose “System Selection”, “BMU”, “Special Function” and “Battery Maintenance Function”











Select “BATT. Capa. Estimated Info. Reset” and confirm

Select “Control Information Reset” and confirm

In my case the ICE started just after the last reset, so I turned the car off and on again in the ACC mode.

Go back to the BMU screen and select “Read Data Stream”. Select “Battery Current Capacity” and confirm. The original battery capacity should now be shown (38Ah in my case). If it’s still showing the old capacity, perform the reset again until it shows the original value. I’m showing also here the Battery Remaining Capacity, which is the state of charge. Here it’s about 24%.



Turn the car off and connect the charger.

The battery should start charging and you should see the charging indicator turning on in the dashboard

Go back to the “BMU” menu, “Special Function” and select “Battery Auto Capacity Measured”



“Execution Status” should show “Not Run” (or "Complete" if you've had a DBCam performed before). Click on the “Perform” button, confirm, and you should hear the AC and the fans starting.

“Execution Status” should now show “Executing” and “Capa. Measured Discharge Current” should show “Ok”

 

[Daixiwen]

You can leave the car alone, disconnect the OBD scanner if you want. You can check the status later by plugging the ODB scanner againm, go in the app and folow the same procedure. “VIN Decoding”, “System Selection”, “BMU”, “Special Function” and “Battery Auto Capacity Measured”.

When the discharge phase is complete, the AC and fans should turn off. At that point “Capa. Measured Discharge Current” should show “NG/Not Performed” but “Execution Status” should still show “Executing”.





When the charge phase is complete, the charge light on the dashboard should turn off. “Execution Status” should show “Complete” and “Error Status” should show “No Error”. The new battery capacity will be in “Battery Current Capacity”, and the DBCAM is now complete!

 

[fresh-milk]

Whoa! Thanks for the detailed guide.

My current OBD does not work with PHEV Watchdog so will look to get a ThinkCar now

Which ThinkCar model did you use? I see a whole bunch on their site and they look like pro products.

 

[Daixiwen]

I don't think the Thinkcar OBD works with PHEV Watchdog either, I have a separate OBD receiver for the Watchdog app.

I bought a ThinkCar Thinkdiag. Oddly enough it's not on ThinkCar's own webshop, but I bought it from Kingbolen for $89 (excluding taxes).

 

[fresh-milk]

So you used ThinkCar Thinkdiag here for the DBCAM?

Like this one?

 

[Daixiwen]

Yes it's this one

 

[jag1123]

Yes it's this one

Hi, thanks for the amazing instruction, do you think not being able to write the battery age after the reset causes any issues? Also before I buy the thinkdiag do you know if there is any way to disable to KOS keyless entry system on the car so it does not unlock when pressing the little button on the doorhandle thanks

 

[Daixiwen]

I haven't had any issues, I don't know if the BMU actually uses the battery age for anything.
I'll look into the menu for the keyless system and tell you

 

[jag1123]

I haven't had any issues, I don't know if the BMU actually uses the battery age for anything.
I'll look into the menu for the keyless system and tell you

That's great thank you

 

[jag1123]

I managed to do work out it the device came today and went to the ETACS menu and then coding customise and change the keyless entry setting all works perfectly now thanks will do a DBCAM in the morning

 

[ASeitzinger]

somehow I managed to rewrite the battery age and also the mileage, but now the battery returned to 100% SOH (40Ah)...

So I will drive around 30kms, that was the useable range until yesterday. Then try to reproduce the steps I did for writing the age and then do another DBCAM

No, I am never afraid of bricking something expensive LOL and I already have 10 LEV46 modules sitting and waiting...

 

[jag1123]

somehow I managed to rewrite the battery age and also the mileage, but now the battery returned to 100% SOH (40Ah)...

So I will drive around 30kms, that was the useable range until yesterday. Then try to reproduce the steps I did for writing the age and then do another DBCAM

No, I am never afraid of bricking something expensive LOL and I already have 10 LEV46 modules sitting and waiting...

Hope you manage to get it sorted did you rewrite the battery age and mileage before doing the dbcam? If so then that is why you have the flase 100%SOH let us know how you get on once you do the whole procedure again hopefully should have true SOH doe. Also how did you manage to rewrite the battery age and mileage any steps would be appreciated so I can rewrite and then repeat the above procedure many thanks