BYD Seal tips, tricks and help

[UWEB]

10 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

BYD Battery optimization

 

https://bydautomotive.com.au/brochures/BYD-SEAL-Owners-Handbook-2023.pdf

 

Charging to 100% at least once a week is no problem for me having solar, but getting to less than 10% takes a bit more planning. I had a long trip yesterday and then used the car to power the house over night. For good measure we took the seal out in the morning for an Amazon Coffee.

 

I plan to fast charge it to 80% this morning then do the final 20% on AC at home 

 

What do other people do?

 

 

If I charged it all at home I couldn’t do it all from solar in one day

 

Start charging as soon I'm out of Bed at 6.00 am with max Load from the ABB Charger, what is 7.5 kwh as per ABB App and 6.4 kwh as per BYD App. At first using my House Batteries and PEA Grid, but around 8.00 am my Solar produces enough to charge the Car and House Batteries again. Keep on charging till Car is fully charged.

[Bandersnatch]

2 hours ago, UWEB said:

Start charging as soon I'm out of Bed at 6.00 am with max Load from the ABB Charger, what is 7.5 kwh as per ABB App and 6.4 kwh as per BYD App. At first using my House Batteries and PEA Grid, but around 8.00 am my Solar produces enough to charge the Car and House Batteries again. Keep on charging till Car is fully charged.

 

That's what I ended up doing - more or less.

 

Because I powered the house from the Seal last night, my home solar batteries were pretty full this morning and I used them and a bit of solar to charge the car up initially, we don't have PEA. As the sun came up I was using less and from the home batteries until Solar was able to charge both the EV and the house batteries.

 

We left the Seal charging and used our other EV to run some errands during the day.

 

We should finish charging the Seal back to 100% tomorrow.

[mistral53]

On 10/25/2024 at 8:53 AM, Bandersnatch said:

 

I plan to fast charge it to 80% this morning then do the final 20% on AC at home 

 

That is not the way it will work for the intended purpose - for the BMS to calculate the battery capacity properly and plot the depletion curve, it must be done according to the manual. What you intend to do is just another charge from 80 to 100 %.

 

What the top 20% slow charge is good for is for balancing the cells - so not a total loss.

[JBChiangRai]

6 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

 

That is not the way it will work for the intended purpose - for the BMS to calculate the battery capacity properly and plot the depletion curve, it must be done according to the manual. What you intend to do is just another charge from 80 to 100 %.

 

What the top 20% slow charge is good for is for balancing the cells - so not a total loss.

I don’t believe BYD balances the cells only at high SoC, I think it has active balancing and balances the cells at any state of charge continuously, probably even when the car is off.

 

The only cars I know that use passive balancing at the end of the charge period are MG.

[JBChiangRai]

Between approximately 50% and 80% a lithium iron cell has almost a flat voltage, so it’s very difficult for the BMS to tell what the state of charge is in that range, the purpose of taking it up to 100% is to record that significant 100% voltage peak and know that the batteries fully charged so it can recalculate the SoC.

 

I think the purpose of taking it below 10% is for it to be able to calculate the capacity of the battery pack, which probably happens as you recharge it, it counts the coulombs going into the pack and knows the capacity and state of health.

[mistral53]

37 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Between approximately 50% and 80% a lithium iron cell has almost a flat voltage, so it’s very difficult for the BMS to tell what the state of charge is in that range, the purpose of taking it up to 100% is to record that significant 100% voltage peak and know that the batteries fully charged so it can recalculate the SoC.

 

I think the purpose of taking it below 10% is for it to be able to calculate the capacity of the battery pack, which probably happens as you recharge it, it counts the coulombs going into the pack and knows the capacity and state of health.

 

My engineering degree is not in LFP battery chemistry and blade battery design, so I have no idea.

 

I have however observed discussions occasionally about significant differences of range - most of which is most likely a function of the driving style. However, the question that was often also raised was about the full-charge cycle <10 to 100%, and those owners that had comparatively low range cars, admitted to have never done a full-charge cycle......go figure.

[Bandersnatch]

1 hour ago, mistral53 said:

 

That is not the way it will work for the intended purpose - for the BMS to calculate the battery capacity properly and plot the depletion curve, it must be done according to the manual. What you intend to do is just another charge from 80 to 100 %.

 

What the top 20% slow charge is good for is for balancing the cells - so not a total loss.

 

The manual says to fully charge it from <10% I wasn't sure if that had to be in one session or could be split over a few days. Hence my post with a question asking what others were doing.

 

I haven't used fast charging since the first week of ownership and then only a few kWh for test purposes. 

 

I explained in detail what I actually did in my reply to UWEB above.

 

 

[JBChiangRai]

If you don’t charge to 100% regularly the SoC displayed will get increasingly less accurate as the BMS attempts to calculate based on power in and out and it will drift in one direction.

 

The battery voltage vs SoC curve gets very steep above 90’something% and below 10%.  I think the purpose of BYD’s instructions is to recalibrate the BMS.  It’s not to prolong the life of the battery.
 

The worst behavior for battery longevity is to keep it charged close to 100%, ie what some people call ABC, always be charging. I used to do that until I watched the EE video.

[Andrew Dwyer]

So, on Thursday or Friday I got a pop up on my instrument cluster with the crossed wrench and screwdriver stating “ 7 days before service “.

Now 6 days:

 

 

Now, I picked up the car on Nov 30th 2023 and have done 16,380 km.

 

So i looked at the settings in service screen to see the day countdown was on 5 days, by my reckoning should be 34 days to go.

 

By setting to 0 days i would then get the “ please go to BYD authorised service shop for service immediately “

 

By setting to 30 days the message disappears altogether.

 

Am presuming that someone miscalculated by 1 month as it appears you already get a 7 day countdown ??

 

Soo, I reset to 30 days and 20,000 km previously it was something like 1,380 km which didn’t make sense either .

 

 

NOTE: I since realised that the maintenance mileage is probably a countdown also and I should have set to 3,620 ( 20k - 16,380 ) will check that later.

 

Quite dull I admit but i wonder how many cars have the ability to set your own maintenance schedules ??

 

EDIT: checked and it appears that it is 1 year from when i ordered the car ( Oct 24th 2023 ) which would seem like an odd date as some have had to wait a few months before delivery and the turnaround at the dealership must be only 3 or 4 days !!

 

Anyone else noticed this or is it only me needing a new hobby ??

[Pib]

Heck, my old 2009 Toyota Fortuner has a maintenance schedule menu/display that  puts the BYD maintenance schedule menu/display to shame.  The Fortuner has individual settings for oil, coolant, brakes, etc...around a dozen settings where you can enter kilometers and date for each of them.  And also 2 or 3 misc where you can enter whatever you want like changing the air fresher every X months.   Anyway can set whatever amounts into these settings....just like how you can setup/change a notification on your phone, computer, etc., for whatever you want.  That maintenance menu/display is not restricted, locked, etc., only for the dealership usage.

 

But back to the BYD Mx Schedule/Display.   That can be set/changed by anyone...by you, the dealership, etc.   And when it reaches the date/kilometers set a pop-up notification will remind you it time to do something.

 

When I had my last scheduled checkup done for my Atto on 18 Aug 2023 (this was my 1st annual checkup) at a little over 19.1K kilometers that was done early as I picked-up the Atto on 25 oct 2023.   It's my understanding the BYD warranty requires the annual checkups to be done on the anniversary from the date you took procession of the vehicle OR a certain amount of kilometers, whichever comes first.     And when I picked-up car the dealership rep said to be sure to get the check-up done plus or minus one month OR plus minus 1K kilometers of the checkup requirement.  

 

So, when I hit that 19K point but 2 months from my anniversary I went to my BYD dealership to get an annual checkup appt.  Initially they were a little resistant since it was 2 months from my anniversary date although I was within 1K of 20Km.  They made a couple of calls, which I think was to Rever Automotive which is HQ for BYD dealerships in Thailand, to get approval to do the annual checkup a little early.   Anyway, they did give me an appt about two weeks down the road and I ended up getting the annual checkup done a little over 2 months before the anniversary date and around 850km early.   Once again, this was done on 18 Aug 2024.

 

Now when I picked up the car that maintenance schedule display now showed a 19.X Km countdown (I can' t remember exactly but it was not 20K but something less) and a date countdown which would popup in mid July 2025...that is, about a  month before my last annual inspection done on 18 Aug 2024. 

 

So, if this is standard procedure for all BYD dealerships they will set that maintenance schedule count down "notification" to popup based on kilometers and days which would remind you that you are "within about a month and/or 1K km" of needing to have you annual checkup done.   Basically, the notification is set kilometers/date wise to pop-up "before" you exactly reach the annual anniversary date or XX kilometers requirement.....that way you then get with your dealership to make an appt because it may take them X-weeks before they can get you in.  Not like if you drive in today and say I need my annual checkup done and then being able to do it that day/that hour....instead they need to schedule you with a checkup appt several days/weeks down the road.

 

P.S. By the way, I also got my initial 3 month/5K checkup done almost a month early as I was fast approaching the 5K point...if had waited till the 3 month point I would have surely been over 6K and missed the plus or minus 1K requirement.  I  had been driving a lot more than average as compared to when driving my ICEV Fortuner so my mileage was racking faster than the timeframe.    Once again the dealership was initially just a little resistive since it was being done almost a month early....once again, they made a phone call...got approval and I got it done at the 2 month point.    

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Heck, my old 2009 Toyota Fortuner has a maintenance schedule menu/display that  puts the BYD maintenance schedule menu/display to shame.  The Fortuner has individual settings for oil, coolant, brakes, etc...around a dozen settings where you can enter kilometers and date for each of them.  And also 2 or 3 misc where you can enter whatever you want like changing the air fresher every X months.   Anyway can set whatever amounts into these settings....just like how you can setup/change a notification on your phone, computer, etc., for whatever you want.  That maintenance menu/display is not restricted, locked, etc., only for the dealership usage.

 

But back to the BYD Mx Schedule/Display.   That can be set/changed by anyone...by you, the dealership, etc.   And when it reaches the date/kilometers set a pop-up notification will remind you it time to do something.

 

When I had my last scheduled checkup done for my Atto on 18 Aug 2023 (this was my 1st annual checkup) at a little over 19.1K kilometers that was done early as I picked-up the Atto on 25 oct 2023.   It's my understanding the BYD warranty requires the annual checkups to be done on the anniversary from the date you took procession of the vehicle OR a certain amount of kilometers, whichever comes first.     And when I picked-up car the dealership rep said to be sure to get the check-up done plus or minus one month OR plus minus 1K kilometers of the checkup requirement.  

 

So, when I hit that 19K point but 2 months from my anniversary I went to my BYD dealership to get an annual checkup appt.  Initially they were a little resistant since it was 2 months from my anniversary date although I was within 1K of 20Km.  They made a couple of calls, which I think was to Rever Automotive which is HQ for BYD dealerships in Thailand, to get approval to do the annual checkup a little early.   Anyway, they did give me an appt about two weeks down the road and I ended up getting the annual checkup done a little over 2 months before the anniversary date and around 850km early.   Once again, this was done on 18 Aug 2024.

 

Now when I picked up the car that maintenance schedule display now showed a 19.X Km countdown (I can' t remember exactly but it was not 20K but something less) and a date countdown which would popup in mid July 2025...that is, about a  month before my last annual inspection done on 18 Aug 2024. 

 

So, if this is standard procedure for all BYD dealerships they will set that maintenance schedule count down "notification" to popup based on kilometers and days which would remind you that you are "within about a month and/or 1K km" of needing to have you annual checkup done.   Basically, the notification is set kilometers/date wise to pop-up "before" you exactly reach the annual anniversary date or XX kilometers requirement.....that way you then get with your dealership to make an appt because it may take them X-weeks before they can get you in.  Not like if you drive in today and say I need my annual checkup done and then being able to do it that day/that hour....instead they need to schedule you with a checkup appt several days/weeks down the road.

 

P.S. By the way, I also got my initial 3 month/5K checkup done almost a month early as I was fast approaching the 5K point...if had waited till the 3 month point I would have surely been over 6K and missed the plus or minus 1K requirement.  I  had been driving a lot more than average as compared to when driving my ICEV Fortuner so my mileage was racking faster than the timeframe.    Once again the dealership was initially just a little resistive since it was being done almost a month early....once again, they made a phone call...got approval and I got it done at the 2 month point.    

 

So looks like my maintenance schedule in the car had been set to notify me 1 month early or around 17.5/18k km.

Seems a bit pointless having a 7 day countdown if they are already 1 month early !

 

My 1st/3 month was done at 2 1/2 months and 3,200 km, vaguely recall seeing the pop up then making a service booking so presumably 1 month early notice also.

Don’t remember the 7 days countdown pop up, maybe that came with an OTA.

 

Will probably call in some time next week to book a service, maybe sneak a few cheeky free electrons at the same time.

 

P.S. am not really obsessing over this ( honest !) but looking to paint my brake callipers and touch up my dipped wheels sometime soon and will wait till the service/tyre rotation is done.

[mistral53]

I expected this to be more of a Tesla problem, as there are plenty of videos on the Internet showing how much 'dirt' accumulates - Tesla having a worse situation since their radiator assembly is at an angle.

 

Turns out, the BYD Seal is not far behind. What I find irksome is that the whole front-bumper needs to be removed to get access - a more service minded design would provide an access panel and the cleaning could be done in a matter of minutes.

 

(The pictures are screen shots from a Thai FB video)

[Andrew Dwyer]

On 10/28/2024 at 10:12 AM, mistral53 said:

I expected this to be more of a Tesla problem, as there are plenty of videos on the Internet showing how much 'dirt' accumulates - Tesla having a worse situation since their radiator assembly is at an angle.

 

Turns out, the BYD Seal is not far behind. What I find irksome is that the whole front-bumper needs to be removed to get access - a more service minded design would provide an access panel and the cleaning could be done in a matter of minutes.

 

(The pictures are screen shots from a Thai FB video)

There is a grille that can be fit to stop leaves entering, available from Lazada, Shopee etc.

I had one on order but cancelled due to some question of cutting down the air flow, after seeing this though i might rethink ?

 

EDIT: just had a quick look inside and there are indeed a few leaves up against the radiator 

[Andrew Dwyer]

On 10/27/2024 at 12:34 PM, Andrew Dwyer said:

So looks like my maintenance schedule in the car had been set to notify me 1 month early or around 17.5/18k km.

Seems a bit pointless having a 7 day countdown if they are already 1 month early !

 

My 1st/3 month was done at 2 1/2 months and 3,200 km, vaguely recall seeing the pop up then making a service booking so presumably 1 month early notice also.

Don’t remember the 7 days countdown pop up, maybe that came with an OTA.

 

Will probably call in some time next week to book a service, maybe sneak a few cheeky free electrons at the same time.

 

P.S. am not really obsessing over this ( honest !) but looking to paint my brake callipers and touch up my dipped wheels sometime soon and will wait till the service/tyre rotation is done.

The little lady called today to make a booking and they told us to call again at the end of next month ( Nov 30th is 1 year anniversary ) or if reached 19k km ??

[mistral53]

2 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

There is a grille that can be fit to stop leaves entering, available from Lazada, Shopee etc.

I had one on order but cancelled due to some question of cutting down the air flow, after seeing this though i might rethink ?

 

EDIT: just had a quick look inside and there are indeed a few leaves up against the radiator 

 

Did you use  a snake-scope to see what's behind/between the radiator assemblies? I dread the idea to have a look myself, I rather stay ignorant and tell myself it happens to other cars only.....lol

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Just now, mistral53 said:

 

Did you use  a snake-scope to see what's behind/between the radiator assemblies? I dread the idea to have a look myself, I rather stay ignorant and tell myself it happens to other cars only.....lol

 

Nope, just got down and looked through the flaps, which i believe only open when the battery is at a certain temp, was charging at the time .

[Andrew Dwyer]

 

Exactly 1 hour 

Exactly 70 kWh 

Exactly 560 baht

Exactly 0.00 baht paid (😀)

 

Has to be an omen for the lottery here, but which numbers to use ?

[Gweiloman]

16 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

 

Exactly 1 hour 

Exactly 70 kWh 

Exactly 560 baht

Exactly 0.00 baht paid (😀)

 

Has to be an omen for the lottery here, but which numbers to use ?

And that’s giving you a range of over 500 kms. Even if you had to pay, what an amazing low cost of operation.

[Andrew Dwyer]

51 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

And that’s giving you a range of over 500 kms. Even if you had to pay, what an amazing low cost of operation.

785 kWh so far giving me around 5,600 km at zero baht !

Can’t complain 😊

[Homburg]

Wow! Just Wow!  Thank you so much for this thread.  My ageing automobile has a manual parking brake.  Pull up for on, let down to release.  I did not have to read through or study a 214 page manual in order to work out how to use it.  I am now more convinced than ever to keep my ageing automobile for as long as possible.

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, Homburg said:

Wow! Just Wow!  Thank you so much for this thread.  My ageing automobile has a manual parking brake.  Pull up for on, let down to release.  I did not have to read through or study a 214 page manual in order to work out how to use it.  I am now more convinced than ever to keep my ageing automobile for as long as possible.

I am wondering what happens to these modern marvels if the battery gets so  flat it won't even operate the door locks, and there is no recharge point close by. Apparently there are reports of EV owners winding up stranded in freezing conditions. Range not as advertised.

 

I remember my neighbor's ICE BMW getting a flat battery, and being unable to access the car because it had no physical key. The BMW dealership was 20 km away.

 

IMO some designers become so enarmoured with how clever they are, that they overlook the obvious.

 

My 2006 Vios will probably outlast me.

[crazykopite]

I've got a hybrid, not a plug-in the gasoline charges it Thailand doesn't have enough charging stations especially when it comes to the islands and a home charger takes a good 8 hours I would never ever invest in a plug-in electric vehicle in Thailand 

[JBChiangRai]

5 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

I've got a hybrid, not a plug-in the gasoline charges it Thailand doesn't have enough charging stations especially when it comes to the islands and a home charger takes a good 8 hours I would never ever invest in a plug-in electric vehicle in Thailand 

 

Your information is very outdated.  There are at least 3 high speed DC chargers on Koh Samui which is probably 3 more than you are likely to need.

 

I do not know of any PHEV that takes anything approaching 8 hours to charge.  Most full EV's are typically charged in 5 or 6 hours.  It is extremely rare to charge from 0% to 100% and on the mainland there is a plethora of fast DC chargers.

 

 

[shdmn]

1 minute ago, JBChiangRai said:

 

Your information is very outdated.  There are at least 3 high speed DC chargers on Koh Samui which is probably 3 more than you are likely to need.

 

I do not know of any PHEV that takes anything approaching 8 hours to charge.  Most full EV's are typically charged in 5 or 6 hours.  It is extremely rare to charge from 0% to 100% and on the mainland there is a plethora of fast DC chargers.

 

 

I am running into more and more of them everywhere.  It will only keep getting better. 

[mistral53]

4 hours ago, Homburg said:

Wow! Just Wow!  Thank you so much for this thread.  My ageing automobile has a manual parking brake.  Pull up for on, let down to release.  I did not have to read through or study a 214 page manual in order to work out how to use it.  I am now more convinced than ever to keep my ageing automobile for as long as possible.

 

Right! We’ve reached a point where cars are practically tucking us in at night. Meanwhile, those of us with classic pull-up brakes are out here feeling like survivalists—armed with the skill to manually *park* a car! At this rate, it won’t be long before newer models require a 214 page manual just to locate the the steering wheel, or the 'off' button. 

[Lacessit]

44 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

 

Right! We’ve reached a point where cars are practically tucking us in at night. Meanwhile, those of us with classic pull-up brakes are out here feeling like survivalists—armed with the skill to manually *park* a car! At this rate, it won’t be long before newer models require a 214 page manual just to locate the the steering wheel, or the 'off' button. 

I remember times when criminals could not execute a getaway, because they could not operate a vehicle with manual gears.

[Luuk Chaai]

best tip of all

[Gweiloman]

3 hours ago, Luuk Chaai said:

best tip of all

Yes, the charging infrastructure in America is 3rd world, much worse than Thailand so the need for such options. 

[Bandersnatch]

18 hours ago, crazykopite said:

I've got a hybrid, not a plug-in the gasoline charges it Thailand doesn't have enough charging stations especially when it comes to the islands and a home charger takes a good 8 hours I would never ever invest in a plug-in electric vehicle in Thailand 

 

My EV only has a 600km range so there's no way I will be able to make it to the next charging station on Koh Samui

 

 

 

[Bandersnatch]

5 hours ago, Luuk Chaai said:

best tip of all

 

Turns up at a BYD discussion and posts a picture of a Tesla

 

5 hours ago, Luuk Chaai said:

best tip of all

 

Do some research before posting so you don't look like a complete ....