Chevrolet Bolt EV Battery Disassembly

too heavy to do that, but maybe when we put it back we can look underneath. One more thing I checked in the service information, those

battery

adhesive pads, heat transfer pads are not reusable. You have to take them off and then put new ones on. on and make sure they are bubble-free when you reinstall them. So I'll see if I can get them at the local Chevrolet dealership or not. It will be interesting to see. Okay, we're ready to remove the rest of the

battery

sections battery sections one, two, three and four and Before removing the

bolt

s to remove those sections.

I just wanted to show you one more time the voltage of these batteries, so here, from negative to positive, I have forty point five eight volts. Here are ten battery cell packs of three cells soldered in parallel per pack fully charged about four. volts each, giving us 40 volts in the battery section at the back. The two battery sections at the back of battery sections five and four have a shorter section that has eight battery cell packs and has a fully charged voltage. 32 volts as we saw on the bench. So what that means is that we are no longer dealing with dangerous voltages.

I can go in and touch it. There is nothing important. However, what are proper service procedures? We always recommend that you tell us to keep our personal protective equipment and gloves on. Get rid of watches and any other jewelry. We may have and keep that PPE on while we finish working on this battery, taking them out, so I'm going to put the gloves back on. I have already tested them for leaks. By the way, it is against OSHA regulations to use these gloves without the leather outer glove. Except for one time, you can use them once without the leather outer glove, and then you have to recertify them immediately after that, so always keep your leather outer gloves in their zero high voltage class. gloves and that's because without any protection on them you could cut them and make them useless immediately.

Okay, so we have three

bolt

s on the side of each battery section, so six bolts total on the sides and then six bolts on the front six bolts. on the back of each battery and one section, so I'm going to remove those bolts right now and let's take out section number one of the battery. Okay, we'll remove our front support. Oh I forgot there are two center bolts that we have to take out They are actually nuts on bolts Another bracket, three bolts on the right side Three bolts on the riser and then out comes this bracket that holds both battery modules for battery sections one and two.

Does not appear. Yes, it does it to be directional. It's got a little hook right there, a little tab, so it has to go back in a certain direction. It looks like the tab is right here, so the tabs were facing inward on the passenger side. They were also inboard on the driver's side. And then the last one. remaining nut on that center section Right there. Okay, time to bring the battery lifting device and crane. This time I'm going to put the device on the battery first and then connect the lift to the device. It should be much easier.

I don't know why I didn't think of that before. Now the big challenge with this device, as we saw when removing section five of the battery, is that we don't want that section of the battery to tilt when we lift it up and remove it from the bottom case here. Don't we want it to touch other battery terminals or touch other batteries when it comes up? Therefore, we must try to center or balance it as much as possible. However, the eyelet of the tool is not centered on this black bar, it's 12 inches on one side and 14 inches on the other side, so it looks like this is the short side here, so I compensated for that by taking out the green bar. a little bit more on this side than this side, and then we also need to make sure that this center attachment that clips into the middle of the battery here can to clip it on so it looks like I need to take it out A notch on this side Right there And then take it out another notch So they will be... there will be two notches on this side So like that, so we have two exposed notches over here, we only have one over here.

We can put this center clamp right up on that center piece, as I learned last time, this really needs to be tightened firmly or it tilts. I was using it incorrectly or the design of that central part needs to be improved. Okay, now we have the eyelets centered in the center of the battery. We're ready to go in with the hoist and lift it up and hopefully that will give us a balanced pickup of this drum section. Now remember that under the battery we have that sticky coolant pad. I did some research on that and found out that you are always supposed to replace it and they cost about $30 per pad.

There are two. They just come off. They're not super sticky, but yes. I'm trying to order some from our local Chevrolet dealer. Everything is under parts order restriction right now. So I'm waiting to see if we can buy them before I drop them and possibly ruin the old ones. We won't put it together until I can get some new ones. But it may take a little time on the parts before I can put it back together and put it back on the vehicle because this needs work again Okay, let's get that crane Okay, let's raise it Alright, we'll raise it slowly so we can drop the adhesive There we go and that looks much better, it's balanced It looks like I need to pull the crane back up a little There we go.

Nice, looks much better. So I think the mistake I made earlier with the clamping device was not putting it on the battery first. I should have because the center clamp seems to be holding up. very good So that was my mistake, okay, let's put this on the table with each other. Okay, we'll get ready to place the Two Risers, the next battery. Attach the center piece. Okay, with section one of the battery removed. I can see the white heat transfer adhesive pads transferring heat from the battery to the cooling plate under those cooling pads. Now let's take out the next section of the battery.

We'll have three bolts on either side of the center bolts, and then the six bolts that are common between this and the next battery. Well, we'll bring our crane back to everything. Okay, let's lift up section number two of the battery. Let's take that to the table Okay, we're ready to take out section number three of the battery. Well, to remove section three of the battery we have to undo the brackets that hold it in place, but there is a bracket shared with section number four of the battery. So to get that one out, We have to remove the coolant plate on the top here for section five of the battery and to get to that we have or to be able to remove that we have to be able to remove the heat transfer mat from the battery, as you will notice here.

I can grab it and peel it. I'll try to save it so it doesn't get ruined, that gives us access to the nuts that hold it in place. There is a small side and a big side. Now I can get to the three nuts that hold the coolant plate for section five of the battery Well, we're going to have to undo some hose clamps here to remove them before we can remove this top bracket Before we can remove the bracket brackets on the battery section number three So let's loosen these nuts. This should free the battery cooling plate.

Let me get some pliers and we'll disconnect those hoses. It seems like the higher-ups might be easier to tune out. Now the tricky part here, as with any coolant hose, is that the hose will probably want to stick to the aluminum connector that it clips onto and we need to be very careful not to break that connector. We'll have to replace the coolant plate that clips onto the top coolant plate it only has three connections and is quite small so if I break it it will be a lot less expensive to replace than the gigantic bottom piece so we'll see.

If we can loosen them here. Now I will loosen them one by one. Well, for the first time. Let's remove this coolant plate and see what it looks like? great piece of aluminum Look at our three coolant fittings here And then you can see the channels of how the coolant flows through the coolant plates. Let's see if I remember correctly. The entrance is two exterior and the exit is the central one, so the cooling plate. battery section number five And it has coolant which was dumb Okay, with that cooling plate out of the way We can lift this one up The insulated pad feels held back by something Looks like it was just held on with a little piece of double-sided tape, right ?

There is an insulator to keep heat away from the well. To prevent the heat from the battery section from entering section five and Five from entering section four, okay, now that we have the coolant pads, the coolant plate and the insulator out. of the way Finally we come to this top bracket over the battery section for that. We have to remove it to take out these center supports to remove section three of the battery. Alright, it's for that top plate where we have one more hidden somewhere. I think that's all. Save these nuts, so I think we could.

I think we can lift this brass kit now. Yes. This stand is very thick and has some foam pads on the back. Enter the battery section at the bottom of the holder, so we want to keep it clean and dry. Now I think we can lift Two brackets that hold section three and section four of the battery. It looks like these have the little tabs facing outward instead of inward. Like the previous two games I have removed it. Let me check again. I think we've gotten everything out. All the bolts to remove section three of the battery.

Which is identical for section one of the battery? Although battery section two may look like battery sections one and three, it actually has opposite polarity terminals that allow the batteries to be placed in series with each other on the left side of the battery case and on the right side of the battery. casing, so never confuse them always. Check which section is which. Double check the polarity so we always have positive and negative with those big bus bars. Okay, let's get the crane and get section three of the battery out of there, okay? ? Let's get it up.

Lifting it slowly allowing the adhesive pads on the battery to release. Okay, so we come to our last drum section, section four here has a stand that goes up to hold the modules or it has a stand that goes up to hold the section. five in place on each side that we have to remove and then it has the same three bolts on each side and two brackets on the back with three bolts each holding it in place and a center bolt. So it's two center bolts. Let's cut them and take out the last module. Let's get that last section out.

Alright, on this outer bracket that holds section five of the battery in place is one more electrical connector. And what it is is an extension harness for the cell voltage monitoring circuits. it just goes from this outer bracket to the side of the battery like the rest of the batteries had, so I need to remove it from this bracket before I can remove it on each side. It just has a pair of push-in retainers that pop up. So now you can see the high voltage sensing lines and the three bolts that hold this side of the battery.

So I'll pull them out next. We do not need to remove the detection lines from the high voltage cell. Right bracket And then the last three bolts that hold the battery. Alright, let's get the battery removal tool in and take out this section four of the battery and then we can get those cross supports out of there and the gigantic cooling plate on the bottom of the battery. and then we finish disassembling this battery. Alright, looks like I was wrong. We need to remove these high voltage cell sensing lines to allow the battery lifting device to move in and out of the holes where it needs to be placed.

Harness retainers to connect position control clips. Alright, there's our left side high voltage sensing harness for battery section four. Here is the other one. For harness retainers. And here's our harness for the other side. Okay, let's place this fixture here as centered as possible. We have the lifting device eyelets centered along the battery. But remember that we have a short side of the battery and next to the battery. For sections four and five, it won't be on top of this black section that was in the middle of sections one, two, and three, it'll be on the side here, so I think that's the most balanced we can be if there's no other hole. here to slide.

Oh, but there's over here, we could move everything up another notch. I have to get oneruler or tape measure and see well from the outside edge to the buttonhole. I have 17 inches on one side and 17 on the other, that's what you need to have, it has to be equally centered there or the battery will tilt like the Section Five did. When I first picked it up, I must have steered it a little in the wrong direction. Okay, let's get the crane and lift it up and get it out of there. Okay, let's go up. Well, here it comes.

You lifted the entire battery trip with it. We no longer have the weight of an additional battery section to hold down and remove from the battery deck. So we'll leave it there and it will do its job. I can hear a lot of pops. You know, go up a little bit more. Here we go. Well, I raised the battery section up pretty high so you can see underneath. Let's take a look. Okay, and as you can see there, the bottom of the battery looks like the top of the battery. It has those big aluminum heatsinks that make contact with the cooling pads.

All those white cooling pads transfer heat to the cooling plate below it. So now we're going to remove those three four cross brackets and then the cooling plate, and then we'll have the battery completely gutted and disassembled as far as we can get it with one exception, possibly the Relay Center, I'm pretty sure if it looks like somewhat like the Chevrolet Volt with a V, the contactors are useful, you can replace them. But we will find out. I don't know for sure, so let me get this battery out of the way and we'll take the rest apart.

Alright, there's our last battery section. Put that here with the others. Okay, we're ready to get those four braces out of there. It seems that the two in the middle are the same and the two outer ones are different from all of them. The one with the two uprights in a row is in the front the one with the offset uprights is in the back You'd better mark them Alright, this will be number one, I'll put an arrow pointing forward At three and four Alright , so there are two screws each that hold them in Nope, just the three in the back, the first one only has one, so let's get them out of there Alright, let's get them out of there They appear to be Steele Breck braces Okay, number three, number two and number one.

As you can see with them close together Different bolt configurations different holes Okay, we're almost done. Next we have to remove this coolant plate. Looks like we have a nut. Just there. Two nuts right there. Two more right there. Just one. that one has some in the middle One right there two on the side Two more and one more and I think that's it And the last one, unless I missed one, we're ready to try to lift the coolant plate on the bottom of this battery case. I think I got all the bolts out and I'm sure it still has coolant in it.

I want to avoid, as much as possible, getting or spilling coolant in this case because it has something, what does it look like? A complex bracket that is all welded together with some passages in there, and it would be difficult to get it out of there, so okay, I'll try to get it out myself. I've plugged the holes on the other side But this box below here This box below here Let's look at this whole thing Okay, my plan for removing this coolant plate is to just slide it to the front, pull it off the edge here and let it finish draining into the bucket The box I use to drain the cooling system initially when I took the battery out of the vehicle So let's see how it goes Tilt it up and disconnect it Barely anything comes out And of course that's the outlet side I can see the inlet side here, the Rag gets a little wet, so it obviously still has some coolant in it, but overall I'm impressed that the vacuum removal procedure got out a pretty good amount, other than what was on the top plate under the battery. section five that I spilled on myself This looks pretty good, I'm going to flip it over so you can see the other side now Here's the coolant plate At the top here is the rear we're looking at at the bottom of the plate of coolant For the battery sections one at the bottom here two three and four There we go Now we can see the entire coolant plate from below.

I'm just going to put it on some stools in the workshop, get it out of the way. Well, here we go well. Ok, all we have left is the insulating pads under the coolant plate. I'm sure its purpose is to keep the cold out or The heat from outside or under the vehicle affects the temperature of the battery inside. This is a closed system active cooling system. Heating system for the battery and We want to avoid any outside interference if possible, so those are the last parts to be removed. Obviously, this is number four. Three, the arrow pointing forward.

It's hard to mix up number four, number three, two and one, so seeing if we can get them out of there if they're taped up, it feels like the tape has to go in with a long screwdriver and help you out. Double-sided tape that holds it. There we go, so there's number one, there it is. the tape Number two, they look identical Three Also identical And the number four Which is unique Okay, there's one last part that has to be removed And then we finish with this

disassembly

video and that is the housing for the large two wire electrical cable. connector here So we only have four bolts.

Here is the casing, it has a good weather seal. And that's it, the last part. We have completely gutted the 2017 Chevrolet bolt with a B battery. We have taken apart everything that can be taken apart that I am aware of. Now it will take me a little time to get the parts and heating pads and make some. other things in terms of research before I'm ready to put this back together. But I'll make another video on reassembly because it's always easier to take something apart than to put it back together. So as much work as this was this was the easy part, so I have a lot more to study and research.

Of course I like to label everything and take apart things that I'm not supposed to take apart, so we'll see what can and can't be taken apart. aside, what can be repaired and what cannot be repaired in addition to what we have taken apart here? Just out of curiosity, I want to see how heavy this battery tray is, the bottom tray here oh-ho, man. Is very heavy. Several of you in my other video on how to remove the battery from the bolt were concerned that this was just flimsy and is made of pretty thick steel and very heavy.

I'm surprised how heavy it is. It's just that I can barely make a budget and I'm no longer a strong man, but I can't, I can't move it. It's okay, it's been quite an adventure. Thanks for enjoying it with me. Have a nice day