My 2016 mod thread

[Randy960]

I bought my 2016 Spark EV in January 2020 with 18k miles. I've been commuting in it ever since, and it's now up to 65k miles. I love my electric shitbox.

In terms of maintenance, the car hasn't needed much. I replaced one balljoint at about 50k, and the other at 63k. I did the pads and rotors (Raybestos coated rotors and ceramic pads, about $220 total) at all 4 corners at the same time as the second ball joint. In typical EV fashion, the pads looks almost new and the rotors were all pitted and scored.

In the summer I run 205/50/15 nitto NT05 tires on the stock wheels, and in the winter I run 175/65(?)/15 general altimax tires on steel wheels that I think are specced for a cruze. I obviously care more about traction than efficiency, but the range isn't affected too much.

I just posted a thread in the battery section, but I ran into my first actual problem with the electric drive the other day. However it was caused by the 6 year old AGM battery finally biting the dust.

Torquepro thinks I have about 14.5kwh usable, but by following the individual cell voltages I can see that two of my cells (#80 and #81) are down on capacity. They sag a little more than the rest when I accelerate, and charge a little quicker than the rest, but the biggest gap I've seen is .16v between highest and lowest. They balance back out almost immediately, but it's something I'm starting to keep an eye on.

I have recently removed the back seat, made a seat delete so that there's a flat cargo area, added a stereo system, and installed a hitch. I will follow this up with more details and pictures on those projects.

 

[Randy960]

Now, no one wants a ride in my Spark, it's deeply uncool. So I ripped out the back seat.

But really, I have no kids and this car is my cummuter, so for me the back seats are mostly just in the way of being able to move larger stuff around.

I wanted to get as much storage room as possible, so I removed the rear seat, the rear speakers, and the foam tray that holds the charger and emergency supplies. But after looking at the shape of the floor, and realizing that I want space for everything that was in that foam tray, I decided to put that back in and build my cargo floor at that height.

Using some 2x4s, some plywood, some assorted steel brackets, and a cut up rubberized carpet, I made a frame with a hinged lid. It gets bolted down to one of the seatbelt mounting points and the two plastic slots that the seat bottom snapped in to.

The lid lifts up to give easy access to the HV battery disconnect (way easier than getting that seat bottom popped out) and there's enough room under for some shopping bags, a tow rope, and a snow brush.

The lack of rear speakers made basically no difference in the quality of the stereo, as my phone comes with better audio than the spark does from the factory. That got fixed next though.

 

[Randy960]

600lbs of gravel, for testing or whatever.

 

[Randy960]

So the stereo in the Spark is trash. Like, offensively bad. The stock stereo in the 2001 chevy prizm beater car that this replaced was way better. I have cheap bluetooth speakers that are better.

Now, you can't really replace the head unit in the spark. It does enough other functions that I wanted to just leave it alone. I had a friend recommend installing a separate marine head unit, and then an amp for better speakers and a sub. But then I came across the (discontinued) Alpine PWD-X5. It's a powered sub, that also has a 4 channel amp for speakers, and you can directly bluetooth to it, and it has a little remote control box with a REAL F#&@%$*G VOLUME KNOB.

So I got that amp, a pair of Alpine 6x9s and a pair of Alpine 4" speakers. The amp/sub got mounted on the front of my rear seat delete, in the middle and a 6x9 on each side of it. I was going to mount them with a baffle, but didn't have the room. The 4" speakers went in the dashboard where the originals were,but wired to the new amp instead of the factory head unit. The remote box went on the dashboard next to the steering wheel.

With everything wired to the standalone amp, all it needed was power, so I went with an add-a-fuse tap in an unused spot in the fusebox in the dash. Since it's switched, it turns on and off with the car all without cutting a single factory wire. I was worried that it might draw too much power, but so far it hasn't been an issue.

The sound quality is now in an entirely different class. It's far from perfect, but I actually enjoy listening to music in the car now. The sub is small, but it's basically at my right elbow, and while I wish the 6x9s were in front of me, they still do a good job filling the car with sound.

There was one unforseen side effect. Apparently the clicking sounds for the turn signals and all of the other dings and dongs come through the factory speakers from the head unit. At first I was going to take one of the original speakers and plug it back in stuffed under the dash somewhere, but I decided that I like it how it is.

 

[Randy960]

Micro Utility Vehicle

 

[Randy960]

I just installed a battery tender. It's a Noco Genius 2D, made to be mounted under the hood. It comes with a little bracket that I screwed into the fuse box lid with a little sealant. The cord is just long enough to poke out the hood if needed, but I'll probably have the hood popped when I use it since it's in the garage anyway.

 

[Randy960]

Died on the road on me again. This time I was watching on torque, and the 12v battery was fine. It was cells 80 and 81 that sag way low once the battery dips below 20% or so. I had backed way off to try and nurse it along and let the cells rebalance, but not enough. So it's back in the garage until I get my VCX Nano up and running again. *sigh*

 

[Randy960]

I decided to up my scan tool game and bought an Autel MK808S. It was like $380, and seems like one of the lowest cost options to get bidirectional control without bootleg software or predatory subscriptions. I've only played with it a little so far, but it does the most important thing I need it for right now, which is clearing secured codes in the Hybrid Powertrain Control Module 2.