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hello I'm professor John Kelly and this

is the Weber Auto YouTube channel in

this episode we are going to look at the

high voltage electrical system on our

2007 Chevrolet bolt Eevee now our bolt

here is brand new a year ago it only has

about 30 miles on it but we have

disassembled everything under the hood

that can be disassembled in relation to

the traction motor or the inverter the

onboard charger the DC to DC converter

of the junction block the air

conditioning compressor the high voltage

battery heater we've got the high

voltage battery out front of the car and

if you look here

we've even got the charger poured out

ours did not come with DC fast charge

I've got DC fast charging to try to put

on this to do a conversion but I'm not

sure that it'll work now if we look

underneath the hood of the vehicle here

and compare this to the this photograph

of how it looked before we disassembled

it you can see that everything is gone

that it's totally empty the radiator

that was in the front here is only for

the traction motor and the power

electronics there is a separate cooling

loop under the hood here for the battery

the battery cooling is not done at all

through the radiator to my surprise it

only has a battery chiller through the

air-conditioning system that we'll look

at in a future episode the only

high-voltage component I did not remove

for this episode is the heater coolant

heater so while you were driving down

the road if you want heat in the

passenger compartment when the weather

is cold this heater assembly is a high

voltage heater it's got the orange cable

right here and it heats up the coolant

that is circulated through the heater

core up underneath the hood here so it

goes into the passenger compartment into

the heater core comes back out the

coolant reservoir right here one of

three reservoirs under the hood is just

for the heater coolant so there's a loop

there and us and a little pump that

pumps the heated coolant through your

heater core this reservoir right here is

for the battery cooling and this one

right here is for the motor and

electronics cooling this vehicle uses

the are 1 2 3 4 YF refrigerant in its

air-conditioning system and so it takes

this special air conditioning recovery

recycling machine as you can see in this

photograph here this refrigerant is very

expensive and there's special procedures

of handling that refrigerant special

training just for that so the air

conditioning system on this car

obviously cools the air in the passenger

compartment but it's also responsible

for cooling the battery whenever it's

it's too hot whether that's from

charging or just from driving and

there's a separate battery heater that

will heat it up when it's too cold while

charging all right well let's go take a

look at all these components that we've

removed from under the hood see what

they are talk about what they do see how

they're all interconnected with the big

orange high-voltage wires and how they

all end up connecting back to our high

voltage battery ok here on the table we

have the drive unit which is comprised

of the electric motor the traction motor

and the gear reduction unit that make up

the propulsion system for the 2017 and

above Chevrolet bolt

evie now I will have a separate video on

the disassembly and inspection and

reassembly of this this drive unit is

liquid cooled it has an inlet and an

outlet pipe there for coolant and it

just uses regular General Motors Dexcool

50/50 mix coolant the lubrication for

this drive unit is automatic

transmission fluid the Dexron

HP fully synthetic dextran HP automatic

transmission fluid and this holds 2.9

liters of this fluid also while we're

here on the motor there are two

excellent society of automotive

engineering technical papers that you

can purchase I can't show you these

because they're copyrighted but they

have fantastic information on the design

and operation of this drive unit and of

the entire Chevrolet Volt

evie powertrain both of these were

presented in April of 2016 one of them

is called the design of the Chevrolet

Volt evie propulsion system the other

one is called electric motor design of

General Motors Chevrolet bolt electric

vehicle so some great additional

information if you're looking for

technical details on these on this

system so this motor has is rated at 150

kilowatts which is roughly 201

horsepower it's also rated at 360 Newton

meters of torque which is approximately

266 pound feet of torque and it has a

maximum rpm of 80 810 rpm which for the

tire size on the bolt

evie puts the maximum vehicle speed

according to the limited inter motor rpm

here at approximately ninety four point

six miles per hour it has a seven point

zero five one eight to one gear

reduction unit the drive unit itself is

designed so that it's dead center in the

middle of the vehicle that means the CV

shafts here on each side are equal

lengths and as a matter of fact they are

exactly the same part number of CV shaft

and that's to eliminate torque steer

upon heavy acceleration I'm going to

remove these CV shafts and then we'll we

will start bringing in the rest of the

electrical high voltage component

that are used to control this drive unit

and the rest of the high voltage system

on the vehicle now this drive unit is

mounted to the lower support cradle in

the front of these Chevrolet bolt evie

but right above that is a big steel

bracket that supports all of the

electronics that you see when you look

under the hood so I'm going to bring

that bracket over and set it here on top

of the motor I've got these floor jacks

and other stands here to help hold it in

place while we build this high voltage

system so this big bracket here is

called the under hood cross car beam and

like I said it holds all the electronics

on top or above the electric motor

itself

okay I've now got the underhood cross

carb beam installed besides holding the

power electronics to control the drive

unit it provides structural support in

the front of the bowl TV to make it

stronger during a collision this under

hood cross car beam as you can see has

several ground wires attached to it this

one goes to the DC to DC converter for

our 12-volt system the rest of these

attached to the electric motor drive

unit and the chassis of the vehicle to

connect our 12 volt systems ground to

the DC 2 DC converter in the end the

cross car beam as well as the housing of

the drive unit itself now in order to

make the electric motor rotate we have

what's called a single power inverter

module or spi M so I'm going to bring

the spim these single power inverter

module over next this is the single

power inverter module or the spim as you

can see it is also liquid cooled we have

a low voltage connection in the front we

have a power feed from an under hood

junction block that connects to the

high-voltage battery so we have the two

wire DC coming in and then in the back

here as you can see we have the

three-phase electrical connection going

out that will feed power to our

three-phase electric motor in the drive

unit this particular inverter that I

have right here is one I purchased off

of ebay and I've taken it I've taken the

lid off of it and I will take this apart

in a different video and explore what

parts are inside of it but I imagine

it's just a typical inverter with the

typical pieces in it I'm pretty sure it

does not have a boost converter inside

of it to boost the voltage up but I

don't know yet I still need to take it

apart so this power single power

inverter mod

sits right up here on this under hood

cross car beam now if you open the hood

on your Chevrolet bolt Evy and look down

inside you'll be able to see the front

of this single power inverter module but

on top of that is another module this

one right here this one is called the

high power distribution module or HP DM

and basically what this does is it

receives power on these two big

terminals right here from the

high-voltage battery and then can

transfer that to the inverter module

here on the side with the connector it

can sent it to the heater coolant heater

to heat the coolant that goes into your

heater core on cold days and that's up

underneath the hood there are four other

connector connectors here on the side of

this distribution module we have one for

the air conditioning system one from the

onboard charger when you plug in your

external charger to the car to charge

the battery one going to the battery

itself for charging the battery and then

one that goes to the heater that heats

the coolant that goes into the battery

on cold days now on the front of this

there is no electrical connector but if

I had one that had fast charging it

would have an electrical electrical

connector right here let me get one that

does okay so here is a high power

distribution module that has the

electrical connector on the front for

fast DC charging so here's the other one

out of our bolt

evie that does not have the fast

charging here's one that does have the

fast charging other than that externally

all the connections are the same the one

that has the fast charge connections if

we take the lid off of this thing and

look inside it actually has two

additional contactors that basically

connect these

two big heavy terminals for your DC fast

charge right through this distribution

block and connect it right to the two

terminals the large terminals that go to

the high voltage battery to charge the

battery and so it bypasses everything

else and just goes right through to for

a fast charge on that battery all right

now I found this high power distribution

module on on ebay for the fast charge

option and so I'm going to put that back

on our bolt Eevee over here and attempt

with additional other pieces that are

required to convert ours to fast charge

I've heard from some people that have

tried this and said they could not make

it work so I don't know if I will be

able to either but we're going to try it

so the high power distribution module

the HP DM goes right up here on top of

the single power inverter module so now

when you open the hood and look you can

see the top of this high power

distribution module sitting right there

so we've got two of the four modules

installed on this cross under hood cross

car beam right above the electric motor

now the next module that goes down on

the this beam here is the onboard

charger and when they say onboard

charger that means when you plug in your

j17 72 charge cable whether it be on 120

volts or 208 or 240 volts that's an AC

voltage it has to be converted to DC to

charge the DC battery but all of those

voltages are lower than this battery's

350 to 400 volt range and so then they

also have to step up the voltage to be a

high enough voltage to actually charge

that battery so the onboard charging

module the OB CM does a lot and it is

also liquid cooled let me get it so this

is the onboard

charging module as you can see it is

also liquid-cooled and then here on the

driver's side it has three electrical

connectors this bottom one is AC voltage

in from the charge receptacle this black

one is low-voltage for control and this

top one here is DC output that then

would go to our under hood distribution

module and then go charge the battery

the high voltage battery on the smaller

of the two orange connectors on the

battery so now I'm going to put this on

board charging module up here on the

under hood cross carbine okay it's

fairly heavy awkward angle so this is

our on board charging module it bolts to

the Underdark

under hood cross car beam and has

electrical connectors there on the

driver's side

okay the next module that goes on that

you can see under the hood directly is

the accessory power module the APM and

basically this is a DC to DC converter

and basically what this does is it takes

high-voltage from the battery which

could be upwards of 400 volts and it has

to step it down and output roughly 14

volts 13 and a half 14 volts to charge

the 12-volt battery and the 12-volt

system on the rest of the vehicle

because it's that 12-volt system that

controls the high voltage system on

these on all of these hybrid and

electric vehicles so we have on this end

here a 14 volt output this is our the

equivalent of the ground that would then

go to the battery negative so this is go

to battery positive this is go to

battery negative through the on car

cables there as you can see here it is

also liquid cooled

so a lot of liquid cooling going on here

this accessory power module just sits

right up here right there I'll hold that

in place with a couple of bolts okay

these are the four major components that

you can see under the hood of your

Chevrolet bull when you open it we've

got the high Power Distribution module

right here underneath that is the single

power inverter module that drives the

drive unit electric motor down below we

have our our accessory power module the

APM which is a DC to DC converter and

right below that we have our onboard

charger module to take the wall voltage

when you plug in your vehicle to charge

it and change it to a high voltage DC to

charge the battery now we've got two

other high voltage electrical components

to bring in and then we can start

connecting the wires on these to show

how they are all electrically connected

together

okay the next high voltage component to

add to our workbench mock-up here of the

bull DV powertrain is the air

conditioning compressor module the AC CM

so it has a two wire DC high voltage

electrical connector that comes in to

the module end of the electric air

conditioning compressor where it has its

own inverter it's going to take this DC

voltage and change it into a three-phase

AC voltage to drive a variable speed air

conditioning compressor this compressor

of course is used to cool the passenger

compartment but it is also used to cool

the high voltage battery there is no

radiator for the cooling of the battery

it only uses what's called a chiller

where the air conditioning system has

this little mini evaporator that the

coolant for the battery runs through

where removes the heat from the coolant

and then runs that out to the air

conditioning condenser in front of the

vehicle and radiates that

eat away so this a air-conditioning

compressor module sits right on the

drive unit right in front of the drive

unit here I'm on a stud and a couple of

bolts holding it in place okay so now

we've got our air conditioning

compressor module with its high voltage

connection that's going to stick out the

back over here that leaves us with one

more high voltage component that we need

to bring in for the full evie system all

right this last component here is the

battery coolant heater they call it the

rechargeable energy storage system

heater so they don't call it a battery

they call it our ESS the rechargeable

energy storage system and so it has two

coolant lines right here and right here

that connect it has a high voltage

connection right here there's a big

heating element inside there's a

temperature sensor right there and some

ground wires connected to it and this is

also eventually connected back here to

this high power distribution module but

through the big harness and so this sits

over here in back of the drive unit so

it's going to sit right right about here

and it's bolted to hold it to the frame

to start connecting all of these

components together we have one three

wire wire harness right here and this is

for the three phase voltage control of

the drive unit and so this upper end

right here is going to connect to the

single power inverter module the lower

connector here is going to connect to

the drive unit in the back so let's hook

this up okay to connect it

got a couple of studs on the inverter

side and three bolts and then here on

the motor side we also have three more

bolts by the way none of these systems

have live voltage on them the battery

that has all the powers over next to the

bolt evie and here in the shop all of

these wires even though they're orange

and I'm not using any personal

protective equipment on them there's no

voltage on them there's no danger when

you're when you've got these components

off to the side and they've already been

verified that there's no voltage on them

okay so here on the back of the single

power inverter module we have

three-phase cables the UV and W cables

that come down to our drive unit

electrical connector and they bolt in

place they have nice weather tight seals

and that this is the only these are the

only three phase AC voltage cables that

you'll see on this vehicle all these

others are two wire DC voltage so if you

see three wires right next to each other

like that going to a motor those are AC

voltage wires if you just see two wires

next to each other like these then those

are high voltage DC connections okay the

next electrical harness to connect up is

a u-shaped great big thick wire heavy

gauge wire electrical connectors and

what this does is this will connect the

high power distribution block electrical

connector down to the power inverter

module electrical connector and they

just have a little latch lever on the

side

so all that does once again is connect

the distribution module to the power

inverter giving the power inverter DC

power from the high-voltage battery okay

the next big wire harness to connect is

the wire harness that connects at the

battery itself to provide power to the

inverter it also has two additional

small electrical connectors down on the

bottom one that goes to the battery

heater one that goes to the charge port

on the battery itself the smaller of the

two electrical connectors for the DC

charge the 7.2 kilowatt hour AC charger

that's connected to the onboard charging

module here under the hood so here on

the back of the power inverter module we

have a great big electrical connector

that's going to come in right there snap

into place it also has two small

electrical connectors right here one of

them or they both go to the distribution

module right up here the upper

electrical connector is what connects to

the battery heater down below here so I

will connect the harness connector

underneath the vehicle to the battery

heater this second connector up here the

lower of the two then goes to the

battery charger the AC battery charger

connection on the high voltage battery

so under the car we only have two

electrical connectors the great big one

that's for feeding power to the power

inverter module and regenerative braking

power back to the battery well as you

drive this also is the

practical connector that is used when

you connect up the DC fast charge

connector to the vehicle it will charge

directly through this large electrical

connector rather than the small

electrical connector back here this one

is only for when you plug in your J

17:70 to charge connector the other one

is the the combo the the J 1772 combo

connector okay we've got another

high-voltage electrical harness here on

this end these two electrical connectors

connect to our high Power Distribution

module on these two empty electrical

connectors so let me plug those in and

then the other end of this harness goes

around back this upper cable right here

feeds power to our accessory power

module to convert the high voltage DC to

low voltage DC so that's our DC to DC

converter this lower connection here is

the DC feed out of our onboard charging

module so after it's already converted

from AC to DC and stepped-up in voltage

then it goes up to the distribution

module and then fed back to the battery

on this small electrical connector right

here and then this last connector is the

one that connects to our air

conditioning control module up in front

of the drive unit so we've got a number

of electrical connectors here all of

these are DC except for these three

right here with your three-phase AC now

the only harness left is our plug in

charge connector harness so let's take a

look at those options next okay the plug

in charger that came on our bolt Evie

the charge connector looks like this one

and notice it does not have the orange

door and the two additional

DC high-voltage electrical connections

there but if we look at this other one

that I bought you can see that it does

have the little door right here and

opens up and you've got the two high

voltage electrical connectors right

there those two high voltage terminals

connect to this great big wire harness

right here and they come up under the

hood and connects right here to the

front of our high power distribution

module just like that so the when when

we plug in the CCS combo charger which

is the J 1772 on the top and the two pin

DC down below it will already have a DC

high voltage DC applied to these wires

where it then goes to our distribution

module and goes directly through to the

back and right back down to the battery

itself for a quick charge so when you

charge using the high voltage DC fast

charge it does not use the onboard

charging module to charge the battery

now it goes through this distribution

block here as I mentioned it also in

that distribution block powers up some

other systems on the vehicle like the

air conditioning compressor module if

needed to cool the battery while it is

charging and a few other systems for

monitoring and so on the one thing it

does not power up to my surprise if

necessary in cold cold weather is the

battery heater so maybe there's some

problems with fast charging a really

cold battery and you just simply plug in

your your fast charger I've heard from

people that have the ball TV with the

fast charger you plug it into the fast

charge when that's cold then it won't

charge

you have to plug in the AC the slow

charge the J 1770 to charge complaint

charge connector and it actually tells

you that in the owner's manual it says

below a certain temperature the fast

charge isn't going to work by the way

this fast charge connector here has an

additional solenoid and a lock

in the connector here that will lock the

the CCS combo connector charge connector

in place while it's charging DC high

voltage and it won't let you unplug it

until it's verified that everything that

all the voltage has been removed from

these terminals and so there's a to

convert to a fast charge both evie you

need more than just this harness

connector here and the the the

distribution module there is a low

voltage wire harness that is totally

different let me bring that in okay this

is the low voltage under hood wire

harness and in the electrical connector

that goes to this module right here the

the high-powered disconnect module this

electrical connector if you look at it

right now it only has one two three four

five wires in the back of that connector

the one for the DC fast charge has every

wire in there except one and so this one

is missing three on the top and four on

the bottom so there's seven potential

wires more that it could have the one

with the DC fast charge has six more

wires in it and I'm sure that has to do

with monitoring the voltage so that we

can unlock the charge connector there

when when it's done charging and I've

looked at the wire harnesses this goes

all the way in to the hybrid powertrain

control module number two under the

passenger seat and so there might even

be a different in

eternal wire harness which makes me

wonder if this can even be done without

changing all kinds of parts and whether

or not the programming is is even able

to be done you know just because you buy

all the parts doesn't mean that the

modules will configure themselves to be

fast charge I'm going to keep playing

with it and see but from what I've heard

it does not work when you do that but it

could be that maybe whoever's I was

communicating with about that conversion

didn't realize that there was this wire

harness difference as well so let's just

do a quick review and then we'll be done

we've got the drive unit of the bolt

evie right here I'll have a separate

video on disassembly and reassembly of

it that drive unit is controlled by the

power inverter module that's underneath

the hood the power inverter module

receives its power from the battery

through this high power distribution

module right above it that you can see

under the hood over here we have our DC

to DC converter where we have our ground

cable that is going to come in and bolt

right there we have our power cable that

goes to our 12-volt battery and a ground

cable for the 12-volt battery as well so

that's our accessory power module right

underneath that we have the on-board

charging module for when you plug in the

high-voltage charger to the side of your

car we also have the either the quick

charge plug in connector receptacle or

the non quick charge version like the

one our car came with as a high voltage

component we've got the air conditioning

compressor module the bolts to the front

of the drive unit and then in the back

we have the heater module for heating

the coolant going into the battery and

then the one module I did not bring over

from the car

is the heater for the coolant that goes

into the heater core to heat the

passenger compartment on cold days so

these are all of the high voltage

components that are there involved with

the Chevrolet bolt

evie with the exception of the high

voltage battery and if you look at the

high voltage battery here I have a

separate video on complete disassembly

and reassembly of this battery but we've

got the two orange electrical connectors

on the front the great big one is for DC

fast charge and feeding the inverter the

small one is for the plug-in charger the

little black ones are for low voltage

connections and then of course it's a

liquid-cooled battery so we have the two

coolant pipe one for the inlet and one

for the outlet all right so this has

just been a basic review of the bolt

evie high voltage electrical systems I

plan on having a video on the

disassembly of every one of these

components here coming up I still need

to finish my history of automatic

transmission fluid videos before I dive

too far into this but the classes I'm

teaching here at Weber State University

made me interrupt my automatic

transmission fluid history video

shooting and get to this because we are

towards the end of the semester and this

is what I wanted to show my students

before they left for Christmas break so

that is it thank you for watching

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you

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