Fisker & Karma are getting along very well it seems...

[bigmoose]

Well after viewing that fine movie "Inside Job" that Dr. Spinning Magnets recommended on how we have all been skewered by our bankers who ...(I had to remove my description, I went a bit overboard sorry)

I went looking to see how well they have done with the funds that they extorted from us to scatter among their new green "friends."

First the $50 light bulb to replace the 3 for $1 100w incandescent: http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ly-price-tag/2012/03/07/gIQAFxOD0R_story.html when you want some old style bulbs that work and won't burn your house down, IM me; we are filling the storage shed with soon to be "contraband" bulbs. I should have done this with Freon-12, I should have done it with GE long plate 12AX7's. I now know to do it with bulbs! I am going to retire with my "contraband" bulb business.

Second, on to Fisker and the new electric Karma! I even got to see the beast all opened up and "naked" ... thought you would enjoy some pix from this thread: http://fiskerbuzz.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1004
Ahh the underside. Ought to work well with midwest salt, slush, snow and salt. Oh I forgot, green transportation is only for those in warm areas.

Now why is the engine bay empty? Oh, nice $300 AN connector on the left.

Ah, wait, here is the status of why this car is here in the dealership:

That is MY damn car, having Fisker service my Karma and fix the sluggishness issue (caused by a assembly issue on Valmets line and not caught by either Valmet or Fisker Silicon Valleys QA) is turning into a frustrating nightmare. Pray you never have to have anything actually fixed on your Karma's beyond software, the responsiveness and communication from the dealer (and Fiskers ability to supply timely replacement parts) have been ludicrous. If you thought the 4 year wait and delivery was bad, it's de-ja-voux all over again.

Ah 2 of the 3 inverters. Good place for them behind the rear seat. Water cooled should be no problem right?

Now on to the transaxle, looks like a nice, compact design. But wait, why is it out of the car?

Wow - kiwi, sorry to hear that. I was just about to ask the question - replacing an entire electric motor - how does that get by Valmet QA??? That seems like a serious issue to overlook. Part of me thinks that it is utterly silly to expect a fair amount of my car to be rebuilt/replaced, then the other half reasons it out since its classic startup pains.

Here is another view and another quote

Thanks for the kinds words everyone. This was all due to a kinked coolant hose leading to one of the inverters (missed by Valmet, and the symptom - slow acceleration/limited power - missed by all the QA gates), which blew out the coolant pump and apparently damaged some other part of the motor assembly. Unfortunately as they peel the onion they keep finding more and more (heavy) components that need to be replaced, which need to be shipped in, so it's like receiving the car again one part at a time.

Update Quote a day or so later:

Short update: There was some unusual wearing of the shaft/gears connecting the motors to the wheels. They need to replace the entire differential on my car, eta is unknown, guesstimate is 1-2 weeks, I'm not hopeful given the experience to date. I had ~1k miles on the car.
I am unhappy.

Ah now where do you think the motor came from and what might the problem be?

There is a specific serial number range they are looking for on the electric motors where the shafts weren't hardened properly and causing noise concerns.

Noise concerns with non hardened splines? Ah yes it does get noisy as the splines disintegrate and contaminate the joint with metal filings that damage the joint and contaminate it more...

Who makes the motors?

Jing-Jin Electric

Bingo, do we see a common thread? Has Kenny branched out and gone big time?
Here is the link to Jing-Jin in case one of our enterprising souls wants to ride on the wild side. 1 Fisker motor ought to do it, don't you think, Luke, Dr. Bass, Arlo, and all you other KraZy PoWEr AdDictS! http://www.jjecn.com/en/products.asp 150kW Permanent Magnet Motor for EV/REEV, Water Cooled

Oh man, we just found out where the alternator power assist alternator/motor came from! It's on their web site too. http://www.jjecn.com/en/ProductShow.asp?ClsID=190&ID=43

In all seriousness a transportation startup is a complex organizational beast to get running. In my lifetime just about every one has failed. Kia appears to have thrived though. Fisker is going to need a lot of TLC to get out of what looks like a deep hole. Reports like these are paralleling the DeLorean story... Thought you would enjoy the pictures of the "innards" might be some ideas for us there.

Reading more I had to add these two, it would be so humerus if it wasn't that a firmware update could kill you!

complete blackout while driving
situation driving at 7pm pst this evening and for the second time in two weeks at 70 miles per hour the "idiot lights" behind the steering wheel all light up the car goes dark including the headlights and then the dash disappears and after a few seconds it rebuilds itself. This is very dangerous and random. Has anyone else experienced this and if so what have you done about it. This condition is a safety issue and an accident/lawsuit waiting to happen.

This happened to me 5 times in 4 days last week. Sometimes twice on the same drive. All were during the daytime so I don't know if the lights were affected.The car drove normally other than the blackout. It began after updating to 6.14.2.

One more. Should not the NTSB be all over stuff like this?

I had the dash and headlights go black on me yesterday. Luckily I was at a red light when it happened, and it fixed itself by the time it turned green.

Just had to add that one. So good that the reboot occurs in a red light cycle.

 

[flathill]

Wow! Almost like they are trying to fail. Really surprised the motor is made in china. Fisker bought their hybrid tech from a USA military supplier of stealthy (low noise and lower heat sig) hybrid vehicles....

You know Fisker is a real slimeball just listening to him talk. Have you seen their latest promo video? The purity the passion the purity the passion....F OFF!
[youtube]1qpagaDcuww[/youtube]

 

[neptronix]

Very, very interesting find bigmoose..

The underbody scares me. Some of he construction elsewhere looks really poor as well. I can't believe the motor comes from that company..

Consumer reports just took a steaming dump on this car:

[youtube]Ivhp-i6i3vE[/youtube]

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/03/08/fisker-karma-owned-by-consumer-reports-breaks-down/

 

[Dauntless]

Now now, Tesla paid good money for them to develop that car with. Except they were expecting their own Tesla Roadster to be developed with it. They were so unhappy with what little effort Fisker put into the Roadster they delayed going to market to fix it.

Wonder how it would fare in a wreck with a 1959 Bel Air.

 

[E-racer]

Wow, I've hated Fisker (and all hybrids) for a while. Looking at these pictures shows you how poor the engineering is compared to the Model S. Having two complete drive trains, gas and electric, defeats the purpose of a "sports car" or "performance car." This type of vehicle is designed to maximize the potential of a vehicle by optimizing the amount of weight and where it is placed. The Model S is a dream come true to me. I'm definitely a proud Tesla fan boy.

 

[steelmesh]

I guess they spent all of their budget on marketing and exterior/interior design and forgot about stealing engineers from Detroit with actual automotive engineering experience...

 

[TopherTheME]

I can't believe people are actually buying these things. I think I could design and build a better car out of Legos.