[Fabulist]

My car had to be flat-bedded back to the dealer this morning because of a PRND error that caused the dreaded "Park System Fault" error warning when I selected "R" and the resulting loud and horrific noise that issues from the car when you try to move the car in this condition. The problem had come up a couple of times before and I had managed to get around it with soft or hard reboot, but over the weekend it started happening each time I selected "R" and I could not soft reboot my way out of it this morning, so I just gave up and called the dealer who showed up at my house a couple of hours later with a loaner car for me and picked up my car.

I have not heard much about this problem on this forum, and I don't know if it is a common problem or if it is something specific to my car. One of the technicians told me that there is new PRND software that they are going to install on my car but I am not sure if that is correct.

Will keep everyone updated on the status, particularly if it turns out to be a common issue.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Ouch! How many miles have you put on your Karma thus far? I'm just under 1,000 miles and haven't had any issue selecting D/R/P or the parking brake fault - only issue I had once was it did not tell me that my parking brake was on (luckily I had remembered).

 

[Fabulist]

Ouch! How many miles have you put on your Karma thus far? I'm just under 1,000 miles and haven't had any issue selecting D/R/P or the parking brake fault - only issue I had once was it did not tell me that my parking brake was on (luckily I had remembered).

Just went over 1000 Miles this weekend. Had that problem a couple of times before but it just went crazy this weekend.

 

[kabalah70]

No park issues yet.

 

[dennis]

1400 miles - haven't seen it yet.

The inertia reel on the driver seatbelt stuck yesterday, so I had to take my Karma to the dealer today to get it fixed.

 

[Skibum]

900 miles thus far...no PRND issue a soft reboot couldn't cure yet....

 

[Karma 2012]

Fab, I had the same problem three times since I owned the car. The dealer had to actually work on my brake caliper to fix that. At least that's what they told me. I have not experience it again. Then again, I just reunited with my car today. We will see what happens next.

 

[Fabulist]

In diagnosing my "Brake System Fault" problem, Fisker may have identified an issue that may be causing other vexing problems, and that is very easy to fix. Specifically:

"Parking System Fault" Fisker may have found the root cause for this and many other strange complaints. Fisker is finding that in some cases the silicone used to seal the connectors for the Hybrid Control Unit did not completely cure. Your vehicles, along with all Fiskers in our shop currently, have this condition. The HCU controls the Parking Pawl. As per Fisker I have cleaned the connector and tested. The condition is not present.

This is good news for those with random, hard to duplicate issues. If your dealer is not aware of this issue, it would not be a bad idea to tell them about it if they are having trouble diagnosing your problems.

I was also told that the "Runaway Volume bug" and the BT Audio quality issues may be addressed in 615.

 

[SoCalGuy]

In diagnosing my "Brake System Fault" problem, Fisker may have identified an issue that may be causing other vexing problems, and that is very easy to fix. Specifically:

"Parking System Fault" Fisker may have found the root cause for this and many other strange complaints. Fisker is finding that in some cases the silicone used to seal the connectors for the Hybrid Control Unit did not completely cure. Your vehicles, along with all Fiskers in our shop currently, have this condition. The HCU controls the Parking Pawl. As per Fisker I have cleaned the connector and tested. The condition is not present.

This is good news for those with random, hard to duplicate issues. If your dealer is not aware of this issue, it would not be a bad idea to tell them about it if they are having trouble diagnosing your problems.

I was also told that the "Runaway Volume bug" and the BT Audio quality issues may be addressed in 615.

Very interesting indeed. Looks like Valmet QA wasn't on the ball with this aspect. Hopefully that resolves all these issues - Brian, how's your car doing these days?

 

[Nimisys]

Actually its Lear who did the wiring harness, and there have been other issues, such as terminals not being fully seated in the connectors. It can make tracking down and diagnosing issues incredibly difficult as you are trying to seperate a mechanical failure from a software concern from an electrical wiring issue. Fortunitly the HCU connectors are easy to access and inspect.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Actually its Lear who did the wiring harness, and there have been other issues, such as terminals not being fully seated in the connectors. It can make tracking down and diagnosing issues incredibly difficult as you are trying to seperate a mechanical failure from a software concern from an electrical wiring issue. Fortunitly the HCU connectors are easy to access and inspect.

Does Fisker have a 1,000 point inspection they can perform on the cars to make sure the silicone around the HCUs cured properly, wiring harnesses are connected etc.? Seems like QA from Valmet in this area is very poor.

 

[Nimisys]

Honestly, in this area, Fisker is in the same boat as every other manufacterer. There is an old saying: "Most electrical issues are resistive in nature and occur at connections" With the large number of electrical connections and terminals in a modern car today, not much more than a function check can be carried out. Unfornutily poorly fitted connections/terminals will take some time and milage to work free enough to cause a consistant enough issue to be located. Between the HCU and ECM you have 5 connectors and probably 200+ terminals, indivually checking each one during and after assembly is not going to be practical, let alone the rest in the vehicle. Now spot checking the HCU and ECM connectors for silicon coming out is feasible, i would hazard a guess that you would see a bulletin to check them on all customer cars before too long. However a vehicle wide check would require a complete dis-assembly, and I don't think anyone really wants that.

 

[Fabulist]

Honestly, in this area, Fisker is in the same boat as every other manufacterer. There is an old saying: "Most electrical issues are resistive in nature and occur at connections" With the large number of electrical connections and terminals in a modern car today, not much more than a function check can be carried out. Unfornutily poorly fitted connections/terminals will take some time and milage to work free enough to cause a consistant enough issue to be located. Between the HCU and ECM you have 5 connectors and probably 200+ terminals, indivually checking each one during and after assembly is not going to be practical, let alone the rest in the vehicle. Now spot checking the HCU and ECM connectors for silicon coming out is feasible, i would hazard a guess that you would see a bulletin to check them on all customer cars before too long. However a vehicle wide check would require a complete dis-assembly, and I don't think anyone really wants that.

It is definitely a complex problem, but not impossible to solve. Semiconductor chips and circuit boards are routinely tested using programmable testers that can check millions of connections and functions in a few seconds. The connectors themselves can be designed and programmed to raise an error condition if all of the individual terminals are not making good contact. The *CU can run a connection diagnostic whenever it wakes up and at specific intervals to make sure good contact is maintained. The technology definitely exists, it just has not be applied to automotive applications yet.

 

[flying dutchman]

what is the HCU and ECM ?
Where can I find them.

 

[Fabulist]

what is the HCU and ECM ?
Where can I find them.

HCU = Hybrid Control Unit
ECM = Engine Contol Module ???

Don't know where they are located other than under the bonnet.

 

[Nimisys]

Both are under the hood, on the passenger side. the ECM (Engine control Module) is rear of the shock tower, the HCU (Hybrid Control Unit) is in front of the shock tower
ECM
HCU
Silicon on the HCU pins

To a certain extent, there is circuit monitoring and fault detection logic present. if you short to ground for example one of the data lines for a CAN bus, it will be detected, similarily if there is an intermentant connection with a fuel injector, you will find a DTC for that circuit's perfromance. However because of the harsh envirmoent a car is considered to be, you see a lot of false postives in testing, so unless a condition is hard set for a length of time (say 5-10 seconds) or is repeated on a subsequent key cycle/trip, a dtc may not set.

 

[doug]

It is definitely a complex problem, but not impossible to solve. Semiconductor chips and circuit boards are routinely tested using programmable testers that can check millions of connections and functions in a few seconds. The connectors themselves can be designed and programmed to raise an error condition if all of the individual terminals are not making good contact. The *CU can run a connection diagnostic whenever it wakes up and at specific intervals to make sure good contact is maintained. The technology definitely exists, it just has not be applied to automotive applications yet.

This, though it's likely already being done somewhere in the automotive world.

 

[Fabulist]

Sheee's Back!

Today, the good folks at Fisker Marin turned my car (now officially called Kara in honor of one of the most bad-assed, sexy, and very troubled female characters ever written into any SciFi story) back to my custody after fixing the connection issue and upgrading the range extender's muffler. Some of the problems I listed could not be readily replicated and some of them are known problems waiting for the release of 615.x software. My most serious problem, parking pawl failing to release, did not resurface and I am hopeful that fixing the connection problem has fixed it.

Nevertheless, the car worked flawlessly on the way back and while we were running around San Francisco doing shopping and other random errands. I drove some of the way back in Sport mode and mashed down the accelerator on purpose to verify the noise level and while the high-pitched whine of the turbine was still there, there was no harsh exhaust note any more.

In Stealth mode around town everything seemed to work fine. I am, as always, hopeful.

 

[SoCalGuy]

RE: Sheee's Back!

Today, the good folks at Fisker Marin turned my car (now officially called Kara in honor of one of the most bad-assed, sexy, and very troubled female characters ever written into any SciFi story) back to my custody after fixing the connection issue and upgrading the range extender's muffler. Some of the problems I listed could not be readily replicated and some of them are known problems waiting for the release of 615.x software. My most serious problem, parking pawl failing to release, did not resurface and I am hopeful that fixing the connection problem has fixed it.

Nevertheless, the car worked flawlessly on the way back and while we were running around San Francisco doing shopping and other random errands. I drove some of the way back in Sport mode and mashed down the accelerator on purpose to verify the noise level and while the high-pitched whine of the turbine was still there, there was no harsh exhaust note any more.

In Stealth mode around town everything seemed to work fine. I am, as always, hopeful.

Fab, how different is the noise level pre and post muffler in Sport?

 

[dennis]

@Fab - Is the muffler upgrade something that is being done to all of the cars or was there a particular problem with yours? Did they replace it with a different (i.e. upgraded) part?