[Deafsoundguy]

I was reading more about the ELR and came across the MSD. I haven't ever heard that term before and the document doesn't even describe what that means but it's the Master Serviced Disconnect for terminating your high voltage battery to the rest of the car. It is located right behind the console compartment armrest beneath the console pull-away. The document states that it should be replaced every 45,000 miles... wow. I thought "what the heck for?". The more I think about it, the only reason I could see is that maybe that much current through that connector is pitting the contacts via small arcs over time. I see this in a micro form on all my audio stuff where power amp output has to go through small connectors.

I thought maybe some of you may like that info.

I also found an interesting document, 3 pages of PDF that has some good info, as well as shows the car chassis is 80% steel and designed for quite a whallop. I bet if that was aluminum... well maybe not as strong but think how much faster the ELR would be if that weight was out of the car.... Probably way faster than the i3, which has the same performance time (2016 ELR). I know from owning the i3 that the BMW was highly sensitive to weight. With just me in the car it would go pretty quick but add even a single triple cheeseburger eating American passenger and you would really notice the car not liking the weight - God forbid 4 people...

I tried to attach this PDF about the ELR and electrical info for first responders, but the PDF file size it too big. Heres the link to the GM technical college 3 page info:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ID=9&nID=750&usg=AOvVaw18ObmMC2HEyLgOkJ76ycjS

Hope someone will enjoy the info and pics...

 

[m_eaton53]

Hey, an actual (relatively) cheap part!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-CADILLA...TAGE-MANUAL-DISCONNECT-20887056-/132257064925

This is exactly how it is with a Merkur XR4Ti. If an XR4Ti part is shared with a Ford Sierra, it's cheap. If it's not, then pay up.
Replace XR4Ti with ELR and Ford Sierra with Chevy Volt and... you get the idea.

 

[loomis2]

I bet if that was aluminum... well maybe not as strong but think how much faster the ELR would be if that weight was out of the car

I don't think about how much faster but rather how much more range it would have.

 

[Deafsoundguy]

Oh and here's a pic of the battery with the orange power plug on top, so it's easy to visualize how the power plugs would look and work under that armrest rear pullaway

 

[reciprocity]

What's interesting is that the Volt Maintenance Schedule (at least for my 2014) doesn't say anything about replacing the MSD at certain intervals. I wonder if the extra power that the 2016 ELR can draw from the battery makes the regular replacement necessary, if it got left out of the older Volt manuals, or if they changed their minds about regular replacements along the way.

Has anyone with more than 45,000 miles on their car ever had the ELR MSD replaced? From what I've read, the service technician can't just pull it out and pop in a new one. They have to reprogram/reactivate the various computer systems, essentially like what happens after the airbags deploy and all the high voltage systems shut down for safety.

 

[Deafsoundguy]

So, since I was at the dealer yesterday, and my car just hit 46k miles, I asked about the recommended change of the MSD at 45k miles. No one knew what I was talking about. They've never had anyone ask, or done that one before. I had them look into it and they were kinda like "wow you're right, it's recommended at 45k miles but to tell the truth we never heard of that!" And the tech really couldn't give me any definitive answer as to why.

I suspect it's a current passing thing, the connector passes so much current over time it would be like seeing degradation of the contacts of an old style distributor cap, maybe - who knows. But it is recommended. It's $206 for the part. I forgot to ask how much for the labor... but there it is anyhow.... They didn't seem too worried about it...