RAV4 and Highlander Hybrid Q211 Electric Rear Axle

Hello, my name is John Kelly and this is the  WeberAuto YouTube channel. Today we will be   looking at the hybrid electric rear drive axle  that has been used as part of the 2006 and above   Toyota Highlander all-wheel drive systems and the  new 2016 and above Toyota Rav4 this is an electric   motor driven rear axle there is no driveshaft that  connects to this it just has three big wires that   come in from a special inverter converter assembly  under the hood that controls three electric motors   rather than two now the three electric motors  that are part of the Highlander and the Rav4   we have two that are in the transaxle itself  this is the P310 transaxle it was used in 2006   through 2011 Toyota Highlander it was also used  in the Lexus RX hybrid 2006 through 2008 and then   different variations of this transaxle that just  had different gear ratios different torque ratings   of the electric motors but functions exactly the  same just different sized gears different heavy   duty light-duty versions of this transaxle have  the two electric motors we have MG2 that propels   the vehicle down the road and then we have MG1  that is the starter generator assembly that   starts the internal combustion engine and it acts  as a generator and it is used with what's called   a power split device planetary gearset to vary the  amount of engine torque that is delivered to help   MG2 propel the vehicle down the road by turning  the counter drive gear counter driven gear and   the final drive now the model number of this rear  axle is the Q211, the Q211 rear axle and it has a   three-digit code on our right here of a 2FM now as  we talked about in the series on the evolution of   the Toyota Prius these three digits mean something  the two typically indicates the generation of this   model so this is a second-generation rear axle  but this is what came in a 2006 and above Toyota   Highlander so you might think well where is the  first-generation because in the United States the   2006 Toyota Highlander was the first that had  this Q211 rear axle on it well in Japan they   had a minivan that had a rear axle and a CVT a  hybrid electric CVT in the front and I'm thinking   although I don't know for sure and if any of you  know please comment in the box below that it would   have been on one here on the earlier versions and  then the F they have the letters A through F and   I keep going on trans axles that are different  versions of that same model this is F that's the   sixth ABCDEF yeah that's the sixth version of  this and then the M, I believe stands for it's   an electric motor-driven axle. alright well the  rear drive axle here has a single electric motor   it's called Motor-Renerator-Rear or MGR and  it's underneath this cover here we have let's   see this is the front of the vehicle right here  so this these with the axle shafts going to the   driver's side rear and the passenger side rear  here on the other side as you can see there are   three holes right here for the three-phase cables  coming in from the inverter converter assembly   and underneath the hood, this is an air-cooled as  you can see these fins here all kinds of cooling   fins air-cooled electric motor housing you can  see more fins underneath over here there's no   liquid cooling no oil to fluid heat exchanger it's  just the transmission fluid that's in here which   by the way, is the Toyota world standard fluid and  that absorbs the heat from the stator and the MGR   rotor assembly transfers it to the housing where  it radiates out into the air off of these cooling   fins so don't spray these with undercoating and if  they get all coated with mud it could get plugged   up and overheat and overheated now I owned a brand  new 2008 Toyota highlander for many years and it   said writing the owner's manual but this is an  all-wheel-drive vehicle this is not an off-road   four-wheel drive vehicle although Toyota on the  back of the original Highlander and on the new   rav4 calls it a 4WD-i, and the -i  stands for intelligent the i is intelligent and   it basically has three modes of operation there's  a start-up mode where your vehicle just starts   to move and it on at least on my Highlander and  from what I've read any other service information   on the Rav4 and the newer Highlanders is it will  provide a little bit of torque always upon takeoff   and on my Highlander, it seemed like it was always  from about zero to three miles an hour that it   gave torque to the rear wheels and helped the  front-wheel drive portion of the Highlander   or rav4 move down the road and that was just in  case there were slick surfaces or loose gravel or   whatever and then during normal driving it's not  applying torque to the rear axles at all unless   it detects an impending slip like a front will is  about is slipping or about to slip then it would   apply torque to the right and left axle shafts to  help push the front wheels out of there slipping   condition and the third mode is regenerative  braking so every time you slow down it can   contribute electrical current to the inverter  converter assembly where it's changed the DC and   fed back to recharge the high-voltage battery now  on the Highlanders the high voltage battery was   288 volts on the Rav4 the new Rav4 2016 and above  is 244.8 volts   but it can contribute and help slow the vehicle as  long as the state of charge of the battery is low   enough that it can accept that all right well  let's take a look at the case here now I have   an empty case I have the pieces laid out here on  the bench and we'll put it together most of the   way here in this video but this is the driver's  side here's the front on the driver's side here   there's this big heavy cast-iron mass damper the  function of this is to add some additional weight   it's just a big heavy weight to the housing here  and stop certain or change the frequency of   a vibration that could occur on these we've got a  plug here on the side where if you watched any of   my other videos on the Toyota the evolution of the  Toyota Prius transaxle this plug is to reach in   at the factory and adjust the resolve or assembly  that's underneath this cover and the resolver   assembly is what keeps track of the position of  the electric motor it's rotational speed and the   direction of rotation normally that's not a plug  you would ever remove that is not a fluid-filled   plug or a fluid check plug then we have two  electrical connectors up here on the driver's   side this front one here is for the resolver it  connects to the resolver this other one is for the   temperature sensor of the stator assembly inside  of here as we come around front here we have the   vent of this rear axle we have a fluid fill plug  that of course in the vehicle you wouldn't be able   to get to it so there's another plug you can put  fluid in but that is a fluid filled plug on the passenger side we have the three-phase cable  connections here and then we also have if you   look the fluid drain plug right here and the fluid  level check plug right here so the fluid level   check plug is where you take this plug out it long  as the vehicles on a level surface if fluid comes   out then it was overfilled if no fluid comes out  you need to add some until it does and then let   it slow to a steady drip and then put the plug  back in all right on the back we just have some   mounting brackets this is a three-piece case we  have the cover here where the resolver the stator   and the electric motor are, and then on this side  we have where all the gears the final drive to   counter dry gear and the motor drive gear are all  housed in this case here so let's separate   the case halves I have all the bolts removed all  the fluid drained all the parts are out of here   there's some got to be real careful here so we  don't break the electrical connections there's   some pry points like right here and right over  here or we can pry up there's some dowel pins   we could probably right where the dowel pin is on  the outside of the dowel pin we want to pry up as   evenly as we can we want to avoid just sticking  it in on any machined surface and trying to pry   it up but right here where the dowel pin  is slowly caught there we go okay all right   so here's the inside of the case half where the  gears set the final drive is going to sit right   in here and a counter gear and the electric motor  drive gear we have some oil catch basins here the   final drive gear is going to sling oil up and  fill up these areas here and then there are holes   where it drips down and lubricates the bearings  on this side on this side of the case the center   case the final drive gear is going to be spinning  this way fling oil up into these catch basins it   also sends oil through to the other side where  it drips down on the stator assembly to help   cool it and onto the electric motor rotor to help  cool it alright so let's take off this cover here   there's a prior point right here yeah sometimes  the probe points are and real nice easy to get   locations other times they don't make any sense  at all to me as to why the probably points there   rather than someplace else okay there we go so  here is the driver's side case cover we have   the resolver assembly that resolver assembly is  held on with three bolts the back it is one that   is needs to be calibrated out of the factory so  do not undo those bolts unless you absolutely   have to and if you absolutely have to make sure  you make alignment marks on the resolver versus   the case so that it goes back in the same same  location and then we have the empty case area   here where the stator the rotor the pass-through  connector for the three-phase windings all fit   right here okay well let's put this thing  together all right the first thing that needs to   go in is the pass-through connector right here for  the three-phase cables the pass-through connector   goes all the way through the width of this Center  case here and sticks partially not quite all the   way through but sticks most of the way through  to where when we bolt up the three-phase cable   connection here it makes a good electrical  connection with the pass-through connector   now we've just got a couple of bolts to hold that  in place all right the next thing that goes in is   our stator assembly the stator assembly right here  has a built-in temperature sensor that will need   to plug into this empty electrical connector  right here that goes right here on the stator   case cover portion once we get that assembled  but now let's put the stator in the housing here we go all right we've got our  three long stator bolts we've got   to look through make sure those  holes are lined up I think it is alright next we have three bolts that hold  the three-phase cables for the stator to the   electrical pass-through when you put these  together they need to be good and clean if   we were putting this together to really go  back in the vehicle today I would clean those   off with contact cleaner have them good and dry  have the threads dry the bolt threads dry the   receptacle threads dry and make sure that we  have a good electrical connection so that we   don't have any type of a voltage drop occurring  robbing power from the stator all right so we've   got our other than torquing the bolts we've  got our stator assembly installed we've got   our state or temperature sensor that's going  to plug into the cover as I said that will go   right here but we are not going to put that  cover on in this video so I'm just going to   tuck this off to the side here for a moment and  let's set this out of the way and let's look at   the other case half where the gears go now  in order to allow this case have to sit level as   we assemble it I'm going to put a couple of extra  long bolts in here to stabilize it here we go all   right okay the first part that's going to go in  here with the gears is our mg our drive gear now   this drive gear connects to the rotor for the  mg our motor and it's going to turn this drive   gear right here it has a ball bearing right here  that fits right down into the case just like that   and then we have a counter gear the counter gear  has some teeth right here it has 40 teeth on the   counter gear and that's the 18 teeth on the pinion  drive gear right here so that will go in next the gear ratio for the mg our drive gear to the  countershaft is 1.739:1 we have 23 teeth   on the drive gear 40 teeth on the counter gear so  it takes a little less than one and three-quarter   turns of the MGR drive shaft gear here or drive  gear to get one rotation of the counter gear then   we have the final drive assembly this final drive  assembly is pretty light duty it doesn't have to   handle a lot of torque it just has to assist the  front tires a front axle in pushing the vehicle   forward when there's a loss of traction so this  is not an off-road four-wheel-drive system notice   it only has six bolts holding the ring gear  to the differential case just a little tiny   differential case as a little tiny open style  differential so we'll take our final drive gear   here and differential case set it in place and  then we'll take our little axle shaft here stub   shaft and stick it in for some support the final  drive gear here has 71 teeth on the ring gear and   eight teen teeth on the little pinion on the top  of the counter transfer gear which gives us a 3.944:1   gear ratio between the counter gear and  the final drive gear and we already know we have   a 1.739 gear ratio between the MGR drive gear  and the counter gear so if you multiply those   two gear ratios together you get an overall gear  ratio of 6.859:1 it's   going to take 6.859 turns  of the electric motor to get one rotation of   the differential case which is the same speed  as the tires so now we'll bring in the electric   motor this electric motor here as you can see  is rated for 50 kilowatt which is 67 horsepower   that's in addition to what is in the front trans  axle it has an additional 130 Newton meters   of torque or 96 pound-feet of torque and that's  going to sit right on this the splines of the   counter or of the MGR drive gear there we go  just like that so as the electric motor rotates   here's the forward vehicle movement direction of  rotation it's going to take six point eight five   nine rotations of this electric motor to get one  rotation of the tire now how does that compare   to the front a transaxle electric motor MG2, MG2 on the same vehicle has to rotate 8.878   times for one rotation of the  front tires and this is 6.859   so it actually turns slower than MG2  does driving the vehicle up front. It gives us 96   pound-feet of torque but we can multiply that by  6.859 which gives us a total   of 659 pound-feet of torque in addition to what  the front transaxle delivers which is on the   Lexus model 2160 pound feet  of torque on the Toyota model 1913 pound-feet of   torque so combined of 2500 five to 2700 pound-feet of torque delivered to the   tires which is the most powerful front-wheel drive  hybrid system that the Toyota has now there's more   powerful or rear wheel drives in the Lexus  but for front-wheel drives this system here that   a variation but a little bit lower power is used  in the new Rav4 for 2016 and above but some pretty   high amount of power for a seven-passenger vehicle  the Toyota Highlander Hybrid since 2006 which is   pretty impressive by the way that the Lexus RX and  the Toyota Highlander used the same trans axle but   the Lexus got a 3.5:1 gear  reduction final drive where the Toyota has got   a 3.154 they have the exact  same engines everything else in the transaxle is   exactly the same but since the Lexus has more gear  reduction it will accelerate a little more quickly   have a little more torque but at the expense of  little worse fuel economy all right well this   setup right here where we have a motor driving a  countershaft driving a final drive is basically   what you have in almost every electric vehicle  on the road except the difference would be how   big is this electric motor how much power does it  have and if you make it more powerful these gears   need to be thicker and stronger the bearings need  to be bigger and so on but it still it's just a   three-shaft system the shaft that has the electric  motor the countershaft for the gear reduction in   torque multiplication and then the final drive  with the differential in it to allow the tires   to turn different speeds while you turn corners  so this is the Q211 rear axle setup on Toyota   Highlander and Rav4 vehicles from what I've  read this has been used in the rear axle of Japan   versions of Toyota Priuses and as I mentioned  at the start of the video there's a Toyota van   made in Japan that had a rear electric axle I do  not know if it's this one I suspect it is along   with a CVT transmission and a hybrid electric  motor sandwiched between the engine and the CVT   transmission much like the Honda integrated Motor  Assist system over there so it was a different   style of hybrid electric van so this is the Q211  rear axle let me just quickly slide it out of the   way for a moment let's just look real quickly here  at the P300 series that is used in all the other   Toyota hybrid vehicles besides the Prius the Prius  does not use this it uses a smaller lighter weight   version called the P410 or there's others P510, P610 there's even a new   P710 that that's coming out in the 2018 Toyota  Camry Hybrid that's much like the P610 transaxle   it just is bigger to handle more torque but  and I believe that that P710 transaxle is   going to phase out this P300 series transaxle  because prior to 2018 Camry Hybrid it used a P314   transaxle that was just like this but with  different power a smaller power rating different   gear ratios for the final drive but all P300 so  there's this is a P310 it was replaced by   a P313 the original Toyota Camry Hybrid had a  P311 and then the Nissan Altima Hybrid had a   P312 there's a P314 now that has replaced the  P311 that the camera had and now the P314 is used   in the Avalon hybrid the Rav4 hybrid Camry Hybrid  the 2017 hybrid still your Highlander still uses   the P313 but they are all just like this and if  you want to know how this system works and see   the internal components and all of that look up  the P410 deep-dive transaxle video that I made   because it's just like this except everything's  just a little bit smaller so on the all-wheel   drive systems that are out there with Toyota  or the 4WD-i the intelligent   four-wheel-drive systems it's a 2 motor front  hybrid transaxle with a single motor rear   axle with no driveshaft it's just electric front  and electric rear axle and all or these two motors   propel the vehicle down the road all three of them  can give you regenerative braking when you slow   down if you put it in if you put your transmission  shifter in the B position the braking mode then it   will then it will use the power from mg one here  motor generator number one also in regenerative   braking tail slowed you down which gives you  additional braking that you normally would not   have alright well this has been a review and  look at the Q211 rear axle and the Toyota   four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive systems on  hybrid electric vehicles thank you for watching

Channel: WeberAuto

Views: 142,095

Keywords: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, RAV4, Lexus, ASE, Lexus RX350h, WSU, CAT, Ardell Brown, Highlander Hybrid, Hybrid Rear Axle, CCAR, STEM, Professor, Weber State Automotive, 4WD, NACAT, Hybrid, John D. Kelly, 4WD-i, Weber State University, AWD, Q211, AWD-i, NATEF, Aisin, Guy in wheelchair

Id: KuR0cihFAvQ

Length: 29min 45sec (1785 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2017