SimmieC
Standard Member
Hi All,
First of all Happy Christmas.
Now for the warning.... BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE THINKING OF USING THE FREE RAPID CHARGER AT EUROTUNNEL
I live in France and my wife and I decided to come back to the UK for the holidays. I am the proud owner of a 6 month old MG ZS EV and I have previously done a number of long trips in the car, so I was quite confident in where to stop etc.
Setting off at 5 in the morning I came across my first situation of the windscreen icing on the inside (yes the inside). Obviously I needed to use the a/c to keep the screen clear. This leads me to a quick question!!!!!
Can I use just the fan on the heating system or can I disable/ isolate the a/c side of the system???
Anyway, after a few more than planed stops, we made it to Calais Eurotunnel terminal. We arrived with time to do a rapid charge (as it was free) before getting onto the train. They have installed a new charger so I was optimistic it would be working. How wrong I was!!
I plugged the car in and waved my card in front of the machine and it excepted it. OK so far, then I received the message on the dash 'Connected but not charging' which as we know always comes up just before the charge starts. So I waited and waited and waited but no further messages came up. So I checked the machine and it showed there was power trying to go in but it wasn't charging? So I thought not a problem I'll wait and charge the other side, so I stopped the charge and got in the car to move it away from the machine as the Chademo might work and I'm considerate like that.
This is when the messages did start to come up on my dash... first 'System Fault' and then 'HV Battery Shut Off'. OH *****.
I've read about similar situations so I locked the car and left it for 10 mins and tried again.. NOPE.
I disconnected the battery (with the 10mm spanner I knew to keep in the glove-box) but.... NOPE.
So out of ideas, I asked a member of staff for help. From this point on it all got very stressful (and tearful, none from me I will add) but the members of staff at Eurotunnel and the recovery truck driver and the insurance people we have been dealing with and the car hire company and the staff at the hotel we had to stay at and the taxi drivers who collected us, have all been very very understanding an helpful and sympathetic.
So in conclusion 'Don't charge at the new charger at Eurotunnel' (maybe I should have just put this at the start and left it at that!!
If you made it this far through my rant, thank you and any comment or ideas of what the problem may have been or an answer to my other question would be much appreciated.
Simon
First of all Happy Christmas.
Now for the warning.... BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE THINKING OF USING THE FREE RAPID CHARGER AT EUROTUNNEL
I live in France and my wife and I decided to come back to the UK for the holidays. I am the proud owner of a 6 month old MG ZS EV and I have previously done a number of long trips in the car, so I was quite confident in where to stop etc.
Setting off at 5 in the morning I came across my first situation of the windscreen icing on the inside (yes the inside). Obviously I needed to use the a/c to keep the screen clear. This leads me to a quick question!!!!!
Can I use just the fan on the heating system or can I disable/ isolate the a/c side of the system???
Anyway, after a few more than planed stops, we made it to Calais Eurotunnel terminal. We arrived with time to do a rapid charge (as it was free) before getting onto the train. They have installed a new charger so I was optimistic it would be working. How wrong I was!!
I plugged the car in and waved my card in front of the machine and it excepted it. OK so far, then I received the message on the dash 'Connected but not charging' which as we know always comes up just before the charge starts. So I waited and waited and waited but no further messages came up. So I checked the machine and it showed there was power trying to go in but it wasn't charging? So I thought not a problem I'll wait and charge the other side, so I stopped the charge and got in the car to move it away from the machine as the Chademo might work and I'm considerate like that.
This is when the messages did start to come up on my dash... first 'System Fault' and then 'HV Battery Shut Off'. OH *****.
I've read about similar situations so I locked the car and left it for 10 mins and tried again.. NOPE.
I disconnected the battery (with the 10mm spanner I knew to keep in the glove-box) but.... NOPE.
So out of ideas, I asked a member of staff for help. From this point on it all got very stressful (and tearful, none from me I will add) but the members of staff at Eurotunnel and the recovery truck driver and the insurance people we have been dealing with and the car hire company and the staff at the hotel we had to stay at and the taxi drivers who collected us, have all been very very understanding an helpful and sympathetic.
So in conclusion 'Don't charge at the new charger at Eurotunnel' (maybe I should have just put this at the start and left it at that!!
If you made it this far through my rant, thank you and any comment or ideas of what the problem may have been or an answer to my other question would be much appreciated.
Simon