MG4 charging - lack of feedback

Hi, I have an MG4 EV Trophy extended range.
I'm finding (granny) charging tempermental.
I usually have to turn the car off, then on again, plug the charger in, then turn the charger on. Works about 70% of the time.

But the infotainment system doesn't come on unless I sit in the driver's seat, so I can't see the battery level until I do this.

I used to be able to see it was charging because the green lights by the charing port showed me. But this has just stopped working.

I've also never managed to get the MG App to work - can't pair it with the car despite multiple attempts.

Any advice?
Thanks

Always had the app tbh but there are a few ways. Car on in park after a drive, plugging in and hearing the lock engage on the charge port, the lights on the charge port and if the display is awake (haven’t locked the car at this point) it says plugged in slow charging. Prior to that the charge point makes a thud closing the contactors. Granny charging early on - had to get a 10m one (was too scared to use the little one with and extension) it had display and lights on.

May be worth seeing if there are any updates available when it goes in - mention you are having issues. With granny charging I’d turn the charger on and plug it into the car not plug in then turn on if that makes sense ?

The only other time I’ve had trouble was when powerline networking equipment was on in the house - charging would refuse to start without tapping start charging on the app (that was with home charger but believe it CAN affect if you are unlucky as it is due to the interference on the earth in my experience).

This has always worked for me for the last 6 months :-

1. Park up car and exit without locking or powering down.
2. Get charging cable ready and switched on and position close to charging flap.
3. Open charging flap and I get blue lights showing
4. Plug in charging cable asap firmly
5. Blue lights change shade slightly.
6. Go round to drivers door and press the lock button (door handle)
7. Car locks and when I look inside the screen says AC charging
8. Walk round back to charging flap and green charging lights are on.

I've had problems if the charging cable was not turned on when I plugged it in. I had to start the whole process again.

JonnyG said:

This has always worked for me for the last 6 months :-

1. Park up car and exit without locking or powering down.
2. Get charging cable ready and switched on and position close to charging flap.
3. Open charging flap and I get blue lights showing
4. Plug in charging cable asap firmly
5. Blue lights change shade slightly.
6. Go round to drivers door and press the lock button (door handle)
7. Car locks and when I look inside the screen says AC charging
8. Walk round back to charging flap and green charging lights are on.

Click to expand...

Exactly the same for me on timed home charger or work ones that dump charge in immediately (I think the timed one says connecting for a good while).

I always granny charge, and use a similar system to @JonnyG. I've pretty much never had any trouble.

1. Park in garage.
2. Get out and remove everything from the car I want to take with me.
3. Walk round to the charging port, open it, and plug in.
4. Switch on the socket at the wall. (It doesn't seem to make any difference if the socket is already on).
5. Listen for the sound of the cable locking in to the car.
6. Walk back round to the driver's door and lock the car.
7. Observe the driver's screen to make sure it says the car is charging.

The only snag I encountered recently was when I then realised I'd left my house keys in the car. I unlocked and got them out, but the car aborted the charge. Others had said, don't worry, it will start again, but the trouble is it isn't always displayed on the screen if it has. I thought I'd use my phone to check the app and see if it was charging.

That's when I realised I'd left the phone in the car too! I unlocked again and got it. Again it was hard to see if charging had resumed, and I was getting fed up with it by that time, it was cold. So I just picked up my stuff and went inside. I was 99% sure the car was charging.

About half an hour later it occurred to me to check, using the app. No, the damn car was NOT charging. I tapped on "start charge" and it promptly obliged. No more trouble. I'd have been very cross if I hadn't checked and it hadn't been charged by morning. Also pretty cross if the app hadn't been working and I'd had to trail back out to the garage and re-start the charge.

I think the trick is to remember to take everything out of the car before you start the charge, so you can just lock the door, glance at the screen through the window to make sure it's behaving, and walk away. Opening the door again introduces complications.

jonnysymbols said:

I used to be able to see it was charging because the green lights by the charing port showed me. But this has just stopped working.

Click to expand...

Seems to be the day for this problem, answer here MG4 Charging port lights stopped working #26

Thanks guys, got it charging now and the green lights have come back!

Rolfe said:

I think the trick is to remember to take everything out of the car before you start the charge, so you can just lock the door, glance at the screen through the window to make sure it's behaving, and walk away. Opening the door again introduces complications.

Click to expand...

If you set one of the unlock methods to unlock the drivers door only, you can unlock the car to access your contents without stopping the charge.

DevonMG4 said:

Seems to be the day for this problem, answer here MG4 Charging port lights stopped working #26

Click to expand...

I've just done that fix, didn't disconnect battery, carefully removed panel, with a long-nose pliers removed the top fuse (5amp) cleaned the two pins with clean cloth and reinsert, simple 5 min fix, thanks for the tip.