Onboard charger issue, coded replacement part

Dear MG5 EV users, I am using my car as a private hire taxi in London for the past three years, during which it has accumulated 130,000 miles (hence wo warranty anymore). However, over the last five months, I have exclusively relied on rapid (CCS) chargers due to a malfunction in my onboard charger unit (AC-DC inverter). Consequently, neither my home charger nor any other type 2 chargers are functional for me.

I have gone to MG service, who quoted me nearly £3,000 to replace the onboard charger. Considering this expense excessive, I opted to purchase a second-hand unit from eBay. Then I have found a garage to install the replacement, which was done successfully. However, my charging dilemma persists, as the second-hand inverter (onboard charger) I bought was originally coded to a different vehicle and requires re-coding (or at least calibration) to function with mine.

Any suggestions?

Saleem

saleem23 said:

However, my charging dilemma persists, as the second-hand inverter (onboard charger) I bought was originally coded to a different vehicle and requires re-coding (or at least calibration) to function with mine.

Click to expand...

I believe that you are the first to be in this situation. VIN locking is the bane of the DIY repairer. Generally, you need a special diagnostic tool that the manufacturer keeps unavailable to all but the dealers. For SAIC vehicles, I don't even know the name of the required tool, and haven't even seen a factory service manual. Perhaps one day Right to Repair laws will have enough teeth to prevent this needless money grabbing by the manufacturers. I was hooping that SAIC would not bother with this sort of thing.

I have been involved with repair of the Mitsubishi iMiEV 3.6kW In Board Chargers, and to a lesser extent the similar chargers in pre 2013 Nissan Leafs. Fortunately, these have no VIN locking, although the battery packs do. There are some third party tools to deal with this issue, but it takes a number of years for this to appear. It seems to help to have the vehicles in question available in Russia. For whatever reason, Russia seems to have a larger proportion of people who are good at the required low level reverse engineering.

It's possible that it will at this stage be easier to repair the old chsrger than get the new one working. But again, it takes some years for the community to trace out partial schematic diagrams, get to know the "usual suspects" that cause problems, and so on.

Sorry that I don't have a solution for you. Perhaps the best path forward for you at this point is to try and find a friendly dealer who knows their craft and is willing to learn something new and get your new charger locked to the new VIN. Preferably at reasonable cost to you. The procedure must be possible, for installing new chargers (CCUs), unless this is done at the factory. If the process requires cooperation from SAIC, then I have no idea what problems that will cause, if any.

Thanks for being a trail blazer on this.

I have to agree with @Coulomb, with most cars still in warranty the Community hasn’t had a need to look for alternative methods of repair like repairing faulty OBC, swapping VIN ID chip or CAN spoofing to name a few popular approaches.

There is a guy on the German forum @apial that seems to have a full diagnosis kit, might be worth contacting him..

saleem23 said:

Dear MG5 EV users, I am using my car as a private hire taxi in London for the past three years, during which it has accumulated 130,000 miles (hence wo warranty anymore). However, over the last five months, I have exclusively relied on rapid (CCS) chargers due to a malfunction in my onboard charger unit (AC-DC inverter). Consequently, neither my home charger nor any other type 2 chargers are functional for me.

I have gone to MG service, who quoted me nearly £3,000 to replace the onboard charger. Considering this expense excessive, I opted to purchase a second-hand unit from eBay. Then I have found a garage to install the replacement, which was done successfully. However, my charging dilemma persists, as the second-hand inverter (onboard charger) I bought was originally coded to a different vehicle and requires re-coding (or at least calibration) to function with mine.

Any suggestions?

Saleem

Click to expand...

Cleevely Autos generally are able to resolve these issues for you at a much better price.

At they come to you!

Thanks for the replies above, I will try both suggestions. Also Coulomb, special thanks to you for the detailed explanation.

- I wonder if it's worth trying to get into contact with this guy, he's been hacking a ZS EV charger to get it to work out of the car.