Cannot charge on 7KW Type 2, but can on Rapid Charger

[deano72]

Hi,
Just a quickie. I have been charging all ok everyhwere since I had my car in March, last charge last week at work's 7KW charger all ok.
Went to cinema last night and was running on - - - so managed to get slowly home. Plugged into my PodPoint charger, it went green and could hear the locking noise on car and charger too.
Light on front of ZS glows and then goes out (not pulsing as if it is charging). Car shows 'connected but not charging'.
Left it all night....still zero charge.
Tried in ASDA 7kw charger, same problem.
Tried in Work's 7Kw charger, same problem.
Trundled to local service station and charged all ok with Rapid Ecotricity charger.
Any ideas what could be wrong?
I have tried my 2 cables on each of home, asda and work and does not charge.

Many Thanks!

 

[deano72]

I have managed to get to 82% charge on rapid at service station.
Now when I plug in at asda, I am able to charge.....weird!

 

[Ron61]

EV's have 2 sperate charging circuits AC and DC. Rapid chargers use DC. Granny chargers and type 2 7kw chargers use AC. The only thing I can think is that there's something wrong with the AC charging system.

 

[Jomarkh]

Did you try it with the Granny charger?

 

[deano72]

My Granny charger has never worked since I got it (in March), so never bothered with that.

 

[JCFlippen]

What state was your 12v battery in?

 

[deano72]

12v battery is/was between 12-14, never had an issue with that before.

 

[Jomarkh]

If the granny charger came with the car get it replaced

 

[JCFlippen]

You can try my granny charger if you like. I’m not far from you in Caerwent.

 

[deano72]

ok, here is the weird conclusion.
Last night I could not charge at home on my PodPoint charger, and then in the morning could not charge at Asda, Aldi or my Work.
After a rapid charge at local service station, I was then able to charge at Asda, Aldi and at Work.
Went home at lunch to try my home charger, before plugging in cable the PodPoint the light was a solid green (and not blue) as though it was charging. Plugged my cable into car and then into PodPoint charger, locked car and will not charge.
Remove cable from car, and could not remove cable from charger at all. Light still green.
Flipped internal switch in house to reset charger, removed cable. Switched it back on, and can now charge all ok.
Looks like the charge I attempted last night got the car all confused into thinking it was constantly charging at my home charger wherever I went (apart from Rapid) and the Rapid must have reset something so that I could then charge in Public charger all ok.
Thank you for your replies!

You can try my granny charger if you like. I’m not far from you in Caerwent.

Thank you JCFlippen....If this happens again, i will try your cable. Hardly any distance from Caldicot to you.

 

[Gomev]

Just a small tip, if using an untethered charger (where you have to plug in both ends) always plug into the charger first and the car last. Reverse order on unplugging, car first, charger second.

 

[deano72]

Thank you for that tip, I had always done it car>charger then car>charger to disconnect. Is that not right/preferred?

 

[Gomev]

Thank you for that tip, I had always done it car>charger then car>charger to disconnect. Is that not right/preferred?

No. Think of a tethered charger, where it is already connected to the charger, and the last part is to connect to the car, and first disconnect is from the car, which is what you were doing on the rapids.
Also if you use a free Podpoint in a supermarket etc. it clearly states to connect to the charger first before the car and disconnect as I have described.

 

[chromeskull]

My Granny charger has never worked since I got it (in March), so never bothered with that.

Definitely need to get that granny charger checked as it may be a last resort but definitely needs to be working.

 

[Kithmo]

No. Think of a tethered charger, where it is already connected to the charger, and the last part is to connect to the car, and first disconnect is from the car, which is what you were doing on the rapids.
Also if you use a free Podpoint in a supermarket etc. it clearly states to connect to the charger first before the car and disconnect as I have described.

I know it says this in the manual, but I don't think it matters which end connects first, after all the cable is only a dumb wire which links the charger to the car, no intelligent features. The last end you connect will pick up the signal from the charger to the car to say it's connected anyway. I usually plug in to the car first and have never had a problem (touches wood) on the Pod points or BP Pulse ones.

 

[BrianG]

I had a similar issue 12 months ago which turned out to be the car’s software. You seem to be OK for now but if you are due a service ask them to check it out.

 

[deano72]

hi, it's me again. The same issue has cropped up again. Can rapid charge, but cannot charge from any 7kw chargers.
I have it booked in on friday 5th, so hopefully they can fix it.

 

[BrianG]

Good luck! I wonder if disconnecting the 12 volt battery for 10 minutes might fix it…. a forced reboot.

 

[deano72]

Quick update. After 4 hours in garage today, the OBC needs replacing.
One is now on order (thankfully warranty covers it). Rapid charging works still so I’ll use that once a week until fixed.

 

[deano72]

Hi. Final update. Just had the onboard charger swapped out today. Took ages to be delivered.
I can now charge everywhere including my granny charger which I could not before.
Thanks for your advice !