Communication error starting CCS charge?

[thedomg]

Hoping someone can tell me what rookie mistake I am making.

Pulled in to a Gridserve 120kw rapid this evening. Pressed 'P'.
Powered off.
Walked to front, opened flap & removed bungs.
Selected CCS on the charger, tapped payment card (accepted!), plugged cable in.
Charger said 'Connected', I hit OK.
It tried to start charging, took ages, then said "Charging error. Communication problems. Make sure the car is turned off then retry."


So, I unplugged, replaced bungs, closed flap, locked the car. Unlocked, got in and power cycled it (on, wait til ready, off). Got out and repeated as above EXCEPT, before I hit OK, I locked the car.

Charge started successfully.

Do you have to lock the car before it'll start charging? What if you want to sit in it while it charges? What if you want to leave kids/dogs/unfed dry gremlins in it?

What's the right process here?

 

[smokie]

I feel I've read about this before on this forum, have you done a search?

 

[supermegamonkee]

I have found the GS units really hit and miss and have come across this same issue. When we rang the helpline they suggested not to press start only select the CCS conector.

 

[thedomg]

I feel I've read about this before on this forum, have you done a search?

Yes - I did a few. There's a lot of discussion about "charging while sat in the car" or "locked / unlocked" charging, but it seems to be related to the MG ZS EV, rather than the MG5.

TBH I'm not sure why locking/unlocking should make any difference at all. It makes no difference on our Leaf, why would it here?!

On the MG ZS discussions I see that various software updates have been required in order to enable unlocked charging. Does anyone know (rather than taking a guess, educated or otherwise) what the software situation is with the MG5 LR?

 

[jgpev]

Do you know if the charger was an ABB (most upgraded MSAs with Gridserve branding) or Tritium (such as at Rugby Services) ? Any photo of the error on screen?

 

[5teep]

The ok only things you need to do are switch off and have the doors closed until the charge starts.

 

[thedomg]

Do you know if the charger was an ABB (most upgraded MSAs with Gridserve branding) or Tritium (such as at Rugby Services) ? Any photo of the error on screen?

Attached photo of error message... I think it was an ABB unit, but my recall may be off. Not visited Rugby services, or (knowingly) stopped at a Tritium charger before.

 

[5teep]

Most likely it's a faulty charger.

 

[Petriix]

There is a bit of a knack to it and sometimes something doesn't quite work out. I'd imagine it's more likely to be the car's flaky software but can sometimes be as simple as the cable not quit being properly set in the port.

I tend to lock the car before starting a rapid charge just to be sure. I'd always plug in before trying to get the charger to work, but you definitely have to be sure that the car has locked the cable in place before you try to start the charge.

If it fails the first time then I'll try holding the cable firmly into the port while it initialises. If in doubt, try again.

Yes - I did a few. There's a lot of discussion about "charging while sat in the car" or "locked / unlocked" charging, but it seems to be related to the MG ZS EV, rather than the MG5.

TBH I'm not sure why locking/unlocking should make any difference at all. It makes no difference on our Leaf, why would it here?!

On the MG ZS discussions I see that various software updates have been required in order to enable unlocked charging. Does anyone know (rather than taking a guess, educated or otherwise) what the software situation is with the MG5 LR?

The difference is that the Leaf has an independent lock for the charge port. On the MG5 (and most other EVs) it's tied to the locking/unlocking of the doors. The Leaf's system is much better.

 

[thedomg]

Yes - seems the best approach to plug in, lock doors, start charging - then unlock and get back in once charging established.... just a bit convoluted!

Think I'll try this approach next time.

 

[jgpev]

Attached photo of error message... I think it was an ABB unit, but my recall may be off. Not visited Rugby services, or (knowingly) stopped at a Tritium charger before.

Funny enough I got a very similar error at Ionity on Saturday and after locking doors, it worked straight away.