Emergency - stranded in France

[thingaby]

Does anybody know what are the chargers like at Eurotunnel on the GB side?

 

[Padaung]

Hi SimmieC,

Thanks for your reply in the other thread, it was really useful.

With reference to your reply above:

2) Yes, we did manage to use the 50kWh at one stop, but the stations we stopped all only had one of these machines. At all but one of the stops it was already occupied. We could have waited for it to become but we had a schedule we were keen to keep so chose to pay the higher cost for the other chargers (of which there were many at each of the stops).
3) I have to admit, this has put us off a bit. Time is a healer though.
4) There are loads of Tesla chargers at the terminal, aren't there! We only saw a few in use at any one time, but there was a constant demand for the two non-Tesla chargers. Hopefully the Tesla points will be enabled for all cars to use sooner rather than later, and that more non-Tesla points are added soon too.

The hotel we are in, which is 1 mile from the terminal, also has a bank if Tesla chargers!

I guess this is one of the current benefits of being a Tesla owner...

 

[SimmieC]

I believe there is a page on their website that will tell you the state of the chargers.
However, the last time I passed by they were out of order but there was a service station just before the tunnel and the CCS charge was free (FOC).
Hope that helps

 

[Padaung]

Does anybody know what are the chargers like at Eurotunnel on the GB side?

We had a successful charge at Euro Tunnel Folkstone. This is a photo of the charger we used.

 

[staarek]

I wonder if fault like this could be cleared with ODB dongle and an app, for example car scanner?

 

[staarek]

Update, it is Sunday so all the garages and MG Europe are closed so we are her until Monday at least. Breakdown assistance are now communicating with MG to get the car checked asap that day.

The car is locked in the forecourt of a local garage so we can't access it until Monday to see if it has reset itself by not being driven for a while.

Storm Eunice is now in France, very strong winds and rain here!

Hi Padaung,

Any updates on the repair?

 

[Padaung]

Hi Padaung,

Any updates on the repair?

Hiya, we got home at midnight last night. We chose to return without our car, it is still being fixed (after waiting 3 days we were finally informed the MG 5 is not on sale in France yet and the garage did not have the correct diagnostic software for checking/fixing it ).

We returned in a French hire car, powered by petrol...

 

[staarek]

Hiya, we got home at midnight last night. We chose to return without our car, it is still being fixed (after waiting 3 days we were finally informed the MG 5 is not on sale in France yet and the garage did not have the correct diagnostic software for checking/fixing it ).

We returned in a French hire car, powered by petrol...

Thanks, and it's good to hear you guys are back home safely, hopefully the car will follow you shortly.

 

[JohnInFrance]

.... we were finally informed the MG 5 is not on sale in France yet and the garage did not have the correct diagnostic software for checking/fixing it ).

Nor will we ever get your version, we get the '22 facelift version in April. I'm surprised that the MG dealer diagnostic software is not 'one size fits all' (I doubt VAG have specific software per model for example), so hopefully it's just a bit of local confusion and your car will be back with you in a jiffy - what a nightmare though!

 

[Padaung]

I took the French hire car back to Calais today, and whilst arranging the details for that trip yesterday I was told our car has been fixed.

A few more phone calls later and details for collecting it on a Saturday afternoon from a 24hr breakdown depot had been arranged.

One massive joy of this was that I got to sample the delight of the French TGV network, it is soooo good. The train from Calais to Lille took 29mins, and left and arrived TO THE SECOND on time.

Anyway, I'm now typing this in the Calais EuroTunnel terminal car park with 66% charge remaining and parked well away from the offending charger

So. Nearly. Home.

 

[smokie]

Goods News!! What was it?

 

[Padaung]

Goods News!! What was it?

No idea of the specific cause, but the car's system has been completely reset. Sadly that means I've lost the trip stats for the entire trip from home to the Alps and back to Calais - I do love a good set of stats.

The reset hasn't fixed an on-going niggle we have where the centre console shows the temperature in celcius and the steering wheel console shows it in farenheit. I had a small hope they would both be on celcius after the reset!

 

[EVsince2016]

Spoke to MG today about this & what the fix is.

Answer was: -

Disconnected both terminals, connect the live / neutral cables together, use a clamp or something & within 10 mins the cars capacitors will discharge & it'll reset fully.

Anyone up to try it?

 

[staarek]

Spoke to MG today about this & what the fix is.

Answer was: -

Disconnected both terminals, connect the live / neutral cables together, use a clamp or something & within 10 mins the cars capacitors will discharge & it'll reset fully.

Anyone up to try it?

This is sort of a thing that you would do on ICE vehicle, apparently it helps with resting ECU etc. I tried it once on my old Renault Master, it didn't help though. Not sure on an EV though, as there is a secondary (or shall i say primary) "source" of power. Last thing you want to do to short-circuit 60kw of 400V batteries.

 

[Lguk]

For those not aware after you disconnect the 12v negative terminal and reconnect. The car will cycle through a hundred doom notifications about every system being offline. This clears once you drive up the road.

 

[Lovemyev]

Spoke to MG today about this & what the fix is.

Answer was: -

Disconnected both terminals, connect the live / neutral cables together, use a clamp or something & within 10 mins the cars capacitors will discharge & it'll reset fully.

Anyone up to try it?

We are talking 12 volt battery here of course.

 

[greeiig]

Spoke to MG today about this & what the fix is.

Answer was: -

Disconnected both terminals, connect the live / neutral cables together, use a clamp or something & within 10 mins the cars capacitors will discharge & it'll reset fully.

Anyone up to try it?

So are you saying this would have fixed the issue that @Padaung had? I think he confirmed he had tried disconnecting the 12V battery terminal but it didn't work. So disconnecting both terminals and then connecting the leads together is a further step to be tried?

 

[Padaung]

So are you saying this would have fixed the issue that @Padaung had? I think he confirmed he had tried disconnecting the 12V battery terminal but it didn't work. So disconnecting both terminals and then connecting the leads together is a further step to be tried?

We did try diconnecting the 12v battery, but we only left it disconnected for about 2 mins (which was the time we read when we first quickly Googled the error whilst in the flight of panic!). Subsequently we read more into the error where people recommend leaving it disconncted for 10mins.

If this happens to me again I'll be trying leaving it disconnected 10mins before contacting breakdown recovery.

Note to self - always have a suitably sized spanner in the car!

 

[Lovemyev]

We did try diconnecting the 12v battery, but we only left it disconnected for about 2 mins (which was the time we read when we first quickly Googled the error whilst in the flight of panic!). Subsequently we read more into the error where people recommend leaving it disconncted for 10mins.

If this happens to me again I'll be trying leaving it disconnected 10mins before contacting breakdown recovery.

Note to self - always have a suitably sized spanner in the car!

You need a 10mm spanner .

 

[EVsince2016]

Yes, the 12V DC battery!

The MG technician told me that you connect the leads from the 12V to discharge the capacitors in the circuit that maintain the memory that caused the fault. He said it's a common fault & standard fix they use.

Just disconnecting alone doesn't always discharge the residual power and can allow them to remember the original fault.