Frozen charge port

[Dougal62]

Well it's been about one year since this thread was started and nothing concrete posted about what is the easiest way to free the flap and what can be done to permanently keep it free. I had a heat gun on mine for a good five minutes yesterday and still would not open. Seemed to be stuck further back in the mechanism. I tried the manual unlocking wire pull but no joy with that either. I got no charge last night and our disabled resident now can't get to her club for others like herself (weather is too bad anyway but that's no excuse). I'll have to try again today as I've very little charge left and may have to take a bus or taxi. This is turning into the worst car I've ever had in the last 36 years of car ownership. During that time I've had many makes and had no trouble with any of them (I mean nothing) no matter what time of year. This is just crap along with the other faults. It's certainly ringing true - buy cheap but dear!

 

[Kithmo]

I want to find where the locking mechanism is so i can give it a good coating with some water repellent grease. But I can't figure out where it is, it's only the lock causing me problems.

Maybe follow the cable under the bonnet down ?

My pod point over the last 3 days will not balance charge. It does the normal charging and I've been getting around 4 to 6kWh out of it, however when I expect the car to go into balance the pod point just starts flashing green.
I messaged them through the support chat, but they said it was most likely the car having scheduling etc... I told them MG's don't have anything like that.

However the Dumb Rolec at work balances for a very long time. Been plugging in at 9am and I leave around 7:30pm. It's still balancing at that point unfortunately, but I do unplug it to fetch dinner at 12 for around 30mins.

I have no snow on the contacts in the car from what I can see and the charge cable looks fine as well (good as new).

Mine sometimes seems to only take 10 minutes to wind down/balance on my Podpoint.
I thought it was because I balance often, although there is a 50mV imbalance between the highest and lowest cells.
I thought that was as good as it gets, but now you mention yours is doing it, I'm beginning to think it might be the charger.
If I disconnect the charger then reconnect it a few minutes later it does carry on for 20 minutes or so longer, it doesn't make any difference to the imbalance though.

 

[Gadget Geek]

If you have a hair dryer in the car and a V2L adapter you could plug in and . . . no, wait . . .

 

[N2STY]

I found the solution?

Get a dog and training to pee on demand

 

[Mogshock]

On the subject of V2L, I have a Mk2 ZS EV with the offset charging port and so far so good I've not had any trouble

 

[Vipar]

I might experiment with cling film after that copperslip

 

[Annca]

I have the same issue. I can't open the charging flap. I've tried the wire inside the engine but nothing happens . It's very cold here -6 so could be frozen . But have read there are some faults with the 71 model so could be that too I guess. Not sure what else to do apart from ring the dealer and wait for warm weather!

 

[IanMG]

I want to find where the locking mechanism is so i can give it a good coating with some water repellent grease. But I can't figure out where it is, it's only the lock causing me problems.

Vaseline is often used. Just smear a goodly amount on the faces that touch. Also a bit around the catch on the Type 2 port as well.
Any spare on your hands just rub it in to protect your hands!

 

[Lovemyev]

Maybe follow the cable under the bonnet down ?


Mine sometimes seems to only take 10 minutes to wind down/balance on my Podpoint.
I thought it was because I balance often, although there is a 50mV imbalance between the highest and lowest cells.
I thought that was as good as it gets, but now you mention yours is doing it, I'm beginning to think it might be the charger.
If I disconnect the charger then reconnect it a few minutes later it does carry on for 20 minutes or so longer, it doesn't make any difference to the imbalance though.

On the ZS EV Gen 1 there is a fairly large variation in time it takes, for the HV pack to conduct a balance cycle, as it will depend what software the car is running on.
Models on the original factory software can very often, only take 30 - 45 minutes to balance the pack.
Models that have had the BMS update can take anything from 4 to 8 hours to complete a balance.
My first balance after our Gen 1 received every update that MG could throw at the car ( at that present time ) was almost 11 hours !.
This reduced over many balance cycles, but the lowest it ever achieved was 3hrs 30 mins.
Part of this update included increasing the size of the buffer at the upper limit of the HV battery.
This maybe the reason why the balance cycle time increased after the BMS update ?.
Other owners who had this update witnessed similar time scales.

 

[Kithmo]

On the ZS EV Gen 1 there is a fairly large variation in time it takes, for the HV pack to conduct a balance cycle, as it will depend what software the car is running on.
Models on the original factory software can very often, only take 30 - 45 minutes to balance the pack.
Models that have had the BMS update can take anything from 4 to 8 hours to complete a balance.
My first balance after our Gen 1 received every update that MG could throw at the car ( at that present time ) was almost 11 hours !.
This reduced over many balance cycles, but the lowest it ever achieved was 3hrs 30 mins.
Part of this update included increasing the size of the buffer at the upper limit of the HV battery.
This maybe the reason why the balance cycle time increased after the BMS update ?.
Other owners who had this update witnessed similar time scales.

I have the original BMS I think. The only updates mine's had are the one that got rid of all the beeps (comfort update I think ?) and an infotainment system update that did nothing.

 

[Lovemyev]

I have the original BMS I think. The only updates mine's had are the one that got rid of all the beeps (comfort update I think ?) and an infotainment system update that did nothing.

From previous posts, I am pretty sure that you are running on the factory software @Kithmo and not the latter BMS updated software.
You are correct, the Comfort 2 update was available to get rid of the unwanted constant bing - bongs and it added some others extra features like the outside temperature being displayed and charging on A/C with out the car being locked etc etc.
If your car is showing 456 ish volts, after a full charge and balance you are likely to be on factory software and from memory it’s about 448 - 450 volts after the BMS update.
Wow …… That feels like a long time ago now already !.

 

[Kithmo]

It does seem a long time ago, that's why I had to "think" what I had. I can't believe I've had this car nearly two and a half years already.

 

[Lovemyev]

It does seem a long time ago, that's why I had to "think" what I had. I can't believe I've had this car nearly two and a half years already.

I know, time passes by too fast !.
I was left scratch my head trying to remember the voltage numbers, there was large pile of saw dust on the floor .