Frustrating faults: MG4 SR

[PercyMinder]

Since new my MG4 SR has had a number of issues and over its first year of ownership has been to dealers 5 times to be fixed but the issues noted below are still occurring. I would value any input about whether the issues I am seeing are unique, or if owners are aware of solutions.

Perpetual issue:

1] On switching the car from Normal to Sport on the central screen with in a few minutes the setting jumps to ‘Snow’ (- although I believe the car is in Sport mode).

Occasional issues:

2] Fails to ‘see’ the key and refuses to go into drive - the only solution has been to get out the car, lock it and then start again.

3] Reduced regen braking warning given above 95% SOC does not always display.

4] Reduced regen braking warning appears at SOC below 95%. (Although braking not affected & from memory the record low is 73%).

5] Energy use ‘green bar’ has appeared as orange.

6] Android Auto on the central screen - I have many of the issues noted by other contributors - in addition (?) if I switch off ‘maps’ to alter central screen settings and the maps are off for more than a few seconds the phone link is most often lost. I also have problems that the associated ‘star’ button and ‘speech’ buttons on the steering wheel can refuse to work.

7] Quite often the message ‘please plug in the charge connector’ appears at a high SOC e.g. 95% - although I’ve not got this message when its SOC has been below 40%.

8] (This has only happened when waiting at traffic lights). Sitting in drive & handbrake on. Go to accelerate away and car refuses to move and tells me to ‘fasten seatbelt’…… The only solution I found was to put the car into Park then start again.

(The one issue that does appear to have gone away is that the ‘car’ switched off the TSR function on more than one occasion - have I just tempted fate?).

 

[Surfdog]

Looks like you've been sold a lemon.

 

[Rolfe]

I've had the occasional occurrence of some of these. Here's my list, and let's compare and see what we have in common.

• The automatic central locking can't be disabled (as it can in the Trophy)
• The USB music player is functionally useless - as it doesn't recognise folders, the only way it can be used is by spending hours at the computer renaming every track in your library
• The radio comes on every time you start the car, even if you turned it off before shutting down - even if you never listen to it, but turn it off at the start of every journey! (I hear that this is fixed with update R33)
• The Sport/Snow issue you mention
• Updates R16 and R21 removed the external temperature display, although this has apparently been restored in R33

So far as I know these are the only regular bugs that are specific to the SE, and I wish to hell they would fix the lot of them. Especially the first two, which are my main gripes about the car.

I have never encountered a problem with the "reduced regenerative braking" message appearing (or not appearing) at the wrong time. I have had a couple of odd glitches with Android Auto, but most of the time it works perfectly. I think there is sometimes a gremlin at work interfering with the star button volume display that is related to current phone detection or recent use of AA though. I think I may have had that "please fasten seat belt" thing once, in 5,000 miles, but it was so long ago I might be hallucinating it. I think you may have a car with specific (fixable) faults if you're getting these issues regularly.

I always see "please plug in charge connector" in the "charging" segment of the infotainment screen - this seems to be entirely normal. Are you seeing it somewhere else?

However there are a bunch more issues that seem to be common to both the Trophy and the SE.

• The automatic lights come on if the sun goes behind a small cloud, unless you remove the cover from the light sensor. (Rumours this may have been fixed in a recent update.)
• The cabin temperature has to be set for about five degrees warmer than the temperature you actually want to achieve.
• The % charge indicators (all three of them in the car, and the ones on the app) stay green right down to 5%, when the central screen ones may turn amber. Occasionally the entire bar goes amber at random intervals and at any state of charge, possibly because the colour is feeling left out. Other MG models, and some MG4 cars (allegedly) have the indicator bars on the central screen turn amber at 50% and red at 10%. This seems logical, and it's pretty obvious the MG4 display is intended to do the same, but it doesn't.

None of this is rocket science. It should all be easily fixable. But we go through update after update with very little being addressed (and sometimes new bugs being introduced), while MG swan around adding rear windscreen wipers and headrests and bigger wheels to entice people to buy new models.

Fix the problems in the cars you've already sold, lads. That will do more for the brand repuatation than anything.

 

[GameZone]

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is asking the dealer for some software updates.

 

[Rolfe]

Which faults do you think are cured by which updates?

 

[securespark]

Our car displays "please plug in the charge connector" at any battery percentage, even 100%.....

 

[Rolfe]

So do they all. Mine certainly does. I googled "MG4 infotainment screen" and got this.

I just wondered if the OP had seen it as a pop-up message somewhere else.

 

[RayReliable]

I think the message just refers to if you want the widget to start doing something like show charging etc you need to plug.

Just a confusing default message I feel. No actual issue.

 

[Grriff]

Don't know whether it is true for the SR but our Trophy has an infotainment manual which is impossible to read on the car's screen, lists 'Settings' options which do not appear and doesn't list options which do appear.
In short, a manual which actually corresponded with the car would be nice.

 

[tsedge]

Which faults do you think are cured by which updates?

There's a huge pile of module updates even if you ignore the infotainment and most of the problems reported by the Op probably need module updates (not helped by infotainment changes).

 

[PercyMinder]

Don't know whether it is true for the SR but our Trophy has an infotainment manual which is impossible to read on the car's screen, lists 'Settings' options which do not appear and doesn't list options which do appear.
In short, a manual which actually corresponded with the car would be nice.

Thanks for your reply. Yes the Owners Manual is, IMO, unacceptably bad. The dealership I bought the car from agreed the manual was 'useless'.
Surely the appropriate Government Department which approves the sale of cars in the UK should have some responsibility to ensure that the information supplied with the car is 'complete & correct'?

I think the message just refers to if you want the widget to start doing something like show charging etc you need to plug.

Just a confusing default message I feel. No actual issue.

Thanks for your reply.

My issue with this message is it does not always appear.

I do accept this may be a ‘confusing default message’ & no ‘actual issue’. But IMO this car has far too many such message hick-ups. I have consistently raised this ‘fault’ with the dealership and they have not attempted to advise me it’s a ’non-issue’. This does raise a very real issue about just how well they understand the product they are selling.

As the car boots up I am often warned of a number of issues - the favourite being an auto-hold fault. However a dealership electrical & software technician suggested these should just be ignored unless they came on again once I had started driving - sorry for £27k I don’t think this is good enough.

An actual issue I have is that my wife has so little faith in the car she refuses to drive it on her own. I hate to think of the fallout if fault 8] in my original post happened to her. And on that subject when she was forced to drive the car one day I actually took her through the ‘reset procedure’ just in case --- the look on her face! followed swiftly by you can’t be serious and when are they going to fix it!!!!

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is asking the dealer for some software updates.

Thanks for your reply.
In fact I think all they have done is software updates - but it has been to the dealership 5 times so perhaps I might expect better?

 

[Rolfe]

The autohold fault is an odd one. It seems to be entirely random, not related to anything the driver does. I had it a few times when I first got the car, then not at all, then a couple more times, and I can't remember when I saw it last.

I usually go out and come in again if I get it, but at least once I just drove home without the autohold because it was pouring with rain at the time.

 

[PercyMinder]

Looks like you've been sold a lemon.

My greatest concern is that if the car remains un-fixed it is an “impaired asset” which gives rise to concerns over potential future impact. From a consumer law viewpoint I am uncertain how my rights to a car without defects is impacted by time, seriousness of the fault, warranty claims, etc. Question: has anyone taken legal advice concerning their dysfunctional MG4?

 

[Ian Key]

The car is multiple computers on four wheels with each talking to the others. If one is a bit slow in waking up the expected message doesn't arrive when it should so an error message is produced until the slow coach catches up.
If you want a car with no error messages on start-up each module will need to boot up fully before the next one starts but this will increase the time from turning the car on to when it can be driven away.
@PercyMinder you are obviously not happy with the car as it appears to have more faults than it should. I take it you have started the rejection process?

 

[tsedge]

My greatest concern is that if the car remains un-fixed it is an “impaired asset” which gives rise to concerns over potential future impact. From a consumer law viewpoint I am uncertain how my rights to a car without defects is impacted by time, seriousness of the fault, warranty claims, etc. Question: has anyone taken legal advice concerning their dysfunctional MG4?

Two members with notable knowledge of this area are @siteguru and @johnb80

 

[DevonMG4]

For one reason or another our car has been to the supplying dealer possibly as many times as yours, a few times it was given updates including the recall and also when I was looking for an infotainment update. They always said they didn't pick what updates to apply, the system told them what was necessary and did them all - I have to accept that they always followed that process. I expect the infotainment may be separate to that process, but that's not important WRT my point.

When it came to our 15,000 mile svc a couple of months ago, I opted to use a different dealer. As it was some distance away I opted to wait, long story short, they spent four hours applying updates - I know it was happening as the app was constantly registering random errors as it does. Upon leaving my conclusion was it felt like a different car, not better or worse, just different.

So if the supplying dealer had applied ALL the current updates each time they had the vehicle why did it need another 4 hours worth recently. Either there have been many many updates to different subsystems (probably) or the original dealers methodology was flawed (possibly).

My rambling point being, make sure it is fully fully up to date. Try a different dealer perhaps, can you find any feedback on the dealer? There is a section in here on MG dealers.

I felt sorry for my new dealer as the car occupied their workshop and a tech for well over 4 hours and I paid them £88 for a first svc. Ho hum.

There was only one negative from all the updates, I now have to turn LKA off every startup. It used to turn itself off as I touched the brake at start. Now that was a hot topic 12 months ago - so were all the updates always applied?

Good luck with your journey

 

[siteguru]

@PercyMinder as you mention "first year of ownership" then you may or may not be in a position to reject outright. What matters is the timeline of faults - when did they occur, when were they reported to the seller, what actions has the seller taken. Some (anonymised if necessary) details would help me to offer further advice.

 

[PercyMinder]

The car is multiple computers on four wheels with each talking to the others. If one is a bit slow in waking up the expected message doesn't arrive when it should so an error message is produced until the slow coach catches up.
If you want a car with no error messages on start-up each module will need to boot up fully before the next one starts but this will increase the time from turning the car on to when it can be driven away.
@PercyMinder you are obviously not happy with the car as it appears to have more faults than it should. I take it you have started the rejection process?

From my working life I am aware of machine architectures such as you describe. Unfortunately its also my experience that when 99% of machines are working to specification the non-complying 1% invariably have much deeper faults that are a nightmare to detect and correct.

Today I saw a podcast on YouTube: the presenters unfavourably discussed the MG4 and LKA: my take out was MG UK had problems in getting MG China to understand the UK LKA issues!!! I was not comforted by this.

@PercyMinder as you mention "first year of ownership" then you may or may not be in a position to reject outright. What matters is the timeline of faults - when did they occur, when were they reported to the seller, what actions has the seller taken. Some (anonymised if necessary) details would help me to offer further advice.

I took possession of the car late November 2022. By anecdotal evidence it’s one of the first cars built.

The car went to the dealer from which I purchased the car twice, once being the rear gearbox oil leak and the second being the ‘lock-in’ recall. However over this time I was starting to see a number of ‘features’ which were marring my faith in, and enjoyment of, the car. Following a number of phone calls about these issues I sent an e-mail to the dealership with the hope they would be resolved during the ‘lock-in’ recall.

I did (politely) challenge the rigor of their investigations, their understanding of the car and of the widely reported issues e.g. LKA. Their response was that warranty work could only be done within the scope set by MG of which my interpretation was software updates only. It was during this conversation I learnt that the garage had no local copies of the software. Software updates were achieved by connecting the car to the WWW and technicians in China did the updates.

Later I switched to another dealer to whom the car has been investigated for ‘fault resolution’ three times during the summer this year. Broadly speaking the items noted in my initial post were itemised to the dealership on the cars first visit. The two subsequent visits were due to it quickly becoming obvious the faults had not been resolved, (one about 100m. from the dealership as I collected the car).

At the last of these visit the dealership accepted the sport/snow issue was not resolved and advice would be sought from MG. However they have never contacted me with an update. Had they done I would have been able to inform them that the other issues I raised - which are transient in nature - were still occurring. {Also since the last visit to the dealer I have only driven just over 400 miles with the majority since the last week in September and so it’s only relatively recently some of the faults have been shown as still occurring). I have never got a full explanation of what had been done to the car beyond ‘updated software’ and whether these updates correlate with my faults has never received a positive answer.

I and the dealer have spoken very recently…………………

 

[siteguru]

Sounds like you have a car from a batch close to mine. (Mine was built late August '22 and I collected on 25-Nov-22). Mine had the oil leak fix (3 times - now seems OK) and also software updates (including the lock in recall) and has generally been OK. Yes, LKA isn't great but anecdotal evidence suggests that it's not wildly worse than many other systems out there - and as there aren't driver profiles then NCAP says it has to default to On if you want a 5-star rating. A quick way to turn it off would be better - even as an option from the pull down menu on the Infotainment screen (i.e. where you can turn off ESC).

You haven't given a timeline above so I can't really advise further re. Consumer Rights ... if the issues you've raised re. "features" are the main reason for rejection then this may be problematic as it's a very subjective assessment.

 

[securespark]

My take out was MG UK had problems in getting MG China to understand the UK LKA issues!!!

I'm beginning to wonder.

In the 80s, I bought an own brand Walkman from Dixons, which went wrong soon after.

After a battle with shop staff, the manager was called over. He reluctantly gave me a refund, but said, "What do you expect when you buy cheap gear?"