MG ZS EV Broken Charging Socket

[mgnewbie]

My car is a standard range model, registered 9 months ago, with about 2,500 miles and mostly charged at home. I have just tried to charge the car but it failed on each of 3 attempts, something that has never happened before. I have inspected the charger plug and all looks fine. When I inspected the car charger socket I could see that one of the 2 small diameter pins at the top has been pushed right back into the base of the socket, so it will not connect to the charger plug.
Has anyone else suffered from this problem? If, so, how long did it take for MG to fix it? I am concerned that a hire car for 48hrs (the length of time the AA will supply one under the MG agreement) may not be long enough for MG to replace the faulty socket, which would leave me without any transport.

 

[Kithmo]

It's normal for one of the pins to be further back in the socket.

 

[N2STY]

A couple of normal pictures 1st is just three phase

 

[Pict]

As I understand it that top pin is recessed like that so it is the last to connect (or first to disconnect) and is the control line that signals the charger to start delivering power.

Without that the main charge pins would possible become live while you are still connecting up

 

[Jomarkh]

My car is a standard range model, registered 9 months ago, with about 2,500 miles and mostly charged at home. I have just tried to charge the car but it failed on each of 3 attempts, something that has never happened before. I have inspected the charger plug and all looks fine. When I inspected the car charger socket I could see that one of the 2 small diameter pins at the top has been pushed right back into the base of the socket, so it will not connect to the charger plug.
Has anyone else suffered from this problem? If, so, how long did it take for MG to fix it? I am concerned that a hire car for 48hrs (the length of time the AA will supply one under the MG agreement) may not be long enough for MG to replace the faulty socket, which would leave me without any transport.

Hi, what EVSE charge point are you using and have you tried the 'granny' 3 pin plug unit that came with the car?

 

[mgnewbie]

Thanks for the replies. In my car the RH pin has dropped right back to the bottom of the hole so the top of the pin is almost level with the plastic - protruding by only about 1mm. Charger is a Pod Point and has always worked until now.

PS. Thank you N2STY for the pictures

 

[Lovemyev]

Charger is a Pod Point and has always worked until now.

I am not very familiar with the Pod Point wall boxes but, is it a tethered or an untethered unit ?.
If it’s a untethered unit, can you try using another type 2 cable in order to prove if it’s just the cable or not ?.
Failing that, try using the Granny cable that came with the car as @Jomarkh suggests.
If this is successful, then you have to focus on a problem being with the wall box.
You have not installed any Wi-Fi extenders lately by and chance ?.

 

[mgnewbie]

The PodPoint is a tethered unit. After trying it a couple more times, to no avail, I tried the granny charger (for the first time) and found that it worked. The type two plug on it is slightly different to the PodPoint one in that it has a 2 stage connection - you push it in gently and it stops until you push a little bit harder when it goes in the rest of the way. The PodPoint just goes all the way in one go. Anyway, after a wee while I disconnected the granny charger and tried the PodPoint again and it too worked. I've had another look at the RH top pin and it is now further out than it was before, similar to the photographs above. I've no idea how that has happened but I will be keeping a close eye on in future, in case I still need a socket replacement.

 

[Tim Green]

The socket in the car is faulty. The odd looking pin has probably not located properly at time of assembly and I suggest the whole socket will need to be changed. Take the car back and make a fuss!

 

[rjkirk]

Good luck with this, my MG4 Trophy developed a fault in the charging plug pre delivery the week before Christmas, the part has to come from China as it is coded to the car. Seven weeks on, it is still not here.
Fortunately they had a delivery 2 weeks ago and a stock vehicle to the same spec was delivered to me.

 

[Lovemyev]

Surly it’s a generic part that will coded by the dealer ?.

 

[rjkirk]

Surly it’s a generic part that will coded by the dealer ?.

Not on the MG4. Might be on other models. (...and don't call me Shirley)

 

[Lovemyev]

Not on the MG4. Might be on other models.

That makes absolutely no sense at all to me really ?.
Are then suggesting the new replacement charging port first needs to be pulled from stock, then coded to that particular car by somebody in China BEFORE it being shipped over to the U.K.
Surly not .

 

[rjkirk]

That makes absolutely no sense at all to me really ?.
Are then suggesting the new replacement charging port first needs to be pulled from stock, then coded to that particular car by somebody in China BEFORE it being shipped over to the U.K.
Surly not .

That's what they told me at Eastbourne MG.

 

[Thebiglad]

My car is a standard range model, registered 9 months ago, with about 2,500 miles and mostly charged at home. I have just tried to charge the car but it failed on each of 3 attempts, something that has never happened before. I have inspected the charger plug and all looks fine. When I inspected the car charger socket I could see that one of the 2 small diameter pins at the top has been pushed right back into the base of the socket, so it will not connect to the charger plug.
Has anyone else suffered from this problem? If, so, how long did it take for MG to fix it? I am concerned that a hire car for 48hrs (the length of time the AA will supply one under the MG agreement) may not be long enough for MG to replace the faulty socket, which would leave me without any transport.

I'm in the same boat, but my stupid fault, so I bought a cheap diesel runabout until my car (ZS EV) is back to me.

 

[Lovemyev]

I'm in the same boat, but my stupid fault, so I bought a cheap diesel runabout until my car (ZS EV) is back to me.

What did you do to the charging socket then .

 

[Thebiglad]

What did you do to the charging socket then .

My car only went to the garage yesterday (18 feb 2023) so I don't have a definitive answer yet but when I tried to connect the granny charger to the car, the car recognised the connection on the dashboard but would not commence charging.

There were a couple of small wires which had been pulled out of a small plug so I'm guessing this is affecting the 'handshake' that the car and the charger do, before commencing the charge.

The damage as far as I could see was to the grill , some wires and the cable from the charger to the car. It had been pulled so hard that you could see individual wires.

 

[Lovemyev]

My car only went to the garage yesterday (18 feb 2023) so I don't have a definitive answer yet but when I tried to connect the granny charger to the car, the car recognised the connection on the dashboard but would not commence charging.

There were a couple of small wires which had been pulled out of a small plug so I'm guessing this is affecting the 'handshake' that the car and the charger do, before commencing the charge.

The damage as far as I could see was to the grill , some wires and the cable from the charger to the car. It had been pulled so hard that you could see individual wires.

Wow …… Do you own the Gen1 ZS EV with the large lift up grill section then ?.
When you said it was your fault, have you caused damage to grill yourself then somehow @Thebiglad.
Oh ……. Not tried to reverse the car with the cable still connected to the charger by any chance .
Yeah I think you are spot on, the smaller gauge wires are likely to be the communication cables that are needed for the hand shake, prior to commencing the charging process.
The wait time on parts is always the issue with MG unfortunately.
I think you have boxed clever picking up another car as the wait could be long.

 

[Thebiglad]

Yes I have a 2021 Gen 1 car.

I WISH I could blame someone else, anyone else, but no it's down to me.

As I said I PREPARED for a charge at 6pm but forgot to plug in at midnight - that's why I could move the car under it's own power because it WASN'T plugged in.

Yes, I can understand that it's hard to grasp that someone would be this daft, but there you go.

Dave - also known as daft old git.