MG4 not charging

[Ian Key]

Question: Whenever I turn on the car the middle section of the default main screen on my MG4 always displays "Charging - Decharging" and below "please plug in the charge connector" then the % charge (number and bar graph) and then two control buttons "Start" and "Lock." - I can't find any discussion about these buttons in the user manual. What do they do, and when are they supposed to be used? More generally, what is the proper sequence of owner actions for connecting and charging the car, and for terminating charging and disconnecting? I have a lot of trouble and often find necessary to use the emergency lanyard in the boot to get the recharge sockets door to open, and afterward to disconnect the plugs. The user manual is inadequate on this. Advice from other users (and experts) would be appreciated!

You might find this video useful

 

[ozzz]

Hi Jonny, I open the charging flap, insert the plug/cable and lock the car. Tthat locks the plug to the car then the green charging light is visible so long as the power is on.

After I finish charging I unlock the car then remove the plug and close the flap, very simple.

 

[Rolfe]

That "please plug in the charge connector" is permanent, just ignore it.

Are you talking about charging at public DC chargers, or a home charger, or what? You absolutely shouldn't be needing to use the emergency release so often.

A lot can be done by locking and unlocking the car, and with the buttons on the screen, but I don't use DC charging that often and sometimes it's "try this - oh, it worked!", so maybe someone who used these chargers more often will have some more systematic advice. I think that "lock/unlock" button has its uses.

My first charge away from home was on an old Gridserve, and I couldn't get the plug to come out. I did scrabble around looking at the emergency release, but I couldn't get the wee cover off, not even with a nail file. (Someone said that the hidden manual key would do it.) But anyway, I finally realised I'd been so slow that the charger thought it had a new customer and was waiting for me to start a charge. I showed it my debit card again, then as soon as it tried to start the charge I cancelled it. Hey presto, I was able to unplug!

Chargers seem to vary as to whether they want the car plugged in first, or to see your money first. On my way south at Christmas I charged on a Gridserve which wanted to see my money, then when it was happy about that, said to plug in the car. On the way back north I charged at an Ionity, which wanted me to plug in first, then show it my (Shell Recharge) card.

At my destination I used a Blink type 2 charger, which sat there not starting the charge, apparently waiting for me to plug the car in. But the car was already plugged in. I had to unplug it and plug it in again before it would start. I also seem to remember faffing around locking and unlocking the car, and using the unlock button on the screen, before I got my type 2 cable to let go at both ends.

 

[NickT]

We had our phase 1 SE LR in at dealer for updates to help solve charging issues last week.

Had generally always behaved across mix of Granny, home ac and rapid dc charging for most of its 10 months since new.

Started getting various problems that became more frequent just after the very cold weather set in at the beginning of Jan e.g.

• car failing to start charging on schedule,
• failed charges overnight (some due to out of range current warnings after 20 mins or so where charger then locked out for safety) these actually lessened the more we reduced the charging amp draw allowed via the charger itself though at the time,
• charging port/lights slow to wake up, (would often fade in with a hesitant flickering) and then also charging port lights failing to illuminate at all (I did manage to reset them via the fuse pull method at the time to get them active again).

Service report shows that they updated various out of date modules to include BMS / BCH / CCU /EVOC / GW / IMCU

Anyway, so far so good as we've had it back on the ac charger a number of times since and all working as expected again....for now.

They didn't update anything else like the infotainment firmware's though so will be back for that come 1st service time in a few weeks.

My car is due in at the dealers on Monday (5th Feb). So lets see what they say!

Question: Whenever I turn on the car the middle section of the default main screen on my MG4 always displays "Charging - Decharging" and below "please plug in the charge connector" then the % charge (number and bar graph) and then two control buttons "Start" and "Lock." - I can't find any discussion about these buttons in the user manual. What do they do, and when are they supposed to be used? More generally, what is the proper sequence of owner actions for connecting and charging the car, and for terminating charging and disconnecting? I have a lot of trouble and often find necessary to use the emergency lanyard in the boot to get the recharge sockets door to open, and afterward to disconnect the plugs. The user manual is inadequate on this. Advice from other users (and experts) would be appreciated!

As a newbie I also have similar “what does it like best” questions. What I do with our granny charger when we get back home is plug the charger in unpowered while the car is 'on'. Then turn the plug power on. Then I look at the dash as I lock the car. The dash shows a picture of the car and charger line as green, then I know all is good. Sometimes if I do things too quick (or if it’s just being a bit slow itself) then I have to do that all again. Sometimes the charger doesn’t seem to unlock so I go in and press the unlock on the middle dash in the battery/charge screen and that works, although the padlock is so small is really hard to tell if it’s showing lock or unlock! I’m planning on trying to remember what I do when it doesn’t charge, or the charger doesn’t unlock when I get my car fixed. I now have a home charger installed (yesterday). So I’ll see how that changes things as well.

 

[NickT]

I got my car back from the dealers last Saturday 13th April they said they’d replaced the charging units. It lovely to get it back and drive it. It charged when we got home for 3 days and then stopped again. Wouldn’t charge on our Type 2 home charger or our granny charger. We went out to public charger and it would not charge on the Type 2, but would on the CSS. Charged ok for the last 3 days on the CSS and now today it’s stopped charging on that also. Tried all three types of chargers at different place and no luck. The car charge port is clean. Try to reset the car home button for 10 seconds, leave the car, lock the car, wait 2 minutes and then go back in and no luck. So it will have to go back to the dealers! How many others have had this issue? Thanks!

 

[Coulomb]

Try to reset the car home button for 10 seconds, leave the car, lock the car, wait 2 minutes and then go back in and no luck.

Perhaps try disconnecting the 12V battery for a few minutes (some say 10 minutes).

But it sounds to me that your car has a nasty intermittent fault in the high voltage system somewhere, and it's going to take some clever diagnosis to find it.

I've not heard of anything like it, but that doesn't mean much.

 

[NickT]

AA came out and looked and did all the normal checks. They’ve said it needs to go back to the dealer. Contacted the dealer (who only gave it back to me a week ago after having it 2 months and supposedly fixing it). Their next slot is 5th June, the next nearest dealer's next slot is 25th of June, 6 weeks away. Looking around the forums there seems to be lots of charging issues with MG cars? I know a lot of people with EV's and they all say they have never had charging issues with their EV's (all non MG). Keep seeing internet lists saying MG4 is one of the top 5 EV's. Ummm…

 

[siteguru]

Phase 1 / MY22 LR cars seem to be prone to CCU issues. In the vast majority of cases we've seen here, the only resolution is a new CCU (plus relevant SW updates) ... SW updates alone don't fix it.

 

[fnegroni]

Stupid question but what’s the health of the 12V battery like?

 

[NickT]

Stupid question but what’s the health of the 12v battery like?

That’s fine. AA man pretty much checked everything he could. Also the car is less than 6 months old.

 

[Rolfe]

So it's a MY23 then, post-facelift. I don't think we've seen the CCU issue in post-facelift cars, have we?

 

[DixieTGS]

Does post-facelift refer to the build or purchase date? Could it be pre-facelift if it sat in the docks for 7 months like mine did?

 

[Tight Git]

Facelift is any with the rear window wiper (amongst other changes)

 

[fnegroni]

Does post-facelift refer to the build or purchase date? Could it be pre-facelift if it sat in the docks for 7 months like mine did?

Indeed. And the build date is near meaningless.
I know many owners talk about the piece of paper with the date for type approval as the build date , but I don’t think it’s as straightforward as that.
I got my car in August last year, shortly after MG commenced delivery of phase 2 cars in the UK, but mine is a phase 1 / pre facelift.
According to the type approval date it was built in February 2023 and the date at the bottom of the parcel shelf has a date of February too, but the battery health reported by the BMS shows the battery was assembled in April.
Coincidentally, my delivery date was pushed back by two months at the last minute.
It could be that mine was part of a batch of phase 1 cars that got held back possibly due to a shortage of batteries or perhaps as the manufacturing line got upgraded for phase 2. Maybe my onboard charger unit is a phase 2 unit not a phase 1 unit. Who knows

 

[DixieTGS]

but the battery health reported by the BMS shows the battery was assembled in April.

A bit off topic, but how did you read the detailed battery information? I have an OBDLink MX+ and car scanner but can't find a very good config file or list of sensor IDs. I'm just curious, no real need to know.

 

[fnegroni]

A bit off topic, but how did you read the detailed battery information? I have an OBDLink MX+ and car scanner but can't find a very good config file or list of sensor IDs. I'm just curious, no real need to know.

I read the SoH using the MG4 profile, I have the same dongle and app as yourself.
On the LFP battery, SoH degrades by 0.01% every day at least until a year old. Not sure after that. It’s calendar ageing basically.

 

[tsedge]

So it's a MY23 then, post-facelift. I don't think we've seen the CCU issue in post-facelift cars, have we?

No, but because it took 7 or 8 months to show up in MY22, that could just be a matter of time.

We don't know what the fault actually is and whether it can happen on MY23 cars too.

 

[siteguru]

I think the premise is that the MY22 LR cars came with a 3-phase onboard charger ... there have been very few such issues with MY22 SR cars. As the MY23 LR cars are also now seemingly specced at 6.6kW single phase (same as the SR cars, and I'm assuming it's now the same unit as used in the SR cars) then this suggests that the MY23 LR cars have a lower risk of such issues.

(All IMHO of course)

 

[Kithmo]

Me with my 23 reg, 22MY Trophy.

 

[NickT]

So it’s a MG4 SE long Range, but it doesn’t have a rear wiper and the garage mentioned that when one for the charging units go all 3 go. So I guess that means it’s an earlier MG?